Dear Friend,

It’s been such an eventful month here at Staf I don’t quite know where to begin.

We are thrilled to have been selected for not one, but two of Life Changes Trust’s legacy projects. The first is the responsibility to host the Online Learning Channel which will be home to the legacy of learning accumulated by the Trust over the last 9 years. We are currently in the process of recruiting a Learning, Evidence and Impact Lead to take on this task, and will be establishing an advisory group with young people with lived experience/Care leavers and can’t wait to see where this exciting project leads us.

Secondly this month we were also able to share the news that we are to be the lead host of the National Leadership Network, hosting alongside CYCJ, Columba1400, Resilience Learning Partnership and WhoCares? Scotland to ensure that the network is supported to reach across Scotland and provide personal and professional leadership opportunities for young people who are care experienced. These are early days for all of us but we are delighted to be involved and look forward to seeing where this takes us as an organisation and the opportunities we can offer to our members and young people. You can read more about both projects in our latest blogs.

The Life Changes Trust were also providers of our Young Funder’s Grant which was co-produced by care leavers and our team here. I’d like to thank everyone involved for all their hard work from designing the fund to administering it. There were hundreds of applicants, who we have all now been in touch with. We will be following up soon with our evaluation and calls to action.

In other exciting news we are delighted that we have secured funding to ensure the vital work of Youth Justice Voices continues for the next 3 years, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Community Fund and the Promise Partnership Good Childhood Fund, the latter of which has enabled us to recruit a new Youth Justice Participation Worker to support Ruth and Kev. More details can be found here. This new funding will ensure we and our partners at CYCJ can continue to amplify the voices of those with care and justice experience in creative and impactful ways.

This #CareDay22 we reflected on the theme of ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. As board member Rosie Moore succinctly stated in her podcast, there are many parts of the village puzzle and we, and other organisations that support care leavers are small but important parts that wrap around a young person to ensure they feel loved and supported and able to thrive. Rosie was also sharing her experience as a board member as we look to recruit a new member with care experience. If you know someone who would be interested in finding out more, you can watch our short video or check out the role description on our website.

Our Care Day celebrations also marked the end of Project Return, our trauma and relationship informed project for care experienced young people and the workforce. The Catalysts, as the steering group became known, truly were the agents of change and you can see their achievements in our short video. We have chosen, for now, to pause any further work on developing Project Return as are currently undertaking an internal systemic review, thanks to funding from the Promise Partnership, of our organisational approach to trauma-informed principles in practice and it makes sense to complete this period of organisational reflection first. We are keen to engage with our members about their experience of Staf as part of this review and invite you to our Staf’s Trauma Informed Promise Feedback and Info session on Wednesday 30th March.

As you may know we have recently been recruiting for a new role in Staf, our Throughcare and Aftercare Workforce Lead and we are delighted to announce that Chris Walsh will be welcomed into the Staf family at the end of March. Joining us from Stirling Council, Chris will bring his many years of workforce experience to our team and will be pivotal in supporting our members navigate the policy and practice changes ahead and ensuring they are listened to and their voices are represented.

Finally, in case you missed it, on the 16th February the Welsh National Government announced a Basic Income pilot for care leavers. Staf, Aberlour and WhoCares?Scotland have been engaging with Care Leavers on a similar pilot concept for some time and are driving forward, with the support of RSA, to trial something co-designed with Care Leavers in Scotland. I’m sure many of you will be questioning how and perhaps why this has come about in Wales. You can find out for yourself at our Staf Summit when we hear from many involved in our work, but also importantly, we can learn from the Welsh Government’s Policy Team who will be sharing their process and answering questions in our afternoon session. There’s still time to book. We hope to see you there!

Best wishes,

Jo Derrick

Staf CEO 

If you know anyone who would like to get involved email ruth@staf.scot You can follow our progress on Twitter, @YJVScotland

This #CareDay we celebrated the brilliance that was Project Return with our video. After 3 years the funding for the project has come to an end but we know that the lessons we have all learned from the care experienced steering group will last a life time. Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way and especially to the The Catalysts. Continue to be the agents of change that you are.

You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with our progress. 

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!

If you know of any young people with care experience who would like to be involved please email katrina@staf.scot 

National Leadership Network
Last week we were finally able to share the news that Staf has been chosen as the lead host for the Life Changes Trust legacy project, the National Leadership Network. Working alongside our partners at CYCJ, Who Cares? Scotland, Columba 1400 and Resilience Learning Partnership, we will be supporting the NLN's work to explore all aspects of leadership and empower young people with care experience to thrive.

Senior Development Officer Lisa O'Leary shares what the National Leadership is and how you can get involved. Have a read! 

We will be providing monthly updates in our newsletter on the NLN's progress. Stay tuned! #TeamNLN #Leadership 

Prevention of Homelessness Duties: Deadline extended to 31 Mar 

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.