To mark National Siblings Day on 10 April, the Community of Practice for Siblings is holding its next event. 

The online session will hear perspectives from sisters, brothers and all those with sibling-like relationships of loving connection on what those bonds mean to them. 

Also on the agenda is decision-making processes and how they best nurture sibling and sibling-like relationship. A panel with a range of perspectives will be sharing their thoughts and answering our questions.

We’re also delighted to be joined by Drs Helen Whincup and Paula Jacobs for an exploration of what the Permanently Progressing Phase 2 Findings tell us about our work across Scotland to keep the promise to sisters and brothers.

Register for the event.

The Community of Practice for Siblings Planning Group is reaching out! If you are an area that might be interested in getting involved in one of our New Horizons tests of change, please get in touch! 

The Community of Practice for Siblings Planning Group is interested in hearing from any local authority areas/community planning partnerships who might be interested in getting directly involved in one of the three ‘New Horizons’ tests of change, launched at the last Community session on 23 January. 

New Horizons – Innovation Tests of Change

The Community of Practice is looking to develop three key Innovation Tests of Change given that broad agenda, and our learning from our work together over the past two years:

Kinship Care and Housing:

A focus on kinship care and exploring how collaboration in local areas could enable quick, impactful responses to housing adaptation/extension needs that would have significant positive impact on the lives of kinship carers and the children they care for.

That’s in a context where Kinship care is now the most significant form of care for children and young people across Scotland, growing rapidly. There is some helpful background information on why this theme is so significant within the context of kinship care – and in the guides at the bottom of that Report.

Data and Telling the Story of Change locally

Building from innovative work in West Dunbartonshire and Aberdeenshire, how do we better understand, evidence and share progress in keeping the promise to sisters and brothers? This theme also has links to the national activity to enhance the ‘CLAS’ data that is provided by Local Authorities to better reflect sibling relationships, and The Promise Progress Framework with its focus on siblings.

Decision Making Processes and nurturing Sibling and Sibling-like relationships

This theme has close links to Hearings for Children and how implementation of those recommendations is progressing. But it also has a broad focus on all decision-making processes in a local area in the journey of a child, sibling or family, from the earliest solution-focussed or Family Group Meetings through to adoption. 

Please just get in touch if you’re interested. We’ve already got active interest from some areas, for example from Aberdeenshire (and a number of the relevant national bodies) on theme 1; from West Dunbartonshire on 2; and from East Renfrewshire and Glasgow on both 2 and 3.  

On each theme, the provisional plan for the initial stages is:

• To have an initial ‘development’ session, probably online, with interested/connected folk;
• To follow that up with a full-day in-person development session hosted in one of the LA areas that’s interested in exploring/advancing the theme.

This work very much reflects the recommendations within Staying Together and Connected, key aspects of the promise, and work to further develop the route maps for Plan 24-30.  

Watch this space for more information!

Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership’s Family Connections Assessment and Plan, and associated guidance has recently been updated following a period of evaluation. 

The original assessment was received positively and a number of children and young people now have stronger connections and have plans which will help maintain their connections in an enduring way. The pilot did highlight a number of areas of improvement and the new versions have been adapted to incorporate this. 

Changes include:

• A two stage approach to allow a quick stage one assessment when children become looked after
• Inclusion of wider connections
• Inclusion of life story approaches in assessment and planning
• A section to include direct conversations with children about who is important to them
• A My Connections Plan to ensure we communicate the plan directly to children as well as those who look after them.

After over a decade, Siblings Reunited (STAR) is overjoyed to share that their long-dreamed-of barn is almost complete! 

This magical new space represents so much more than bricks and beams—it’s the heart of new opportunities for STAR and the families they support.

Karen Morrison said: “Having this barn opens up endless possibilities for creating lasting memories. This December, we celebrated its first major milestone by hosting our first ever Christmas Craft Fayre, which was open to the public and a resounding success! Seeing the barn filled with festive cheer, creativity, and community was truly special.

“Looking ahead, the barn promises even more exciting events. We’re planning a Burns Night celebration, additional craft fayres, and, most importantly, providing another welcoming space for our siblings to enjoy time together.

“This barn symbolises the power of dreams, community, and love. We can’t wait to see all the wonderful moments it will hold for STAR in the years to come!”

Adoption UK Scotland with the support of AFKA have developed a new resource to support those parenting care experienced brothers and sisters.

The Padlet tool is in two parts and is now available online and is free for anyone to use.

Part one looks at understanding and supporting sibling relationships, while Part two covers protecting sibling relationships when children experience distress.

Speaking at the Community of Practice for Siblings webinar on Thursday 21 November, Dr Chris Jones who led on the development of the new tool, said it would be of interest to adoptive parents, foster carers and kinship carers, as well as professionals who support these families.

She said: “The Padlet draws together into one place a range of topics that families and professionals may need to engage with at different points when thinking about sibling relationships. It provides information in bite-sized chunks and signposts to additional resources. We wanted the resource to apply to, and help real life situations and we wanted to ensure that the voice of children, parents and carers was prevalent throughout. We hope it provides a language and a framework of ideas that families and professionals can use together.”

