An introduction to private fostering

This course is an opportunity to explore the legal and practice framework of private fostering, including thinking about how to identify and work with this often unseen group of children. It will include explanation of the respective responsibilities of parents, private foster carers and local authorities, when private fostering arrangements are made. Since the war in Ukraine, some Ukrainian children who have travelled to the UK for safety, are living in private fostering arrangements, and this introductory course will also briefly explore their needs.

This course will consider the foster carer's key role in providing parent and child arrangements and ensuring successful outcomes for children. It will also provide clarity about the role of the agency and the supervising social worker in monitoring, reviewing, evaluating and supporting foster carers, whilst making certain that practice is transparent and compliant with the law.

The objects around us are intertwined with our feelings and experiences. Exploring our relationship with objects can help us tell our stories and give us a greater understanding of other people and ourselves.

Pause is a national charity working to improve the lives of women who have had - or are at risk of having - more than one child removed from their care, and the services and systems that affect them. We want to make sure that women who experience or are at risk of the removal of children into care are given the best possible support, so that it never happens more than once.

A play created in collaboration with Brian Mullin and care experienced young people as part of Coram's Voices Through Time: The Story of Care programme. A group of care-experienced young people are suspended in time – half in the modern world, half in the world of the Foundling Hospital. As they grapple with the challenges of today’s care system, they explore the stories and experiences of the very first children in care, unearthing common threads of experience across three centuries. Directed by Vicky Moran.

This half day course is aimed at professionals who work with children and families who may benefit from a therapeutic intervention and would like to increase their understanding of different therapeutic approaches. Foster carers, kinship carers and adoptive parents who are considering different options for therapeutic support may also benefit from this training.