Episodes

Saturday Aug 07, 2021
Converstations - Anthony
Saturday Aug 07, 2021
Saturday Aug 07, 2021
In this week's episode of conversation we speak to Foster Carer Antony, he is one half of a same sex couple who foster. In this conversation, Antony tells us about his experience of close family being taken into care, how he reacted, and how it helped him to travel along his own road to becoming a foster carer.
We talk more about that, and how they all coped with a placement before the first lockdown and what that meant to how they were able to support the child in their care.
We also discuss growing up as part of the LGBT community, becoming a parent, and LGBT issues around parenting.
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

Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
Podcast Special - The National Adoption Strategy
Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
Tuesday Jul 27, 2021
In this episode we unpack the newly released DfE National Adoption Strategy for England. It can be read here
We consider how it was put together and the specific parts of the document. Clearly, there's a lot to unpick in it but we look at the high points that were apparent on first reading.
If you like the podcast we'd really appreciate a review on iTunes as it helps get more people listening to us. If you're up for that then pop here and it will only take a minute.
Also, while you're here you could pop along here to The No Borders podcast and listen to some helpful stuff re supporting resilience training.
As always we're very happy to hear from you all and if you want to get in touch please email us at aandfpodcast@gmail.com or through our Twitter or Facebook page.
As always, thanks for listening and you can also listen to the podcast:

Saturday Jul 24, 2021
Conversations - Pete
Saturday Jul 24, 2021
Saturday Jul 24, 2021
Hello and welcome to conversations from the adoption and fostering podcast. In this episode we speak to Pete and he shares his experience of adopting with his wife. They adopted one child after unsuccessful fertility treatment and have gone on to adopt again recently.
Their story reflects a positive experience and with them navigating the assessment and matching process with relative ease, its their story and reflects their views.
We hope you find it enlightening 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

Saturday Jul 17, 2021
Episode 122 - That Interview, Disruption Research and Furious Hoovering
Saturday Jul 17, 2021
Saturday Jul 17, 2021
In this week's episode we reflect back on the response to the interview with Josh MacAlister, to say it's been 'mixed' is fair. We also look at recent research on adoption disruption and consider the findings they highlight. If you can get access it can be found here
Its a ranging chat and we catch up with some of the recent news and unpick what's going on with what seems like a growing 'adoption influencer' culture and the dreaded oversharing. We all chat through some aspects of Transracial adoption.
As always we're very happy to hear from you all and if you want to get in touch please email us at aandfpodcast@gmail.com or through our Twitter or Facebook page.
As always, thanks for listening and you can also listen to the podcast:
iTunes here Spotify here Google here

Saturday Jul 10, 2021
Adoption Conversations - Rebekah
Saturday Jul 10, 2021
Saturday Jul 10, 2021
In this episode Scott chats to adoptee Rebekah, she was adopted in the late 70's by a family that did not share her ethnicity and she shares her views and experiences.
You can connect to Rebekah and the work she does on Facebook here
Or at her HappyMarlo website here
or on instagram via @happymarlolife
We hope you find it enlightening 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
As always, the views expressed are his and reflect his experience and thoughts on adoption.
You can also listen to the podcast:

Saturday Jul 03, 2021
Saturday Jul 03, 2021
In this week's episode we stretch out a little and speak to Josh McAlister the Chair of the Independent Review of Children's Social Care in England.
Understandably, there's been a lot of interest in the care review and as it's been billed as a 'once in a generation' opportunity. When the review was announced we asked Josh to come on and we arranged to speak to him to coincide with the release of the interim report. So, that what this is an interview with Josh that reflects the work done so far. Many people with experience of social care are following it closely and there is a high level of criticism from some quarters. There are many concerns being raised in relation to the timings, limitations and intentions of the review and we do discuss them with Josh.
We're not Newsnight and our manner is conversational. We wanted a discussion rather than an interview and to that end we achieved what we set out for. Of course there were a myriad of other questions that we could have pressed him on but time was limited and we did reflect the questions that were passed to us through our Facebook page here.
If you want to read The Case for Change you can do so here.
We hope you find it enlightening 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
You can also listen to the podcast:

Thursday Jul 01, 2021
#WedndesdayWebcast - No Borders Training
Thursday Jul 01, 2021
Thursday Jul 01, 2021
In this webcast we announce our latest project, No Borders Training (visit website here)
With No Borders we want to provided easily accessible training, events and resources for parents, carers and professionals. We want to step out of the adoption and fostering world and look at a broader range of issues that impact on children and those who care for them. We’ll be getting experts and professionals to come on and share nuggets of information that will be helpful and hopefully open up discussion and conversation about topics that matter.
You can also listen to our new "The No Borders Podcast" as well to find out more about what we're doing and find some practical advice on specific issues. You can find details our website which is Noborderstraining.org or on iTunes here
You can contact us on NoBordersTraining@gmail.com

Saturday Jun 26, 2021
Conversations - Shania
Saturday Jun 26, 2021
Saturday Jun 26, 2021
In this episode we speak to Shania a young black adopted woman and she shares her experience of Adoption. Shania is the co founder of Adoptee Futures and an advocate and campaigner for greater awareness of the realities of contemporary adoption and during this podcast she is open and honest in her views. You can find links to Adoptee Futures here and their twitter feed here.
We hope you find it enlightening 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
You can also listen to the podcast:

Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Ep 120 - National Apologies, Social Care Interventions and Allegations
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
This week we're back in the same room recording to our heart's content. We discuss the call for a national apology for forced adoption from the 50s,60s and 70. Scott talks about his little gig at the Adoptee Futures event at the festival of debate (watch here) and we unpick the thorny, but far too frequent, issue of adoptive families being pulled into safeguarding proceedings.
As always we're very happy to hear from you all and if you want to get in touch please email us at aandfpodcast@gmail.com or through our Twitter or Facebook page.
As always, thanks for listening and you can also listen to the podcast:
iTunes here Spotify here Google here

Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Tuesday Jun 15, 2021
Not a normal episode but Scott has a chat with Joanne Alper, friend of the show, and Director at Adoptionplus, a part of Barnardos.
Adoptionplus is known for being a very therapeutic voluntary adoption agency, with a real focus on new innovations and ideas, and it was a pleasure to chat to Joanne about their pilot of STEP.
STEP – Supporting Tracking and Evaluating Progress is a new Digital Tool that helps Parents to track their families progress in terms of support and interventions, including therapeutic support. The initial Pilot will be in partnership with regional adoption agency, Adopt East.
Joanne hopes to see more RAA’s coming forward to consider STEP as a way of being able to support families in the future.
We talk security of data, how it works, what parents have to do, and what happens with the information they provide.
As ever Joanne is enthusiastic about this new innovative idea, and in Scott’s eyes, this is a useful tool that will help families to know when they may need additional support, and not wait until they are in crisis.
For the usual podcast we’re always very happy to hear from you all and if you want to get in touch please email us at aandfpodcast@gmail.com or through our Twitter or Facebook page.
As always, thanks for listening and you can also listen to the podcast: