Subject: Staf's May e-News

Staf releases new report on COVID-19, keeping connected, and #RockingTheLockdown
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Dear Friend,

Thank you again to all of those that are supporting care-experienced children and young people in this challenging time – your hard work and commitment is invaluable.

For our part, Staf has continued to provide support to the young people involved in our projects. Our participation groups have continued and we have launched a ‘Rock the Lockdown’ Facebook group as part of the Project Return choir – helping young people use music to support wellbeing.

Our Focus Groups and Forums have also continued online and last week Staf also published a new report, summarising the issues raised by our membership and care-experienced young people involved in our projects in relation to the current crisis.

The report set out many positive examples of how Staf and our members are working hard to support care leavers through this crisis. But it also highlighted issues around loneliness, social isolation and mental health; digital exclusion; food poverty; financial precarity; and childcare provision for care experienced parents.

All of the issues raised have been passed to the Scottish Government and we’re already delving deeper on some of these issues with a blog this month from our Youth Justice Participation Worker on the importance of digital inclusion for care and justice experienced young people.

What is clear is that as we come out of this crisis we need a new national effort to tackle the wider social and economic inequalities that impact the wellbeing and success of care leavers. For care leavers, we cannot simply return to ‘normal’ – we must build back better.

With that in mind, we are now asking Staf members to get in touch with the policy and practice issues they expect to face as the lockdown measures begin to be lifted. Please do get in touch so we can continue to raise these with government.

Finally, central to any plan to improve the lives of care leavers must be the delivery of the Care Review. So to help you keep informed on what’s in the reports we’ve published the latest blog in our Care Review Explained series.

As ever, please do get in touch if we can support you in any way in your work supporting care leavers.

All the best,

Jo 
Staf Report: Covid-19 Impact on Care Leavers
Staf has published a report setting out the impact of COVID-19 on care leavers, based on feedback from young people themselves and Staf member organisations who support them.

Issues raised include: loneliness, social isolation and mental health; digital exclusion; poverty and financial precarity; and childcare provision. Young people involved in Staf's Project Return have produced a video to highlight their key issues. 


#RockTheLockdown
Project Return group members have been rocking the lockdown every Thursday night with a group sign-a-long. 

#RockTheLockdown gives participants an opportunity to connect through music and support wellbeing while the in-person group choir meetings are currently on hold due to lockdown restrictions. If you are interested in getting involved contact: jenny@staf.scot and read the blog here.

If you make sure you're connected...
Youth Justice Voices, Staf and CYCJ's creative participation project for care and justice experienced young people, is exploring how to keep young people connected and engaged during the COVID-19 UK lockdown.

Ruth Kerracher updates us on new possibilities, digital dilemmas and the importance of participation.

Creating environments that enable relationships during COVID-19
The Building Relationships Advisory Group has moved online! In its fourth meeting on the 23rd of April, the group discussed how to create environments that enable relationships during the lockdown and reflected on how practice has adapted. 

In this blog, Papoula Petri Romão provides an update of the meeting's discussions and next steps. 

The Promise explained: privileging relationships and tackling unresolved trauma
Scotland’s Independent Care Review has published its final conclusions. To keep our members informed, we will set out the conclusions in a series of brief summaries.

In this blog, we take a look at what The Promise says regarding privileging relationships and tackling unresolved trauma.

Signposting - COVID-19 Guidance and Signposting
Staf has compiled information and resources regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland particularly for care-experienced young people and those who support them.

We know that for young people with care experience, who may not have strong support networks, this will be a potentially overwhelming, isolating and anxious time. To help, we've put together a collection of resources.
£10 child benefit top-up would benefit care-experienced parents
Staf CEO Jo Derrick has joined calls for £10 per week child benefit top-up to lift families out of poverty, which will particularly support care-experienced parents who may be experiencing unexpected financial difficulties.

Jo Derrick has signed a letter organised by CPAG to the Chancellor of the Exchequer calling for the increase, alongside over 40 other organisations across civic Scotland.

The Supported Lodgings, Supported Carers focus group provides a supportive forum to share good practice, local and national developments, and discuss issues around Care Inspectorate inspections.

This group is aimed at members and corporate parents who provide supported lodgings or supported carer services for care-experienced young people. Our third meeting of 2020 will take place virtually via Microsoft Teams on Tuesday May 26th.

Our Care Leavers into Employment focus group tackles the issues faced by young people in both accessing and sustaining employment. Recent focus groups meetings have discussed the DWP's commitments to care leavers and protocols with local authorities, and the development of national policy to support care leavers into employment.

At the next meeting, taking place via Microsft Teams on Wednesday 3rd June, we'll discuss issues arising from COVID-19, specifically around young people being furloughed/redundant and financial concerns (including debt, bills and benefits).

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.

The next meeting of the Implications of Continuing Care focus group, and the third meeting of the group in 2020, will take place on Tuesday 23rd June online via Microsoft Teams. At this meeting there will be the usual opportunities to meet colleagues and share practice that supports service delivery. We will be focusing on how practice has adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic and next steps.

Please note that due to the uncertainty around COVID-19 and its associated worldwide restrictions, all event development and bookings have been paused. The website will be updated in June with more information about the future of the event.
If you only have time to read, listen or watch one thing this week, make sure it's one of the below.
Read: The Child Poverty Action Group's policy briefing on Supporting Families During the COVID-19 pandemic calls for benefit reform and emergency support. Read here. 

Listen: Join Lisa Cherry in conversation with Ian Thomas, patron of BASW, as they discuss all things social work, leadership and how to apply this during the current crisis. Listen here. 
Watch: This is the first in a special COVID series which discusses stress, distress and how the pattern of stress can determine whether stress is destructive (sensitizing) or positive (resilience building), with a focus on the current COVID-19 pandemic. Watch here. 
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