Following our three webinars at the start of October, recordings are now available. Click on the links below to access.
Brothers and sisters – our rights to be together, be heard and participate
Implementing Policy and Practice Change
Read the transcripts of the webinars here.
We know there’s lots of people caring for their siblings. Stand Up For Siblings has created a new section on our website for sibling carers. The new section provides information about supports, including financial, practical and emotional supports. It also contains links to organisations who can help you.
If you have any relevant supports or resources you would like to share on this section, then please get in touch.
A number of Stand Up For Siblings partners were recently successful in their bids to the Corra Foundation to help Keep The Promise.
Adoption UK Scotland said they were delighted to have been awarded 12 months funding to develop workshops and support for adoptive parents caring for brothers and sisters. Their project will also involve an offer of training and practice advice for professionals alongside partners AFA Scotland (Adoption and Fostering Alliance). The AUK aims to support all families in permanence whether this be adoption, fostering or kinship care in the maintenance of sibling contact in separate families, and to ensure joint placements thrive.
There was also funding success for STAR, Siblings Reunited. They submitted a joint bid for funding with AFA Scotland. Part of this work will involve an evidence-based process evaluation of STAR. It is hope this will enable STAR and AFA to identify best practice in relation to sustaining relationships between brothers and sisters and to share this across agencies to ensure that Scotland can be the best place for children to grow up.
Karen Morrison from STAR said: “We are delighted with the news and can’t wait to get started.”
SCRA has also received funding for a joint project to be carried out with Families Outside which will involve exploring the issues and experiences around the restoration and maintenance of relationships for children and young people who are within the care system and separated from a brother or sister who is in prison. It will then look at how these issues can be addressed and the implementation of processes and structures to enable these relationships to be better recognised and supported in the future.
Stand Up For Siblings continues to support full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) following the recent judgment by the Supreme Court.
Everyone in the Stand Up For Siblings partnership is committed to protecting and upholding children and young people’s rights.
Want to know the latest on siblings rights? What’s happening in practice and policy? Then check out our series of free webinars running next month! There’s three virtual sessions running and delegates can register now.
The first ‘Brothers and sisters – our rights to be together, be heard and participate’ is on Monday 4 October at 4.30pm.
Join solicitors from Clan Childlaw and Care Experienced members of Who Cares? Scotland’s National Representative Body, to dive into the new legal rights for siblings in care.
We welcome anyone to come along who is interested to learn more, particularly people with care experience, carers, families and practitioners. This will be a participatory workshop, with opportunities to share your views on these new rights and think about them in practice. There are limited spaces, however the session’s presentations will be recorded to access afterwards.
Find out more and sign up here.
The second session ‘Research into Practice’ will take place on Wednesday 6 October from 12.30-2pm.
Learn about how research on estrangement of children in care from their brothers and sisters is influencing practice change in Children’s Hearings and a local authority. This webinar is for all those involved in the Children’s Hearings System and care system. It gives an opportunity to reflect on your practice and exchange ideas with others working to support children’s relationships with their brothers and sisters.
Find about what the research said about the estrangement of children in care and permanence from their brothers and sisters, and why this needed to change. Speakers from Children’s Hearings Scotland will present a pilot on best practice in Hearings on brothers and sisters, and discuss the challenges they’ve experienced implementing the new laws in Hearings. And The Promise Lead in West Lothian Council will discuss how this local authority is working to meet The Promise for brothers and sisters in care. There will time for questions and exchanging experiences and ideas with the speakers and other participants.
Find out more and sign up here.
The third and final webinar ‘Implementing Policy and Practice Change’ will take place at 12.30pm-2.30pm on Friday 8 October.
This webinar will chart the policy and legislative changes in Scotland for brothers and sisters in the care system, and explore how the work of SUFS partnership contributed to realising these changes over the past 4 years. We will explore the challenges and enablers to implementing practice change on the ground, from the perspectives of local authority practitioners, Social Work Scotland, and the Care Inspectorate. There will be a panel Q&A offering opportunities to learn, share, debate and discuss practice and policy issues.
The webinar is particularly aimed at social work practitioners in children and families and family based care teams, and their managers, but may also be of interest and accessible to a wide range of stakeholders, policy makers, panel members, parents/carers and care experienced people.
Speakers include Kate Richardson from Scotland’s Adoption Register, Lizzie Morton from Celcis, Mary Morris and Fiona Sheils from the Care Inspectorate and Janine Fraser from Glasgow City Council.
Find out more and sign up here.
Stand Up For Siblings is delighted to share Scotland’s Adoption Register new recruitment video! It is fabulous.