Conversation & discussion on contemporary Adoption & Fostering
Episodes
5 hours ago
5 hours ago
Hello and welcome to the A&F podcast
In this episode I speak to Nancy Mielle, we first chatted in 2023 when she shared her remarkable lived experience. Here we chat about the interplay of early adversity, trauma and neurodiversity. Nancy shares her own experience and we chat about the challenges of caring for complex children.
Nancy also shares a poem, its written for those with power of decisions.
You can listen to Nancy’s first podcast here.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Saturday Jun 20, 2026
Saturday Jun 20, 2026
Hello and welcome to this episode of conversations from the Fostering and Adoption podcast
In this episode I talk to Dr Claire Agius, she is an academic and adoptive parent who has researched the challenges faced by adoptive parents. We chat about her experience as an adoptive parent and how that led to her academic research. Claire’s hope is to affect change within the system and improvements in the service that families made through adoption receive.
You can read Claire's research below.
As always, if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Saturday Jun 13, 2026
Saturday Jun 13, 2026
Hello and welcome to this conference report - Reframing Professional Practice on Child to Parent Abuse. It was held on the 15th May in Central London and I was asked to share my perspective on dads' experiences as well as generally. It was a great day with some perspectives that were new to me and gave me food for thought on how other communities experience children's challenging behaviour.
I was fortunate to catch up with Helen Bonnick of Holes in the Wall, assistant Professor Nikki Rutter from Durham University, Freda Quinlan a Principal Social Worker with the Irish Health Service Executive, Jane Griffiths of Capa First Response and Maria Duah who organised the conference and is the Director of Silenced CIC/PhD researcher at Durham University.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here Spotify here
I was aksed
You can see Maria Duah's profile here
Tuesday Jun 09, 2026
Tuesday Jun 09, 2026
As always you can connect with us through the following -
Website- www.bettermebetterus.co.uk
Instagram- BMBUltd
Facebook – Better Me Better Us
Email – info@bettermebetterus.co.uk
Saturday Jun 06, 2026
Saturday Jun 06, 2026
To be honest there was so much news that we missed over the last month or so we thought we should catch up. We unpack the significance of the Supreme Court judgement in the matter of matter of X and Y [2026] UKSC 13 (click here to see the Coram analysis). What does this mean for the future of adoption and while the Law remains constant are we all in a very different place.
We also bandy around the issues of DfE communication and that promo! , Kinship changes, Scott's human trafficking and much much more. There may have been swearing!
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here Spotify here
Saturday May 30, 2026
Saturday May 30, 2026
Hello and welcome to the AandF podcast.
In this episode we’ve a recording of a Walking with Families peer support group sessions with adoptive parent and NVR practitioner Rachel Braverman. Rachel has broad experience of working with and supporting families using NVR and in this mini session titled ‘unhelpful help’ she unpicks the challenges many parents face working with professionals and families and some strategies to get around that.
You can connect with Rachel at the NVR Consortium here.
If you’re an adoptive parent and would like to join the community. Below is the link to the joining form, we meet weekly online on Monday lunchtimes as well as during the month in the evenings.
https://forms.office.com/e/drdn16BLZ2
We also have a FB group that will be part of the community and you can join that here.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1620682492650215/
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Saturday May 23, 2026
Saturday May 23, 2026
Hello and welcome to this episode, it's action packed and we reunite after Scott's many travels! We start with a consideration about the recent FASD Ireland conference and the radio documentary that Scott commissioned in Ireland. It's well worth a listen and you can do that here.
Al has been talking to practitioners working with families living with challenging and violent behaviour over the last few weeks and we unpack why there's low confidence in the workforce and nervousness around how to support and help.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Saturday May 16, 2026
Saturday May 16, 2026
In this episode I speak to former foster carer Corey Mckinney from the United States, he shares his experience of being a foster dad and the challenges he faced with his family and the rewards of being a foster carer.
You find his book ‘Foster Dad’ here and view his website here.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Tuesday May 12, 2026
Tuesday May 12, 2026
This episode explores the contradiction of being more digitally connected than ever whilst feeling increasingly disconnected as humans. From social media and boundaries to unsafe relationships, and the impact on young people’s social skills, we reflect on what real human connection looks like in today’s world.
As always you can connect with us through the following -
Website- www.bettermebetterus.co.uk
Instagram- BMBUltd
Facebook – Better Me Better Us
Email – info@bettermebetterus.co.uk
Saturday May 09, 2026
Saturday May 09, 2026
In this episode I spoke to Sarah Fry and Claire Murphy from the Belay Foundation. They are launching a new support service to support adoptive families access DLA and PIP and we chat about how they can help and the challenges that many families face in navigating the process.
If you want to find out more about the work of the Belay Foundation you can visit their website here
Or find out more about Walking with Families here
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective personal or professional and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook page, BlueSky or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here Spotify here