Conversation & discussion on contemporary Adoption & Fostering
Episodes
5 days ago
5 days ago
Hello and welcome to conversations from the AandF podcast.
In this episode I speak Christian Brock from Virtual Memory Box and he shares the vision and hopes behind the digital system for storing and sharing memories of children who have been in the care systems. They’ve now broadened their work to support families impacted adoption and help maintain links safely.
You can find out more 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
7 days ago
7 days ago
To mark a year since I completed and released my Fellowship Report I'm re releasing the podcast. Since then I've partnered with Beacon Family Services and we've put into place some of the recommendations in the Walking with Families peer support community. You can find out more or sign up here.
Hello and welcome to this second episode of Al's Churchill Fellowship. You can read the full report here.
Developing the themes in Part 1 this podcast considers how parents and carers are supported by focused organisations. Rather than look at specific models of intervention, of which there are many, it considered how families interacted and accessed the interventions and specifically how they were delivered to the families. Again, drawing heavily from Interwoven Connections based in Ontario, Canada the interplay of parent/carer, peer supporter and clinical staff is highlighted.
‘It’s never about whether a parent is doing a great job. They’re doing the very best they can with what they’ve got.’
Lillyth Quillin, Parents of Children with Conduct Disorter, California, USA
Saturday Apr 25, 2026
Saturday Apr 25, 2026
To mark a year anniversary of Al's Churchill Fellowship report we've released a recording from the release event for practitioners from last year.
I shared reflections from my Churchill Fellowship Report on Walking with Families. Looking at models of support and intevention for families drawn from the Canada, US, Ireland and Austrailia. I offer areas for practice development in the UK to offer ongoing support for families that often struggle to find effective and ongoing support while caring for vulnerable children that have care experience having experiened high levels of adversity.
Churchill Fellowship Report Event - Walking with Families Practitioner event April 23rd 2025
You can read the report and listen to the audio library of many of the interviews here. https://alcoates.co.uk/churchill-fellowship
Saturday Apr 25, 2026
Saturday Apr 25, 2026
On the 15th May Maria Duah is delivering a conference at Coram in London looking to Reframe Professional Practice in the Child to Parent Abuse arena.
In this short chat Maria shares her experience as a profession supporting families and children, her vision behind the conference and who is speaking.
You can sign up here and and connect with Maria here and we hope to record some of the sessions as well.
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
Friday Apr 24, 2026
Friday Apr 24, 2026
Hello and welcome to this first episode of Al's Churchill Fellowship. You can read the full report here.
This episode draws on peer support specialists working directly with parents and carers living with children with challenging and aggressive behaviour. Focusing on Canada & the USA it considers different models of peer support including social media, virtual and in person. It then considers the role of peer mentors specifically in the Canadian organisation Interwoven Connections based across the province of Ontario that serves a large community through virtual means.
‘The best way to help families is one at a time. What each individual family needs is so unique the only way to truly help families is by addressing each unique needs and concerns one at a time.’
Lillyth Quillin, Parents of Children with Conduct Disorder, California, USA
Saturday Apr 18, 2026
Saturday Apr 18, 2026
Hello and welcome to this episode of the A&F podcast, we unpack the fallout of our Canada trip and answer a question from a listener. Over the last few weeks there's been a few consultations for the DfE by Adoption England, we unpack some of that and the recent Adoption Forum event looking at the legal guidance around maintaining family links.
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 Apr 11, 2026
Saturday Apr 11, 2026
Hello and welcome to conversations from the AandF podcast.
In this episode I speak to Dallas a parent through adoption who lives in Canada she shares the experience of adopting two children and the impact of caring for children with complex and challenging behaviour on her relationship with her husband and beyond. Dallas is frank about her circumstances and the difficulties that she faces and regardless of the context and country.
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 Apr 07, 2026
Tuesday Apr 07, 2026
We explore why positive attention matters more than we often realise and explore the simple, realistic ways carers and parents can build connection into everyday moments. We also recognise that as adults, we need a bit of positive dosing too, so it’s worth thinking about this in your own life with friends, family and colleagues as small positive interactions matter for everyone.
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 Apr 04, 2026
Saturday Apr 04, 2026
Hello and welcome to conversations from the AandF podcast.
In this episode I speak to a former guest Mary-Joy Johnson founder of Wildways therapy and an integrative psychotherapist whose work focuses on supporting adoptive parents. This is a really helpful conversation considering the impact of trauma on parents and considers where that comes from as well as changing the narrative of self care to one of community care. I hope you find it useful and if you want to know more of the work she does you can access Mary-Joy’s 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
Saturday Mar 28, 2026
Saturday Mar 28, 2026
Hello and welcome to the second podcast from our Canada road trip. In this episode we reflect on a few of the conversations we had with the team from Interwoven Connections. They support families formed though adoption, fostering, kinship and customary care and have a huge knowledge base around FASD and CPV (AFCCA). We were given much to think of and we unpack it as well as being a little giddy at being in the same room for the 8th day in a row!
You can listen to Tanya Dugay's interview from my Churchill Fellowship 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