Subject: Staf National Conference - Early Bird Tickets on Sale Now

Staf August newsletter: The latest news, updates and participation options for care experienced people and the workforce

Dear Friend

Welcome to the August edition of the Staf newsletter. Despite summer being such a busy time for holidays, we are still working hard behind the scenes on a number of key projects that will come to fruition later this year.


Firstly, it's time to announce the date and theme for the Staf National Conference 2024 - early bird tickets on sale now. See below for all the info you need. We encourage our members to get involved - please contact Pamela if you would like to share some good practice from your area at the event. We look forward to seeing you there.


If you know any care experienced young people who might like to participate in our newest project, research into how we can transform friendship focused support, please come along to one of our information sessions - see more below.


As you know, in July the Scottish Government published the 'Moving on' from care into adulthood consultation, inviting views on the support available to young people as they leave care and enter adulthood. We encourage our members to respond to the consultation, in addition to the survey we shared earlier this summer, to ensure as many voices as possible are heard.


At Staf, we are working alongside the Scottish Government to facilitate meaningful participation by care experienced young people that will capture their views around the consultation questions. We will be in touch with our members directly to learn how we can support your engagement, and seek to understand the key messages you would like Staf to amplify at the national level in response to the consultation.


You will also be aware of The Promise Scotland's recent publication of Plan 24-30. We all have a role to play in reflecting back all the good practice that is already happening across Scotland. Staf will support our members to feed into Plan 24-30 with the work already being undertaken as we continue to Keep The Promise. We will be in touch with our members separately on this after the summer break.


We are delighted that we are able this month to launch the Life Changes Trust Resources Hub. Many of you will know that we are an LCT legacy project and Dawn are her team have been working hard behind the scenes to bring the resources from the LCT to life. There is still time to sign up and join us in Stirling see below for more details.

 

Lastly please don't miss your opportunity to participate in our supportive workforce reflective supervision residentials. We cant wait to work with you on this and are coming to Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and Stirling. See below for more information and how to book on.


Overall, we are looking forward to another busy autumn with lots of projects, a packed calendar of events, and new opportunities to amplify the voices of the care experienced community and the workforce.

11 July 2024

Directorate Children and Families DirectoTopic Children and families, Education, Equality and rights, +2 more Best wishes


Jo Derrick
Staf CEO


Following last year's sell-out conference, we are back at the Stirling Court Hotel for 2024 with Realising Plan 24-30: Relationships & Rights in Action. Early bird tickets for members and non-members are available to book until 11 October.


Join us for a day rich in discussion, with lots of opportunities to network and learn from each other. Hear from your peers about good practice where they are, as we all work together towards realising The Promise. Expect to hear from dynamic speakers, plus spaces to connect and collaborate with those involved in the lives of young people leaving care.


We will keep you updated with more information about our keynote speakers. Please get in touch with Pamela if your organisation has good practice to share with our attendees under the theme of rights and relationships in our work.


We also offer great opportunities to sponsor and exhibit at our flagship annual event. If you would like to showcase your work to an audience of practitioners and senior managers, why not book an exhibition stand or be our event sponsor. Email bookings@staf.scot for info.

Staf Projects 


Youth Just Us are looking forward to a trip to the Fringe and a visit to Sunny G Community Radio this month. The group will also be busy over the coming weeks, planning celebrations for five years of Youth Justice Voices - watch this space!


We are delighted to have a new space for Inside Out to meet at HMYOI Polmont - the group are now based in performing arts and can meet for longer each week. Having more time as a group has been fantastic and the boys are really excited to plan a celebration event for the end of September. They are busy planning the content and order of the event, and looking forward to presenting what they have achieved, and cooking for friends and family.


We recently spent the day with Youth Justice Voices North East in Aberdeen, sharing some food and discussing ideas for the coming months. We will be bringing our Youth Just Us and North East groups together for a residential in October. They are looking forward to working more strategically together, to influence change at the local and national level. 


As part of our Stop and Search project with the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU), we have developed a script and characters, and are now looking forward to doing some filmmaking for the animations with Braw Talent. We have lots of ideas for the launch of the animations and celebrations in autumn. It has been a great project to be involved in, and we are hoping this marks just the start of our discussions and collaborative working with SVRU and One Community Scotland. 

Learn more

The Participation Network

We continue to work with young people from Staf on our ambitious 18-month Participation and Rights Strategy - watch this space for more details.



Last month, we had a fantastic planning day with the Participation Network Steering Group, including good representation from young people. Gordon from Our Hearings, Our Voice helped us break the ice with a rights activity, then we got on with some collective decision making, votes, chats and laughs, as we set the theme for our next event. Thank you to all the young people and partner organisations from the steering group who took part. We will soon be ready to share the details of our next Participation Network event later this year - click below to sign up for our mailing list so you can keep up-to-date. You can also follow what is happening on X using the hashtag #partycipation.

