Good news, events and policy updates from Staf |
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Dear Friend, I hope April's newsletter finds you full of the joys of Spring and I hope, refreshed after some time off over the Easter break. We’ve been as busy as ever but good busy if you know what I mean (hence why this newsletter is reaching you now instead of last week!) As many of you will know we are the lead host of the National Leadership Network alongside 4 other partners (CYCJ, Columba 1400, Resilience Learning Partnership and Who Cares? Scotland). We caught up with Gary and Lisa from the NLN to find a little bit more about the network and how people can get involved. You can read all about it, including why chameleons and owls are making an appearance, here. Speaking of animals, inspired by the Pet Survey work of Project Return, we are delighted to be supporting Edinburgh University’s Child and Animal Research group with their large scale pet survey. If you work with someone aged 16 – 20 who is care experienced and has had a pet at some point in their life, please let them know about this project and how they can share their experiences which we hope will lead to more young people being able to benefit from pet ownership. Thank you to those who joined us at our focus groups recently, it was great to see you all and for you to meet our new Throughcare and Aftercare Workforce Lead, Chris Walsh. We’re keen to make the most of these forums and make sure they are working for those who attend. If you have been to one of our groups, we’d really appreciate some feedback on how you would like them to be delivered going forwards. The 5 minute feedback survey can be accessed here. The forums are a great way to share experiences of what is and isn’t working and to hear from experts in the field. We were delighted to be joined by Kenny McGhee from CELCIS who shared the Continuing Care research and also the journal he co-wrote with Sarah Deeley on ‘emerging adulthood’ and its implications for care leavers. It’s a fascinating and important read. We have some exciting opportunities to join the team here at Staf with our Youth Justice Participation Worker role and Youth Just Us are wanting to hear from those with care and justice experience to help shape their work and bring about change in fun and creative ways. The team behind The Real Toolkit are also inviting those with lived experience of care and those who work with them to come together to help deliver the next stage of this innovative and growing resource. You can sign up to the Next Steps event on the 24th May to find out how you can get involved. Finally, you may have read that the latest Children’s Social Work statistics are now out revealing a mixed bag of positives and not so positives. You can read my response to these statistics here alongside those of others in the sector. Ultimately, we are a long way from achieving our vision that care leavers outcomes will match those of their non care-experienced peers but we will continue to work with you and those with lived experience to ensure that becomes a reality.
Best wishes,
Jo Derrick
Staf CEO
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Staf Projects
Youth Justice Voices
It's an exciting time for Youth Just Us as finally, the members have managed to get some face to face meetings under their belt and plan what topics they’d like to focus their time on in the next wee while - not only planning a jam-packed schedule of events and engagements but planning the look of the brand-new participation space that will be created specifically by the members, for the members.
Keen to continue their work with Police Scotland, building better relationships between the police and care and justice experienced young people, the group have set aside dates for engagements with the force and are keen to visit the dog handlers and the police helicopter.
Now that face-to-face meetings are safe to have, the group want to focus on recruiting new members to the group and have spoke about creating a new flyer, as well a designing workshops they could take to their peers across the country, explaining the work and aims of the project.
The No Knives Better Lives game Nae Danger, co – created between YJU and Pocket-sized Hands, has now been adapted to VR version and the group can't wait to trial it, already receiving plaudits for their input in the game. Their feedback will be valued.
Also, the Government have produced a new Children’s Care and Justice Bill and with the young people involved in YJU being experts on the systems it covers, they will pick apart this proposal and feedback their views to the administration.
With so much hard work going on its important that YJU members have fun during their participation and have decided to have a sports day in Glasgow green, then go for some nice food.
Finally, the full transcript of the Kilbrandon Lecture which we responded to is available to read now. Come and Join Us! Youth Just Us is always happy to welcome new members. If you’re aged 16-25 with experience of the care and justice systems in Scotland and want to help influence change, gain new skills and make friendships, then get in touch with ruth@staf.scot. You can follow @YJVScotland on Twitter.
The Real Toolkit
The Real Toolkit, a leaving care resource by Staf, is available here.
Check out this month's featured guides on an Education and Training which feature links to useful information for those entering further or higher education including information on the Care Leavers Bursary and the Hub For Success' recent guide for care experienced people entering education.
You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with our progress and if you want to be involved in developing the Toolkit why not sign up to our Next Steps event on the 24th May for care leavers and the workforce.
Scottish Care Leavers Forum Steering Group The Care Leavers Forum are raring to go and are moving to weekly meetings as there's so much to discuss!
There's an exciting project around a Minimum Income Guarantee coming up which members are hoping to get involved with, amonst many other things. Watch this space for updates.
Get in touch with Katrina@staf.scot if you'd like to get involved and influence change for care leavers! National Leadership NetworkThis month we caught up with Gary and Lisa and asked them a few questions about the National Leadership Network, what's coming up next and how people can get involved! Read what they had to say here. If you would like to get in touch with Gary and Lisa please contact gary@thenln.org / lisa@thenln.org
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Staf Policy and Practice
Pets In Care: Edinburgh University picks up where Project Return left off
We are delighted to be supporting Edinburgh University's Children and Adolescent and Animals Research (CARR) Group who are looking into the impact of pets on the lives of those with care experience, inspired by the Pets in Care Survey work of Project Return.
If you know someone who is 16 - 20 years old with care experience and has had a pet in their life please ask them to take part in their short survey, or take part in one to one discussions, to help support young people own a pet in care settings.
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Local Elections 22 Round Up: Implications for Care Leavers
As the Local Authority elections approach, we've taken a look at the manifestos of each of the main parties to draw out pledges which impact on the lives of young people with care experience. |
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Latest Children's Social Work Statistics Reveal Mixed Bag for Care Leavers
The latest children's social work statistics have been released, covering the year 2020/21. While progress has been made, particularly in the number of those registered as receiving Continuing Care, there are still areas needing attention including those being eligible for aftercare actually receiving it. Read the full response from Staf CEO Jo Derrick below.
