Supporting People Experiencing Mental ILL Health

Knowing about factors related to Mental ill health as well as Physical health, can contribute to promoting the wellbeing of individuals. Experiencing mental ill health may involve having to face personal transitions, that are not necessarily shared or understood by members of the family or significant people in their support network. Such transitions include: family […]

Children in Care Need Male Care workers Too!

Male care workers can often be the first positive male role models that children have met, and play a vital role. But male care workers can face their own challenges in roles traditionally considered to be mainly carried out by women. Children in Care invariably bring a history of their relationships with males to fostering and […]

The Fostering Network the State of the Nation’s foster care survey (2016)

The Fostering Network the State of the Nation’s foster care survey (2016) – What foster carers think and feel about fostering is now available. The Fostering Network research involved in total 2,530 foster carers from across the UK completed the survey online: 1,942 of these fostered in England, 359 in Scotland, 122 in Wales and […]

Giving advice and information, to young people, about substance misuse risk taking

Make sure you understand enough about drugs and substance misuse, including why children might experiment with them, so you can talk to children and young people in an informed way. For foster carers understanding the facts about drugs may also help you to: promote the care plan needs of Children in Care contribute to children’s risk assessments inform […]

TSD 2.3 (a & b) Promoting Child Contact

Importance of child contact when promoting relationships with parents and others  Child contact refers to all relationship links between a child and their families of origin and friends, regardless of the form and frequency of these links. This may include overnight stays, telephone calls, exchange of letters or photographs or indirect links through third parties. […]

Promoting Safe and stable placements in which children can develop safe and secure relationships

The Ofsted Framework for Independent Fostering Services asserts that Looked After children should be supported, ‘in care, to live and thrive in safe and stable placements, in which they develop safe and secure relationships’. The Ofsted Framework for Inspecting Children Homes (2015:31), related to promoting safe and stable placements, states ‘where young people have left […]

Health and social care training and the use of reflective functioning

Reflective functioning is  described by various researchers to involve both a self-reflective and interpersonal components in which an individual grasps the complex interplay between their own feelings and those of others. One way of trainers/teachers manifesting the characteristics of reflective thinking is through models of training and/or teaching delivery.  For health and social care training […]