Dear Friend
Welcome to the July edition of the Staf newsletter. I hope everyone is enjoying the start of summer despite the unpredictable weather. Our team has been busy over the past few months; we appreciate your patience during our brief newsletter hiatus while our new team members settled in. We are thrilled to welcome several new Staf employees to the family. Their fresh energy is already making a positive impact, and you will start to see their updates in forthcoming newsletters and at member events. Throughout this month's newsletter, you will continue to see the importance with which we hold participation and peer support member events, along with signposting to resources and opportunities to influence policy and practice as they arise. You will see that our Youth Justice Voices team has been active, with several initiatives detailed later in this newsletter. Additionally, the Participation team has been further developing Staf’s approach to Listening to Young People, alongside hosting the most recent Participation Network event. It was standing room only and well received by those attending. In June, we published the 100 Days of Listening output, capturing insights from 365 experts across 24 of Scotland’s local authorities to support young people moving on from care. A huge thankyou to everyone who lent us their voices in this early phase of developing a national strategy for 'Moving On' in Scotland. Local Authorities across Scotland have been asked to respond to a survey to help us establish where there is existing good practice, and those results are currently being analysed to help inform the next phase of the development of the strategy. Again, a big thank you to those who took the time to participate.
Creating learning and development opportunities and co-designed resources remains at the heart of what we do at Staf. As those of you who regularly read the newsletter will know, we have been collaborating with partners to create a new online channel with Third Sector Lab and intend to launch this soon. We are also shortly announcing a new co-designed project on transforming friendship focused support, and we have 3 dates in the Staf calendar for online information sessions. If you are interested in learning more, you can sign up here. Further, we have some external requests to share information with you on research projects. The University of Edinburgh is undertaking a study on mental health in adolescents, and a PHD student from Robert Gordon University is seeking to explore the interactions between social workers and care experienced young people. Their study examines how social workers manage these relationships within the context of organisational and structural demands.
These supportive relationships are just as important in a digital world. I would like to draw your attention to our guest post by Dave from Mhor Collective to learn more about the Circuit programme and their approach to tackling inclusion in a digitally uneven society. In addition to supporting studies underway in Scotland, we are also helping those coming to Scotland to undertake practice research. I have had the pleasure of attending conferences with Kathy Karatasas from New South Wales, Australia, and learning from her wealth of experience in helping children from diverse multicultural families promote connections, and build positive sense of self and identity. Kathy is now undertaking a Churchill Fellowship study investigating practice tools to achieve better outcomes for multicultural children in foster care, and is seeking to undertake study trips in the UK and Canada in the Autumn. Please contact us at admin@staf.scot if your organisation is interested in supporting this and exchanging learning with Kathy. As always, lots going on! I hope you all have a wonderful summer. Enjoy your well-deserved breaks and make the most of any time away, and we look forward to connecting with you at our member events throughout the year.
Best wishes
Jo Derrick
Staf CEO | | | As you will know, we have been recruiting to our team since the beginning of the year. We warmly welcome the following new team members to Staf for the next 18 months to fulfil specific workplans: Carla McBride - Youth Development Worker (Care Experienced Community) Jenna Hall - Throughcare & Aftercare Supportive Workforce Lead Maggie Farrell - Learning & Development Lead Mia Chrystie - Operational Support Officer (Comms, Events and Projects) Nick Harleigh-Bell - Policy & Partnerships Manager
In addition, Heather Coady has joined us to lead on a specific workplan entitled 'Thriving, not just surviving: Economic security through a (prototype) Guaranteed Income'. You can read more about this project below.
We also welcome two new permanent team members: We are currently recruiting for an exciting new post in the North East of Scotland. Please share with your networks and pass on to anyone who might be interested. Youth Development Worker (Youth Justice Voices North East) Applications close on Friday 2 August. | | | |
Care and Justice Experienced Steering Group Youth Just Us has been buzzing with activity lately. Recently, two participants had the opportunity to attend the National Youth Justice Conference, and they are excited to share their insights in an upcoming blog post. Meanwhile, our group is eagerly anticipating outdoor activities where they will capture moments on video and discuss how being outdoors positively impacts their mental health.
In addition to these exciting events, we have been fortunate to host sessions with Grant Trainor from Police Scotland over the past few weeks, and we look forward to collaborating with him on future initiatives.
Remember, Youth Just Us meets every Monday at 6-7.30pm, providing a supportive environment for young people aged 16-25 with care and justice experience. For more details, feel free to reach out to katrina@staf.scot.
Inside Out The group has welcomed Katrina into her new role as Care and Justice Lead. This year marks 5 years of Inside Out, and we have plans for a celebration event with the group in August. They will present some of the work they have done over the 5 years, and discuss their hopes and plans for the next year of Inside Out. Additionally, we are planning a mural inside Polmont HMYOI and will collaborate with graffiti artists to create this piece.
The group recently had a session with Young Scot, providing input into their entitlement package. They also received feedback from Thomas, our Strategic Lead for the 'Moving On' Change Programme, on the 100 Days of Listening output.
