October 23, 2021
Hello and welcome to conversations from the adoption and fostering podcast.
In this podcast we speak birth mum Sammy, she shares her experience of having her children removed, court processes and accessing support once they have gone.
If you’ve a story of care or adoption and would like to share your perspective or experience then please do direct message us at our twitter feed here, our facebook page here or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
Music by
Together, We Can Make It by Neutrin05 | https://soundcloud.com/neutrin05
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
October 21, 2021
As we're bang in the middle of #NationalAdoptionWeek we're really pleased to have Sarah Johal on the podcast. Sarah has recently been appointed as the "National strategic lead for adoption — Working Regional Adoption" and we speak to her in relation to what that role means and unpick some specific issues. We chat about contact, support, adoption apologies, raising the voices of adopted adults and more. It's well worth a listen and if you're a UK adopter there is a lot of content that will impact on you and your children.
Al remains mortified by his comment/question and has laid in a dark room ever since.
We hope you enjoy it and after #NAW is over we'll return to a more 'normal' schedule.
As always, if you've a story to tell or a view to express get in touch at aandfpodcast@gmail.com
![Adoption Converstations - Louise]()
October 16, 2021
Hello and welcome to conversations from the adoption and fostering podcast.
In this podcast I spoke to Louise an adopted adult and social worker who has adopted three children. Louise is honest in relation to her experiences and discusses her views on the assessment and preparation process as well as the challenges of contemporary adoption.
This podcast comes with a note of caution, Louise is open and honest in relation to negative impacts of adoption on her relationships as well as their families experience of adoption disruption. There’s no neat bow on this conversation.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
Music by
Together, We Can Make It by Neutrin05 | https://soundcloud.com/neutrin05
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
![Podcast #NAW Special - An Interview with Pam Hodgkins]()
October 14, 2021
As it's #NationalAdoptionWeek next week so we thought we'd speak to Pam Hodgkins, adoptee, retired social worker, founder of NORCAP and MBE. Pam has a wealth of lived and professional experience to share and she kindly did that with us.
Pam shares her personal experiences of adoption and growing up in the 50s and 60s as an adoptee, she then shares her experience of searching for her birth parents and how that lead ultimately to the formation of NORCAP. We chat through the inconsistencies, and injustices, in the legislation and how they impact adopted people. Pam campaigned effectively for change but has returned from retirement to carry the banner again for adopted people. She shares her insightful views on the current campaign for an apology and her hopes that it will open a door to support for the older adoptees and their birth parent who are running out of time.
It's a long podcast so get a brew and a comfy chair, we'd hoped to release it as a prerecorded webcast (get us!) but our technology wasn't quite up to it.
We hope you find it interesting and as always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
October 9, 2021
We're really pleased to be speaking to Dr Karen Treisman this week. We've wanted to speak to Karen for a long time and it was a great opportunity to cover a whole range of issues and topics that are pertinent to adoption, fostering and kinship care. Karen discusses the impact of the pandemic on children and families as well as considering different therapeutic approaches with children and much more.
As always it's difficult topics but undertaken with humour, that doesn't diminish how seriously we take the subject.
You can see Karen's website here.
We hope you find it interesting and as always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
October 7, 2021
It's kinship care week so we asked Dr Paul Shuttleworth to come onto the #WednedsayWebcast to discuss his work and the subject of his research. Though Paul works for a range of organisations he's focusing on his Thesis: What matters to children living in kinship care: "another way of being a normal family"
You can read it here
We cover a lot of ground and it's full of the usual banter and humour but the discussion raises interesting conversations around the hierarchy of care, family culture, death, adversity and the nature of kinship care.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
October 2, 2021
In this episode we unpick all things matching as well as cover a few current issues.
Matching can be one of the most stressful experiences for prospective adopters. With social workers stepping back after the busyness of stage 1 and 2, adopters are often frustrated by the process of matching and downhearted by the lack of progress through the RAA and Linkmaker. How do you get support or complain if there’s a problem? Knowing the number of children waiting for adoption is decreasing and the recruitment of adopters continues meaning there’s more adopters waiting than ever is hard.
We look at all of this and more.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
September 30, 2021
In this Wednesday Webcast we catch up with Carol Hunter and Aliy Brown from the FASD Hub Scotland to round up what has been a busy #FASD Awareness month.
Aliy updates us on the work of the Hub as well as reflects on the progress that has been made in relation to the general awareness both in the general public but as well as within services. Carol is open and honest both in relation to her own diagnosis and lived experience and the work that she does in education, raising awareness and supporting parents and children who have been impacted by alcohol exposure before birth.
You can access the Hub here as well the resources that they have.
As always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
![#AdoptionConversations - Becky]()
September 25, 2021
Hello and welcome to conversations from the adoption and fostering podcast.
In this podcast we spoke to Becky a parent of two biological and one adoptive children. Becky shares their story of an unsuccessful adoption assessment that led to her and her husband having to repeat the process with a voluntary adoption agency. They were approved and half way through introductions the country went into the first lockdown.
This is an honest conversation and Becky describes some difficult experiences that they faced as a family on their adoption journey. Becky is also a social worker and shares her perspective on social work practice from that experience.
We hope you find it interesting and as always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
Music by
Together, We Can Make It by Neutrin05 | https://soundcloud.com/neutrin05
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
![Adoption Conversations - Lynne]()
September 23, 2021
In this conversation we speak to Lynne who has experienced the loss of her children through adoption as well as foster care. Lynne is searingly honest in relation to her experiences and story and consequently we advise caution as you listen. It's a profound interview as well as a collection of other recordings that Lynne has done for other organisations in relation to some of her experiences.
We hope you find it thought provoking and as always if you’ve experience of adoption, Fostering or special guardianship from any perspective and would like share that on the podcast please get in touch through the Facebook or twitter page
If you’ve a story of care or adoption and would like to share your perspective or experience then please do direct message us at our twitter feed here, our facebook page here or email us at AandFpodcast@gmail.com
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here
Music by
Together, We Can Make It by Neutrin05 | https://soundcloud.com/neutrin05
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
