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This 45-minute bitesize session has been designed to support practitioners in learning more about Private Fostering and their obligations.

This session is recommended for all practitioners working with children and young people across all agencies to understand their responsibilities and who to contact in South Gloucestershire to seek help and guidance.

This will be delivered via Zoom and hosted by Phil Harris (Training Exchange). You will be sent a Zoom invite nearer the time.

Motivational interviewing is a leading approach to increase motivation and commitment to change. It was first developed in the alcohol field, but as they had identified that there was no specific addiction psychology, it has been developed in a wide range of areas including social work, offending, mental health and homelessness fields. It has proven particularly effective with stuck or entrenched clients from a wide range of backgrounds. This course maps the key factors that elicit change and demonstrates how Motivational Interviewing works alongside these forces. Drawing on both person centred and directive techniques, it offers practical skills to assist the workers to helps clients articulate and recognise the need for change. As such, it is an effective primer to increase engagement with clients who have not yet achieved a sufficient level of commitment and move them into action without confrontation.

Who is the Course For?: Motivational Interviewing is useful for a wide range of social issues. Its primary focus is on igniting motivation to change, and so it is helpful when clients are stuck in problems and not advancing in change. It is a useful skill in all change and recovery based services such as mental health, substance misuse, offending, social work, domestic violence, supported housing, young people’s services, family work and more besides.

Method of Delivery: The training programme comes with an extensive booklet for each participant. The training course is highly interactive, even during presentations. It uses a wide variety of learning approaches including presentations, pairs and small group work exercises and self-assessment. The course is also supported with free e-learning and further resources to re-cap, review and refresh learning.

Please note: By booking onto this course, you are consenting to your contact details being passed onto the trainer. This is so they can send you any resources.

Please arrive promptly for a 9.30 start.

This training is specifically for practitioners in South Glos Council's adult social care division, i.e. Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Social Work Assistants, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Senior Practitioners etc.

The session will explore how strength-based practice fits with professional values, the legal framework and the role of Adult Social Care in 2023. We will look at the theoretical basis for strengths-based approaches, current and past. Delegates will share examples of their current practice as well as exploring the use and benefits of strengths-based questions/interventions in assessment, care & support planning, review and adult safeguarding conversations with adults and carers to focus on wellbeing, outcomes and creative solutions to meet need.

Session Aim
To enable delegates to gain a consistent set of underpinning knowledge and to further develop skills and confidence in applying a strength-based approach in practice

Supporting adult relationships.
Arguments in relationships are part of everyday life, evidence suggests that arguments between parents/carers is normal, but if exposure is frequent, intense, and poorly resolved, this can have a damaging impact on children, resulting in long-term mental health issues, emotional, behavioural, and academic problems as they grow up.

This is a one-day training course for social workers and other social care staff and will be delivered by the Thinking Aloud team. It is an adapted version of the therapeutic parenting training that we deliver to foster carers and adoptive parents. It will cover some of the key themes of our foster carer training such as trauma informed approaches to care, use of PACE within families and within social care systems and understanding theories and concepts related to attachment, developmental trauma, PTSD, secondary trauma and blocked care.

Foster Carers- Children and Young People Health and Wellbeing Event

During the interactive workshop we will:

Explore food and healthy eating for children and young people.

Consider challenges around food including eating problems.

Reflect on wider helpful and unhelpful coping strategies.

Signpost to related information, advice and support

After lunch we will invite a range of health and wellbeing providers, to share information and advice around a variety of children and young people's health related topics.

Light lunch will be provided

This training has been arranged for foster carers or those working with our children looked after.

Drew Jefferies, who is the Cyber Protect Officer in Avon and Somerset Police, is going to virtually deliver a presentation that will give an outline about apps, the risks, highlighting online offences and how they’re committed and as well as providing advice and signposts to further support.

In addition Marcus Hurley from IAP ( our computer support provider for foster carers) will also be attending, which may be useful for those of you who are new to fostering as well as for those social workers that have children and young people in foster care, to find out more about how they can support you.

Proposed Content:
• Overview of online risks.
• Exploitation of children online.
• Technical protective and safety measures available.
• Top tips on starting a conversation with your child about the internet and how to work together to use the internet safely.

Please note that the PowerPoint used in the presentation will not be sent out - this is because information changes all the time.  As a result it would perhaps be worth having a paper and pen to hand.  Drew will however be providing resources, with links to various websites, which will enable you to keep up to date with this everchanging area.

Finally, as with all training, I would strongly recommend that you access this session through a computer.  In addition, you will need a phone or tablet to take part in some interactive activities that Drew is hoping to run during the session.

Click here to join training session

CS1 .This course has been tailored to suit the needs of Foster Carers, Adopters and Family Link Carers who look after children on a 24 hour basis. This is a certificated course, so please ensure you can arrive on time and attend all of the course.

Please could you ensure that you read the attached document to this course. It is a copy of Acorns COVID policy, which you must have read prior to attending. You will be asked to complete appendix 1 on arrival.

There are a few car parking spaces outside the church, and then on the main road

Tea and coffee will be available, but please note that lunch is not included. There are shops on the Oldland High Street, as well as Westcourt Drive

Other details about how the course will run are available in the attached policy.


As of 1st August, we are making changes to our first aid training in line with further guidance and awarding body advice. This will be the following:

All participants attending any of our First Aid training courses will be required to bring a paper disposable 3 ply face mask, fabric masks / scarves will not be acceptable.

This mask will be mandatory to wear for all practical elements of the training, but is optional for the theory portion of the course.

Cadbury Heath Children’s Centre