Conversation & discussion on contemporary Adoption & Fostering
Episodes
Saturday May 30, 2020
Saturday May 30, 2020
Taking a risk on anything that may, or may not, happen we hook our regular recording to Facebook and invite folks to come and heckle through the medium of the internet! What could possibly go wrong?
Actually, it's kind of a news round up with lots, as always, going on. We navigate through the whole #MykerStauffer adoption catastrophe, a difficult topic that we try to unpick and makes sense of. We chat about some recent adopter recruitment materials as well as listener questions and comments on the whole lot.
We hope you enjoy and as always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
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Saturday May 23, 2020
Saturday May 23, 2020
This week we discuss adopter mental health, a tricky issue to even raise and we acknowledge that from the outset. Simone has undertaken research with adoptive parents and walks us through some of her findings and thoughts on the causes and unique pressures that some adopters are under and the implications. Of course we could discuss any member of the triad in relation to mental health and we have, however this is this episode so we're just going for it.
You can find out more about Simone and her work here hiddenvictims.co.uk
We hope you enjoy and as always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
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Saturday May 23, 2020
Saturday May 23, 2020
This week we speak to a couple J&D about their experience of going through the application process whilst in C19 Lockdown. They share how they've found the different stages and components are played out in this new environment and some of the unique perspectives they've had. Another adopter, Tom, also shares his experience of Lockdown. With a child moving in a few weeks before the world closed unique opportunities as well as challenges have been faced and Tom describes some of these here.
The impact of the changes and the comparison to earlier adoption processes and experiences is discussed. To be honest we've a lot to say about it all and acknowledge that it was a long time ago and we reflect on the process, the shifting power dynamics between applicants and social workers and the impact of the new regulations on the welfare of children and adults alike. We also consider the ASF C19 scheme and the support that existing families receive, or don't.
Inevitably we're then drawn into the long grass, well you know how it is. Also, next week we're having a live stream podcast so watch out for that!
We hope you enjoy and as always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
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Friday May 15, 2020
Friday May 15, 2020
This week roving reported speak to Katherine SacksJones the new CEO of Become, a charity for children in care and young care leavers. The welfare of young people in the care system as well as those with care experience is hugely important, however the challenges of the current lockdown have exacerbated those challenges tenfold and Scott and Katherine talk about the challenges faced generally as well as specific to the current situation.
As always we unpick the current topics and consider the changes to the adoption and fostering legisltion some more working out what lockdown means for those looking to be approved as adopters or foster carers and the impact on the process of legislation change.
We hope you enjoy and as always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
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Saturday May 09, 2020
Saturday May 09, 2020
This week we speak to Sue Armstrong Brown the CEO of Adoption UK, we invited questions through social media so put them to her as well as following other lines of questioning. We discussed a whole host of issues including; adopted children returning to education, the challenges faced by self employed adopters, children returning to care, the difficulties of lockdown generally, moving support online and the lobbying priorities that AUK are looking to focus on through this time and beyond.
Of course, there's banter, a timing bell and it's all good humoured. We see that many charities are facing huge challenges at the moment and on another day at another time we'd have perhaps 'held feet to the fire' as it were, that not for these times.
We hope you enjoy and as always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
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Sunday Apr 26, 2020
Sunday Apr 26, 2020
In this episode Nicola shares her story of adoption. It’s a difficult story to listen to as with limited or no support Nicola and her husband supported children with challenging and aggressive behaviour for many years. Nicola shares the impact on the whole family as well as on her mental and physical health.
This is a personal account with personal views and at times is hard to listen to but reflects the experiences of an increasing number of adoptive families. We advise caution as this is a challenging listen but we hope you find it thought provoking and interesting.
Nicola writes:
'Our experience of adoption has not been an easy one but it is far from unique. Many adoptive families have had similar experiences, particularly with their local authority. My original reason for telling my story was to help improve the understanding of any social workers who are stuck in a child protection mindset and don’t have the training to understand the impact that early childhood trauma has on family life. Or that parenting children who have had very difficult starts in life is extremely challenging and even the best parenting may not be good enough in some circumstances. I want them to understand, that in these cases, support not criticism is vital.
More recently after our complaint to the local authority was upheld I have been working with them.
I have been very impressed that they have now heard this message and are working extremely hard to provide additional training around whole family support. They have accepted that things were not done well in our case and although a little too late for our family have been receptive to making essential changes to avoid this happening to any other families. So if you recognize your struggle in our story please don’t give up. There are people in local authorities who do want to listen and make a difference.'
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 or on our facebook page here.
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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 Apr 25, 2020
Saturday Apr 25, 2020
Adding to the other podcasts this weekend Scott and Al discuss the newly released report on Policing Childhood Challenging Violent & Aggressive Behaviour (CCVAB) and you can download it here. Al gives a quick run through of the key findings and point and the potential impact for developing understanding of behaviour. They then unpick some of the aspects of the The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 that were put in place today and what that may mean for children, adopters, foster carers and social workers.
We hope you enjoy and as always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
Listen/subscribe on
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Friday Apr 24, 2020
Friday Apr 24, 2020
In this episode Sophie shares her story recounting the challenges that the impact of early adversity and trauma drew into her family life.
We’ve worked hard to protect her son during the interview and we focus on the challenges that Sophie faced working with the services that she looked to for help and the challenge of keeping her son safe at that time. This is a hard listen and contains a personal and honest account that some listeners may find upsetting or worrying so please be wise and listen with caution. Though Sophie’s story isn’t that unusual it remains uncommon.
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 or on our facebook page here.
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
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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 Apr 18, 2020
Saturday Apr 18, 2020
In this episode we chat to Sally Donovan about a whole raft of things. We discuss the transition from adoptive parent to author then campaigner and chat about some of the challenges on the way both personally as well as with the professionals that she worked with. We also think about Sally's latest book, The Unofficial Guide to Therapeutic Parenting the Teen Years and the challenges that adolescence, and beyond, can bring to families as they look to make sense of the world.
It's a lighthearted conversation but we do talk about some of the challenges that Sally's faced as well as life beyond writing and parenting. We also mention Ron the cat, use occasional grown up words and have a brief but predictable foray into yet another vomit story.
We hope you enjoy and as always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
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Saturday Apr 11, 2020
Saturday Apr 11, 2020
In this episode we catch up on the second part of Rosie the Adoption Social Worker’s interview and this time it’s all about tracing. Drawing on her own experience she shares some of the challenges of the role, to help we got ‘friend of the show’ Pol on to offer a little insight from her own experience.
Again, its our views and our perspectives so take that into account.
As always your views and thoughts are appreciated, you can contact the podcast through the usual routes and if you'd like to find out a little more the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's Facebook page is here, or our twitter feed here.
Listen/subscribe on iTunes here
Spotify here
Google here