Sign up here


The Steering Group have almost completed the first draft of the NLN Funding strategy 2024-26. This will be shared with the broader NLN team in due course. They are also working on the various processes involved in delivering the funding. Some of the Steering Group met in Edinburgh this month for a team building day of food and bowling. A great day was had by all.


The team of four Consultants have started to meet with potential organisations with whom we will co-produce an NLN animation or similar. They are almost finished the first draft of the Participation and Engagement, and Communications Strategies. Watch this space for updates.


Led by the Consultants, the next Roadshow event will take place on Wednesday 28 August at 2 to 3.30pm via Zoom. This event is aimed at staff working in residential care settings for young people. We are keen to hear your thoughts on leadership opportunities for the individuals you work with. We would also like to let you know about the NLN, what we have achieved, and how people can link in to what we do. Click here for the Zoom event link.


The Cutting Aboot active travel research is now well into its third phase. NLN consultants Chris and Renee have joined the project until its completion in November. The new-styled team have met in person to analyse data, make decisions on the next phase of the research, and plan the imminent focus groups. The team are looking forward to cutting aboot Scotland, speaking to people about how they travel, why they travel, and the barriers they face in doing so.


Look out for several leadership focused blogs being promoted by the NLN in August, featuring members of Team NLN, including JJ Liggins from the Steering Group. Three blogs have also been written by people from Falkirk, Perth and Stirling Champs Boards, all looking at the concept of leadership in a variety of contexts.

 

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.

Follow NLN

In other exciting news, Braw Talent recently picked up a prestigious silver ruler at the Scottish Design Awards for the stop-motion animation, ‘Alright?’


The animation project was a great partnership with Braw Talent, Clan Childlaw, and two of Staf's groups, Youth Just Us and Inside Out, that explores legal representation needs.


We are so proud of all the young people who took part and of the final result. Watch the animation here.

Come to an online information session to learn more about newest project, Transforming Friendship Focused Support for Care Experienced People through Co-Creation, which kicks off in September. This is a research project involving care experienced people, with Throughcare and Aftercare workers, being supported by staff from Staf and from the Universities of Edinburgh and Stirling. The aim of the project is to find better ways of supporting the friendships of people with care experience. Find out more at our information sessions on 20 August or 2 September, or watch this video.

Tuesday 20 August 2024 10am to midday

Online (Microsoft Teams)



Monday 2 September 2024

 6 to 7.30pm

 Online [Zoom]

Tuesday 20 August 2024

 12.30 to 2pm

Online [Zoom]


Tuesday 10 September 2024 10am to midday

Online (Microsoft Teams)

Wednesday 28 August 2024

10.30am to 12.30pm

In person at Staf


Tuesday 24 September 2024 10am to midday

Online (Microsoft Teams)


We are hugely looking forward to sharing all the hard work that has gone into creating our new online Resource Hub. This project, brought to life by the Staf team via legacy funding from the Life Changes Trust, will culminate in a celebration event later this month. If you have participated in any projects funded by Life Changes Trust, please do join us at the Barracks Conference Centre in Stirling on Tuesday 27 August 2024 to celebrate all their fantastic work, as well as the launch of our new Resource Hub.

Supportive Workforce


We are excited to announce the first of a series of residentials to develop a Reflective Supervision framework that will support Throughcare and Aftercare teams across Scotland.


In recognition that Reflective Supervision across the sector is under-developed, the residentials will help teams design a Reflective Supervision framework. TCAC practitioners will then have a framework for reflection on their work, how to implement and improve on practice, and to support their own wellbeing, all of which will support better outcomes for young people.


We invite each local authority to nominate up to two individuals from your TCAC teams, which may include service managers, team leaders and/or practitioners.

  • 3-5 September at the Village Hotel, Aberdeen AB15 8PJ

  • 1-3 October at the Stirling Court Hotel, University of Stirling FK9 4LA

  • TBC 8-10 October Kilmarnock WG13, 13-15 West George Street, KA1 1DH

Further residentials will be held over the next year to accommodate TCAC teams across Scotland. If you would like to sign up, or have any queries, please email jenna@staf.scot. We look forward to your participation, and working together to create a meaningful impact for TCAC teams across Scotland.


Staf is secretariat to the Cross Party Group on Care Leavers, chaired by Paul O'Kane MSP. Join us to discuss issues raised by care leavers, from housing to mental health, education and finance. Our next meeting takes place both in person at the Scottish Parliament and online via Microsoft Teams on Wednesday 25 September 2024 at 6 to 8pm. Book your free place here.

 
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Staf, Edward House, 2nd Floor, 199 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3EX, United Kingdom

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    This is an online snapshot of a newsletter created by the owner of Staf Mailing List (Staf, Edward House, 2nd Floor, 199 Sauchiehall Street, G2 3EX Glasgow, United Kingdom) and sent via GetResponse on 2024-08-16. Report abuse