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What the concept of 'emerging adulthood' has for Care Leavers and those who support them.
CELCIS' Kenny McGhee and Sarah Deeley's journal article on 'emerging adulthood' and the implications for care leavers is available to read now. It's a fascinating insight into the idea that, in general, young people are leaving home much later in life but that this sociological and psychological change is not reflected in policy relating to care leavers and why therefore the need to remove or revisit chronological cliff edges when it comes to aftercare is so vital.
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Cross Party Group on Care Leavers
As we announced last month, the Cross Party Group on Care Leavers has been officially approved by the Parliament's Standards Committee. Plans are now taking place to arrange our first, formal meeting in June to set the agenda for the year ahead. If you would like to be involved please contact Policy and Communications Assistant Jack@staf.scot
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Consultations of Interest The following government consultation is open and likely to be of interest:
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Children's Care and Justice Bill - policy proposals: Deadline 22 Jun
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Staf Events Our calendar of events for 2022 is available to access, including focus groups which are free for Staf members, webinars and conferences for you to learn from and give you an opportunity to connect with your peers and care leavers.
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Local Authority Manager's Forum Wednesday 18th May, 10am - 12pm (Teams)
Our Local Authority Manager's Forum has been created exclusively for local authority members to give you space to discuss the issues that matter to you, given your unique statutory responsibility in delivering service for care leavers.
In this session we will be discussing
- Inter Local Authority arrangements and the differing levels of support offered.
- The ongoing work of The Promise and how members are getting on with Plan 21-24.
- Services and support offered to unaccompanied asylum seekers.
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Care Leavers Into Employment Focus Group Tuesday 24th May 10am - 12pm (Teams)
Our Care Leavers into Employment focus group tackles the issues faced by young people in both accessing and sustaining employment. This group brings together workers from across the public and third sector to discuss and dissect current practice issues.
At the next meeting we will be discussing
- The Young Persons Guarantee and members awareness and experience of this.
- Digital/ Hybrid forms of learning coming out of COVID.
- Family Firm model of support for young people gaining work experience .
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The Real Toolkit Next Steps
Tuesday 24th May 3pm - 4pm (Young People) 4pm - 5pm (Workforce) via Zoom.
The Real Toolkit, the leaving care resource created for and by care leavers and the workforce who support them, was launched in September 2021 and we are now excited to announce the next stage of its development.
We’re looking for members of the workforce and young people who are interesting in learning more about the Toolkit and be involved in co-producing development workshops for young people and members of the workforce.
To find out more, please email Project Lead Katrina Gallacher, katrina@staf.scot or sign up for free place below.
Young People with care experience session Tuesday 24th May 3pm - 4pm (Zoom) Workforce session Tuesday 24th May 4pm - 5pm (Zoom)
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Participation Practitioners' Forum
Thursday 26th May, 10am - 12pm (Zoom)
The participation practitioners' forum is a free monthly event for participation workers supporting young people with care and justice experience to connect with, and learn from, each other: sharing successes, reflecting on challenges, and championing examples of best practice in an informal setting.
At this session we will be discussing the The Children's Care and Justice Bill and will be joined by Julia Swann from CYCJ who will be discussing working with 12 - 16 year olds with care and justice experience.
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Supported Lodgings, Supported Carers Focus Group Tuesday 7th June, 10am - 12pm (Teams)
The Supported Lodgings, Supported Carers focus group provides a supportive forum to share good practice, local and national developments, and discuss issues around Care Inspectorate inspections. |
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Implications of Continuing Care Focus Group Tuesday 14th June 10am - 12pm (Teams)
Meeting since 2014, the Implications of Continuing Care focus group offers a safe place to discuss issues and practice arising from Part 11 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014. The recent work of this group has discussed commissioning placements, fostering fees and payments and shared good practice from across Scotland.
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Member of the Month: Helm Training
Helm is a grassroots youthwork charity which has been working with young people in Dundee for over 30 years. They specialise in supporting our students through their first transition into adult life, whether that is college, jobs or apprenticeships.
They work directly with care experienced young people in Dundee and Angus although their Youth Opportunity Award has been extended to all 16 - 25 year olds with care experience. If you know someone who would welcome some funding to try something new then please direct them to the Awards page.
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| If you would like to be featured in our Member of the Month section please email marion@staf.scot |
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Current Vacancies
Youth Justice Participation Worker (Re-advertisement)
Part-time (21 hours) £25,993 - £30,815 pro rata (dependent on experience)
We are recruiting for a new role to support the expansion of Youth Justice Voices, Staf and the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice (CYCJ)'s national participation project for care and justice experienced young people.
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Youth Director: Care Experienced Young Person Board representative
As an organisation who gives a voice to care experienced young people, we are keen to increase their representation on our Board by appointing a new Youth Director.
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Board Treasurer
Do you have financial experience you want to put to good use? Do you have a day a month to help Staf achieve it's vision? Would you like to be part of a passionate and enthusiastic Board who care deeply about the outcomes for care leavers? Then you may just the person we are looking for.
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What #WeLove this month...
💜 STARR, Scotland's only curated space for those with experience of secure care, has triumphed at the Young Scot Awards, winning the Community Award. Congrats to all involved!
💜 Michael Rosen's important discussion about the language of care on BBC Radio 4.
💜 Who Cares? Scotland's brilliant effort at the Kilt Walk where they were joined by Nicola Sturgeon.
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| Want to find out more about Staf events, projects, membership and training opportunities? |
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We would love to hear from you. Get in contact via email on info@staf.scot or through our social media channels linked below. |
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