At the session, delegates got to hear how the resource was developed, they also had a chance to look at the information within it (there wasn’t enough time to do it justice!) and then everyone had the opportunity to consider and discuss a series of questions in breakout rooms.

Heather Moonlight, Kinship Care Consultant from KCASS co-chaired our recent event. Speaking afterwards, she said: “Thank you so much to Chris for coming along and telling our community all about the Padlet. What a wonderful resource for our Foster Carers, Kinship Carers and Adoptive parents – and our community as a whole. I am very excited to see how the resource will be used and how practice will develop as a result!”

Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership have been on a journey with their Family Connections Assessment and Plan. The aim is for all care experienced children who have a brother or sister, to have a family connections assessment and plan as early in their care journey as possible and not just when permanence is being progressed.

Elaine Goudie, Assistant Service Manager and Roddy Ringland, Team Leader talk to us about how the Family Connections Assessment and Plan has been developed in Glasgow…

Q) How has this come about?

A) Within Glasgow City HSCP there has been some form of sibling assessment for many years. However, this assessment was often left to the point permanence planning decisions were being made for children and young people and by that point opportunities to support connections continuing were potentially lost. It was acknowledged a new assessment framework was required and the publication of The Promise and the National Guidance: Staying Together and Connected: getting it right for sisters and brothers gave us direction to make changes in our practice.

Q) What did you do?

A) Two Promise Keepers were named in the Glasgow’s Promise Plan 21-23 who were given the responsibility to re-design the sibling assessment and create a Family Connections Assessment. But we were clear this wasn’t just about writing a new document that would be circulated for implementation.  There needed to be a system change which shifted practice from following processes to promoting the right to connections that would be supported and sustainable in the long term. Therefore, in mid 2021 a wider working group was established which included IROs, locality and family finding Team Leaders, managers from Family Group Decision Making, Learning and Development staff, including those who assess and support foster carers’ and adopters. Celcis provided support to think about the National Guidance and how this can be implemented and also supported a pilot and evaluation of the draft assessment. Key to the development of the assessment and plan was the commitment of senior managers who supported implementation and committed to a role out programme for all staff.

Q) What did you want to achieve?

A) We wanted to develop an assessment framework that did not just report what the current relationships status of sibling relationships are. We wanted an in-depth assessment of a child’s important relationships, including how those relationships can be supported to develop and improve if need be. The assessment should consider if children can be supported to live together and if they can’t, consideration should be given to how the relationship should be sustained. It was felt important a clear plan be included that was made available to all adults supporting the child’s connections to ensure clarity about what their ongoing relationships should be and how they should be supported. With some recognition the siblings’ relationships may change over time but support should be maintained to allow them to stay in touch. We also wanted the assessment to start much earlier to allow important connections to be maintained at the point a child had to live apart from their family. 

Q) How was implementation supported?

A) A draft assessment and plan with associated guidance which provided relevant links to the National Guidance was agreed and rolled out early 2022 with a view this new framework would be used for all assessments. A series of briefings for all children and families social work staff took place. We understood to ensure implementation was successful a number of supports were needed in addition to this. Workshops were offered on an ongoing monthly basis to allow practical support, mentoring was offered, learning needs were identified around life story approaches and training and mentoring was provided around this.

Q) Can you tell us about the evaluation?

A) After the framework had been in use for a year an evaluation was carried out by Celcis. The evaluation was positive. There is clear evidence of a culture of change where sibling relationships are viewed as important and should be prioritised. But there were some areas for development. Completion of the assessment continued to be process driven with the majority completed at the point a permanence decision was being considered. Social workers found it difficult to prioritise assessment in the early days of a child being looked after when other reports were also needed. Children wanted us to consider wider connections not just siblings and sibling like relationships. Gaps in children and young people’s understanding of life story were identified which made it difficult to seek their views and support transitions. This could lead to plans being delayed rather than creating actions to help support these needs.

Q) So, what is happening now?

A) A new assessment and plan has been developed which allows a two stage approach. Stage one is a short exercise to capture who the children’s connections are when they start to be looked after. Key to this is an exercise which allows the child to tell us who they view as important. Wider connections are considered in addition to siblings and sibling like relationships. Stage two allows a more in-depth assessment which produces a plan which should be a living document regularly reviewed at children’s meetings. If a child is adopted the connection plan will be included in the post adoption support plan. 

Ongoing support to staff continues to be offered and a one day briefing will be offered to all of children and families social work staff in early 2024 to ensure everyone is aware of the new framework and understands how their roles can be supported. The briefings will also provide an input on life story narratives and an introduction to the Staying Connected Tool Kit to consider how to sustain connections in transitions. The briefings will be extended to staff in children’s houses allowing those working directly with children and young people to support connections. Key to the successful implementation has been developing foster carers and adopters. Assessments of adopters and foster carers and learning resources have been adapted to help them develop an understanding of the importance of connections and assess their capacity to value and support these for the children they look after. A Promise Participation Worker has also joined our implementation group to help us think about how we develop our practice to ensure young people understand their rights and are able to express their views.