Dear Friend

Welcome to this month’s edition of the Staf newsletter. I would say spring has finally sprung, but looking outside my window today suggests otherwise!  Despite the unseasonal weather, we have had another busy month here at Staf.  

We were delighted to start March with a visit from Natalie Don, the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise following an invitation for her to meet with some of the young adults involved in the Cross-Party Group on Care Leavers. It was great to meet in the relaxed atmosphere of the Staf participation space and have an open and honest conversation about some of the burning issues raised by those in attendance and hear her commitment to doing all she can to support care leavers and continuing to engage with our group on an ongoing basis. 
 
Following the Minister’s visit, we were then thrilled to be engaging with the Chief Social Work Adviser at the Scottish Government, Iona Colvin, who provided the keynote speech at this year’s Staf Summit. It was a really interesting day with contributions from The Promise Scotland, University of Edinburgh, The Why Not Trust, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Dumfries and Galloway and the Sandyford Glasgow. Our delegates noted how nice it was to be in person and really valued the time to network and make connections whilst learning about what we can all do to improve the health and wellbeing outcomes of Scotland’s care experienced young people. You can find out more about the day, including links to presentations and useful sites at our Staf Summit resource page.  
 
The Scottish Government were also presenting at this month’s Implications of Continuing Care focus group. Thank you to those who joined us to discuss the revised guidance on Continuing Care. We will be sure to keep you posted of any further opportunities to influence policy and practice and any updates to this particular publication.  
 
In April, following the Easter break, we are hosting the focus groups on Supported Lodging, Supported Carers and the Care Leavers into Employment, Education and Training. You can sign up for any of our focus groups at www.staf.scot/events which members can join for free.  
 
As you may know, the 100 Days of Listening phase of the ‘Moving On’ Change Programme has now concluded. Thomas and the team at The Promise will now be working alongside our friends at CELCIS to analyse the results and advise on the next steps of the Programme. We’ve collated a short video of thanks featuring photos from the 100 days which you can view on our Instagram page and will soon be sharing a podcast from the team on the reflections of the day and arranging some webinars to update you all on what was heard and what is happening next.  
 
This month we have also started to welcome new members to the team following our recruitment drive at the start of the year. Carly McBride has joined us as our Youth Development Worker (Care Experienced Community) and is looking forward to getting to know those in the care experienced community we are currently engaged with, but also reaching out to other care experienced people to ensure we represent and can amplify as many voices as possible. Alongside Carla’s appointed I am delighted to share that Ruth Kerracher is now our Participation and Rights Manager and Katrina Gallacher will be taking on Ruth’s previous role as our Care and Justice Participation Lead. Congratulations to all. We will be sharing details of the other new team members soon.  
 
There are additional opportunities to join the Staf family as we are now also looking to hire a Communications and Connecting Members Manager and are re-advertising for the Youth Development Worker who will be focusing on developing a Youth Just Us project for care and justice experienced young people in the northeast of Scotland. If you know of anyone who might be interested in either of these roles, please direct them to our website.  
 
For those of you who are lucky enough to have an Easter holiday lined up, I hope you have a lovely, restful time. We know how busy these first few months have been, coupled with increasing financial and workload pressures so I hope you all manage to get some time to rest, reflect and enjoy a few Easter treats!  
 
Best wishes, 
 
Jo Derrick 

Staf CEO