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

A 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.

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.  The tutor will however be providing resources, with links to various websites, which will enable you to keep up to date with this everchanging area.

Cadbury Heath Children’s Centre

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.

The Virtual School value the time they spend with carers, and to enable this to be an even more successful partnership between school and home, have arranged four sessions to take place over the school year.

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).

This session is designed to equip foster carers with essential basic coaching techniques and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) strategies to effectively support children in their care. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of how patterns of thinking, body language and the words we use can impact on how effectively we communicate with others. This practical training will equip carers with tools to enhance their communication, understand and respond to children's needs, build trust, and create stronger, more supportive relationships. Whether you're new to fostering or looking to deepen your skills, this session offers techniques to help carers navigate the complexities of communication with confidence and compassion.

Our tutor Rachel McCoubrie is a Doctor, coach, NLP Master Practitioner, author, aspirational poet

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).

• What is mental health?
• What are the specific challenges for children and young people?
• What are the inequalities relating to mental health for children and young people?
• Mental Health v's Mental ill Health
• Models of Mental Health
• What impacts Mental Health?

This session supports participants to learn and develop resilience strategies and tools for themselves, and the children and young people they work with, as well as signposting to further support.

• What is resilience?
• How do we build resilience?
• Resilience strategies
• Helpful Tools