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The WAYPOINT (Working Alongside Young People & Others In Networks Therapeutically) Team is part of the Fostering Service. WAYPOINT provide therapeutically informed support to children, families, foster carers, and professional networks. This support is additional to the support provided by your supervising social worker and children’s social workers.

The monthly WAYPOINT Drop-in sessions are facilitated by Dan Charnock, WAYPOINT Senior Social Worker and are open to all mainstream foster carers. The aim of the WAYPOINT Drop in is to provide a reflective and open space for foster carers to come along and discuss issues or concerns you may be facing. While each session includes a space to reflect on challenges, there is also a significant focus on sharing strategies and thinking about therapeutic approaches to difficult situations and celebrating successes.

You don’t have to be going through a difficult time to attend – peer support, learning and reflection is always valuable, and there is no pressure for anyone to share within the sessions. Topics for each session tend to arise on the day, ensuring the focus is relevant to the content brought to the drop in. However, there is also the option to agree a topic for a future session to enable a more in-depth focus. Discussion often includes topics such as attachment, trauma, and use of therapeutic approaches such as PACE and NVR, and ideas come not only from Dan but from within the group.

This course aims to enable participants to develop their understanding of abuse allegations and complaints made against foster carers, and of the procedures used to manage such allegations and complaints.

This is being ran by the Fostering Network

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 the MS TEAMS/Zoom invitation to you.

This is a 3 hr workshop to explore direct work skills that can be used when working with young people.

The focus of these sessions will be to give awareness of Therapeutic life story work as well as general life story work which can help children understand their life story and promote their identity and attachments.

The workshop will be facilitated by Rhian Phillips and Grace Beckett who will use principles from Richard Rose’s Therapeutic Life Story Work Diploma.

Time management for Newly Qualified Social Worker’s – online Teams meeting with PowerPoint, videos and discussions.

Care leavers have told us that they would have found moving on to independence much easier if they had developed more life skills before leaving care. This event aims to provide information for carers to understand the options for young people in terms of housing, education and benefits; to enable you to help to assess the needs of your young person. With this knowledge you will also be more able to consider how changes to the "fostering" status may have an impact on your household. We will also have members of the team to offer advice on accommodation options including Staying Put Scheme and Supported Lodgings.

This session will be run as a marketplace format, once introductions have been given by professionals we will break out to separate tables where carers can take part in workshop style activities, have more intimate access to professionals and ask relevant questions.

If you have any questions prior to this event, feel free to call Chris Hill on 07749003099 or email chris.hill@southglos.gov.uk

Venue: Council Chambers, Kingswood Civic centre, High Street, Kingswood BS15 4FP ·

The Purpose for the support groups



We realise that fostering can be really difficult at times. Perhaps the only people who really understand it are other foster carers and so therefore we want to give you a place to meet up.

There will be biscuits and/or cake, coffee, tea, and an opportunity for an informal chat at all of the meetings.

Although these will be informal meetings, each session will have a brief agenda, attendance list, and agreed group rules. This is to help those who don’t know anyone and feel awkward about coming along to a new meeting, to feel that they won’t be left alone on the side-lines.

Sometimes there will be speakers and topics as requested by the group, this will hopefully make it as relevant to your fostering as you like.

These sessions should be recorded on your Personal Development Plan (PDP).

Mavis Mukambirwa will also be doing a presentation during this session.

During the training session foster carers will get a chance to explore the concepts of ‘blocked trust’ and ‘blocked care’ and how these may pose barriers to building relationships with the children they care for. The Dan Hughes model of PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, Empathy) will be introduced as one way we can begin to build positive relationships with children.

Tutors
Ruth has spent over 14 years working as an Educational Psychologist working with children and young people with a range of needs. I have worked for a number of different authorities and started working with South Gloucestershire Educational Psychology Service at the start of this academic year. I have worked with the Virtual School supporting our children and young people in care for the past four years.

Luke Dunning has worked as an Educational Psychologist for five years supporting children and young people with a range of special educational needs as well as those with difficult early life experiences and I currently work for South Gloucestershire Educational Psychology Service. Most of my experience in this area however comes from being in foster care myself and the difficult early life experiences which led to this.

We realise that fostering can be really difficult at times. Perhaps the only people who really understand it are other foster carers and so therefore we want to give you a place to meet up.

There will be biscuits and/or cake, coffee, tea, and an opportunity for an informal chat at all of the meetings.

Although these will be informal meetings, each session will have a brief agenda, attendance list, and agreed group rules. This is to help those who don’t know anyone and feel awkward about coming along to a new meeting, to feel that they won’t be left alone on the side-lines.

Session Two

If you are new to caring for babies or would like a refresher to consider the most recent advice and guidance, this course is for you!

Session one we will be exploring the practical elements of caring for babies including feeding, weaning, nappy changing and safe sleeping arrangements, looking at the factors which can influence these important care routines.
There will also be opportunities to share and discuss some of the challenges of caring for babies in a confidential and safe space where solutions will be considered.

CHILD EXPLOITATION: Sexual, Criminal, Trafficking, County Lines, Online Grooming and Positive Language
.
By the end of the session will:
• Be able to define and understand child exploitation.
• Be able to identify risk indicators that a child is being/or is at risk of being exploited .
• Have considered which vulnerabilities contribute to a child being at risk of exploitation.
• Understand young people’s behaviours in the context of perpetrators’ abuse.
• Know what safeguarding steps to take if you suspect a child is being exploited.

The course will be delivered by 
Androulla (Andri) Nicolaou 9478
Child Exploitaiton Prevention Officer and Coordinator
CID - TOPAZ

This course will go towards core skill 8 Child Exploitation