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Essential Information

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).

Essential Information

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.

This fourth session is a being held as a twilight 'Drop in'.  There is no specific focus for this session, rather it is a means for you to have access to the Virtual School and to raise any questions/concerns that you may have.  Equally if there are any Virtual School updates or developments, these will be shared with you at this session.

Essential Information

We all know that Care Experienced people have a greater likelihood of experiencing inequalities. We also know that when ‘care experience’ is coupled with factors such as ‘Sex’, ‘Race’, ‘Disability’ etc. young people talk to us about experiencing ‘double discrimination’.  In this session, let’s be clear about the inequalities faced by Care Experienced people and talk together about the actions we could all take to reduce and eliminate them.

Our tutor Dan Wood will ask this at the start of the session if is there anything in the broad area of ‘equality and diversity’ that you would like to find out about? Please consider this as Dan will weave an answer into the training session.

This course is aimed at carers who can`t make daytime courses.

Any questions call Chris Hill on 07749003099 or email chris.hill@southglos.gov.uk prior to the 

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.

Essential Information

The Fostering Team are offering a drop-in session where carers can work with an experienced supervising social worker and other carers as they complete their Training Standards Booklet (TSD). The drop-in session aim is to offer support, guidance, and best examples to foster carers allowing them to work through their TSD book.

This session will be light in nature with no pressure on carers to complete a certain number of modules, refreshments will be provided. Other supporting sessiosn will be organised depending on the success of this one.

Supporting this session will be Sarah Hewitt, Emily Hanks and Chris Hill.  It will take place in room F-17 of Kingswood Civic Centre

Essential Information

In this course we will explore young children’s early learning and development through the three prime areas of;

•  personal, social and emotional development
•  communication and language
•  physical development.

We will provide practical ways that you can support the child’s learning and development through quality interactions and play opportunities. There will be information about what to do if you have concerns around a delay in areas of learning and development including early identification.

There will be an opportunity for questions and answers during and at the end of the session.

Essential Information

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.

Essential Information

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.

Essential Information

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.

Essential Information

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).

Essential Information