Youth Justice Voices North East We are planning on brining our Youth Just Us steering group and Youth Justice Voices North East together for the day over the coming weeks to share ideas, plan future sessions and learn from each other. Apply for our new job role here. Applications close on Friday 2 August. Scottish Violence Reduction Unit stop and search workshops This week is our last workshop - we are looking forward to having Darren and Lydia from Braw Talent come along and start the planning of the animations we are creating. We have worked in partnership with One Community Scotland over the last 5 weeks, and are looking forward to launching the animations and showing everyone what the young people have created. | | | | |
In June, we were proud to publish our output from the 100 Days of Listening. This report captures the voices of 365 'moving on' experts from 24 of Scotland’s local authorities. Our findings highlighted the dedication of a passionate workforce, and the innovative services striving to support young people despite systemic constraints. Key themes emerged around systems and services, housing, finance, and practical support and life skills.
Looking forward, we continue to believe in the aspiration for every child to move on from care in a safe, loving and respectful way. Achieving this by 2030 will require significant collaborative effort. The report outlines key factors and potential solutions for Scotland, which we will use to inform new tests of change. This publication marks an important step in our ‘Moving On’ journey and reflects our deep commitment to those who shared their voices with us. | | | For the 'Moving On' Change Programme to be able to fulfil its aspiration, it is imperative we have a shared understanding of how young people are currently supported to ‘move on’ from care. A clear assessment and understanding of the current context in which young people are moving on from care will allow us to target support and resource appropriately. We are therefore seeking to understand more about where there is existing good practice, gaps in provision and barriers to providing effective support. Supported by the Improvement Service, we recently undertook initial survey research with all 32 local authority areas across Scotland. Thank you to our members who completed the survey. We are now working on the data analysis and will share the results in due course. | | | Steering Group The Steering Group continue to work on the NLN Funding strategy 2024-26. They asked for relevant info and statistics to be gathered so that they can base their strategy on evidence and research. They are currently looking at the possibility of funding individual grants and projects. They will share their draft strategy with the wider NLN team in due course. Some of the Steering Group plus some Consultants attended a trauma focused session with Shumela from Resilience Learning Partnership. The group really appreciated Shumela’s time and expertise in discussing this important topic. The group have also kickstarted some work around a proposed NLN animation and merch, which will now be led by the Consultants. Consultants The four Consultants have been focusing on developing draft Participation and Engagement and Communication Strategies for 2024-26, which will link into the Funding Strategy. Completed drafts will be shared with the wider team as soon as they are complete. The team are also starting to consider the development of a proposed NLN animation, which will focus on the purpose of the NLN. They are also going to take a lead on developing some NLN merch. Both these pieces of work will be done in partnership with the Steering Group. Welcome to Barry Barry Black recently started his induction in his new temporary role in the Network. Barry was engaging with partners and allies in his first couple of hours in the job and, as expected, is hitting the ground running. He is currently devising his workplan for the next 9 months.
Partnership Working Last month, some of Team NLN attended the ‘Our Lives, Our Language’ event at the Barracks in Stirling. Gemma and Barry led a session and have been part of the project’s Steering Group. Focusing on language and some wider issues in the care experience community, the event highlighted various ‘asks’ people have, which tie in with making positive changes in the care experience community. We attended a Champs Board Network meeting in June to update everyone on what has been happening in the NLN. It was also a great opportunity to hear what the Champs are doing, both locally and nationally. We also used this opportunity to have a general chat about funding. If you would like to know more about the NLN, please contact gary@thenln.org. | | | | The new Resource Hub will offer anyone who is interested in improving the lives of young people with care experience, the opportunity to benefit and learn from the investment of the Life Changes Trust (LCT) programme, including those with lived experience.
Resources on the Hub will include reports, webinars, videos, art, animations, evaluations and research from the LCT care experience programme, and most importantly, the voices of young people.
The Hub will continue to grow with new developments and resources from LCT legacy projects. There will also be an opportunity for organisations to submit resources that could potentially be exhibited on the Hub. New products will help keep the Hub current and lively, with relevant and valuable information.
There will be a soft launch of the new Hub soon, with Staf and partners sharing the link to the new website. This will offer a chance for users to feed back any recommendations or suggestions, or submit a resource they would like to share.
The Hub’s official launch will take place at the end of August, to coincide with a celebratory event for people who have been involved in past and present Life Changes Trust work.
Staf is also working in partnership with OU Scotland to develop and produce a Relationship-based Practice (RBP) course and, along with steering group members, recently attended the Children in Scotland Conference in Edinburgh, to run a workshop and promote the course. People attending the workshop embraced the activities and offered great suggestions about what should be included, key things to consider about RBP and what makes a good practitioner. The workshop used roundtable discussions and Slido for audience participation. The data we collated will help to inform the course further.
For more information about these projects, please contact dawn@staf.scot. | | Staf has been awarded funding to influence the development of a blueprint for a Care Leaver’s Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) pilot. This work is to inform the Scottish Government's MIG working group, which will make its final report and recommendations later this year. It is a very exciting development with the potential to make lasting financial security for care leavers a reality.
The project will run until October (with some legacy work into November). We will be working closely with Aberlour to build on earlier campaign work to address the problem of financial insecurity for those with experience of the care system.
So far, we have recruited 6 consultants with direct experience of care, developed a road map for the work, and begun the process of exploring the problem in depth. Future sessions will include envisioning what a successful MIG for care leavers would look like ,and testing this with our steering group and others to make sure we have identified what is most likely to work for this group.
Please contact heather@staf.scot if you would like to learn more about this work. | |
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