Dear Friend
Welcome to the Staf December newsletter, with our warmest wishes for the festive season and all the best for 2025.
Thank you to everyone who helped make our Staf National Conference 2024 a great success. We also hosted a fantastic Participation Network Gathering in November. We are now looking forward to a number of key events in early 2025.
We hope many of our members will be interested in attending the IFCO Conference 2025, new reflective supervision residential dates, and joining our upcoming discussion groups to help inform Staf's responses to two current Scottish Government consultations.
Please have a look below and sign up. Also, look out for details of our 2025 forums and focus groups - coming very soon.
We look forward to returning in January with renewed energy and working together with you all to improve the lives of care experienced people.
Best wishes
Jo Derrick
Staf CEO | | Reflecting on the Staf National Conference 2024
Beth-Anne McDowall, from Includem, summed up the event perfectly in saying:
"Had an absolutely great day at Staf’s annual conference. Some real, raw moments of vulnerability, shared frustration at the complexity of systems, but equally moments of hope, invigoration and a desire to do better by care-experienced children and young people. What was really refreshing was the blend of lived and learned experience. Gone are the days where care-experienced people are wheeled out, tell their story, everyone says how inspiring they are and then they leave. Here are the days where care-experienced people co-exist, in partnership with practitioners, deliver on work undertaken to improve the system for all, and just be part of the day! The next day? Care-Experienced people driving and leading. Across all corners of this system and beyond. That’s the space I want to occupy. Congratulations to Staf and all involved again for a brilliant day. The balance was great and they truly are Keeping The Promise." | | | | | Brave Hearts in Care: Building Trust, Confidence and Connections
Staf is partnering with IFCO and The Fostering Network for this conference, which aims to enhance the outcomes for children and young people in foster care, by focusing on the critical importance of relationships. Through collaborative discussions, innovative practices and shared experiences, we strive to strengthen the entire care system, ensuring a supportive and nurturing environment for every child. You can now register your interest in attending or make a submission. | | | | | Join our consultation discussion groups
With the last of the current Scottish Government consultations related to The Promise Bill due to conclude in early 2025, we want to hear from Staf members about your understanding of and reactions to the consultation questions.
Please join us to discuss the consultation questions and contribute to the Staf response. These sessions are free and open to everyone. The link to join each meeting will be in your confirmation email, sent once you register on our website.
| | | | | | Reflective Supervision Residentials - new dates for 2025
“It was definitely worth the time. Being able to come together in the evening to discuss more over a meal was great for networking, supporting each other and sharing experiences.” We can now share the dates and locations for our upcoming residentials: These residentials are designed to provide practical, hands-on support, and to gather your insights to shape a supervision framework that meets the needs of the workforce. Through guided reflection, shared learning and collaborative discussions, we work to build a supportive structure for supervision that will be impactful for TCAC teams. Please consider joining us in 2025.
If you have any questions or need further info, please contact jenna@staf.scot. | | | | |
The Steering Group have worked their way through all the 23 ‘Expression of Interest’ forms they received for the 2 x £50,000 funding opportunity. They gave individual feedback to every project that was unsuccessful. They are currently working their way through 7 full applications. The team are also currently devising the paperwork and the process for the NLN Individual Grants.
Gemma from the Steering Group made it onto the Young Women’s Movement 30 under 30 list. It was great to see Gemma recognised for all she does.
Chris and Renee presented findings from the Cutting Aboot report at this year’s Staf conference. The presentation was really well received by the audience, who engaged in many questions about the research.
The NLN Parliamentary Reception will be held on Tuesday 14 January 2025, giving us an opportunity to celebrate the work of the NLN, highlight the funded projects, launch the NLN animation and promote the final Cutting Aboot research report. We have promoted a series of 5 blogs from various voices in the care experience community. These blogs have been shared widely on many platforms, and continue to be a great way for people to express themselves, share thoughts and opinions, and discuss leadership in the care experience community. We have started to collect our next five leadership blogs - if you would like to write a blog on the theme of leadership, please get in touch. As always, this is a bit of snapshot of some of the things #TeamNLN are working on. If you would like more information on anything mentioned here, please contact gary@thenln.org. | | |
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