Welcome to what is a rather underwhelming fourth Chrismas podcast. Undewhelming because we only mention the festive season in passing and get drawn into the long grass with Becky (AKA Suddenly Mummy). We discuss the rise and fall of adoption blogs, Becky's decision to kill off Suddenly Mummy and the trials and tribulations of social media. Al kills of the Christmas spirit well and truly by losing his cool and using a grown up word when we stray onto the subject of online bullying, academic research and we hypothesis about an imaginary intern at the DfE (#Justin). 

All that said Becky has written a book, The Trauma and Attachment Aware Classroom, and we have a good old chat about that and you can buy that here. We can unreservedly recommend it for all parents with children at school.

We do manage to muddle through the Christmas competition and finally we do have an alternative Christmas message from a rather smashing contributor and friend of the show. 

We wish you all a smashing and peaceful Christmas and a cracking new year. Many thanks for listening. 

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In this episode Ninja Mam shares her story of adopting, with her partner, two children with additional needs. You can follow Ninja Mam on Twitter Here or on Facebook Here.

If you'd like to share your story then please get in touch through the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's facebook page here, or our twitter feed here.

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Together, We Can Make It by Neutrin05 | https://soundcloud.com/neutrin05

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In this episode we join Adoption UK Scotland for their Education Conference 2019: Thinking Differently About Education. We start the day speaking to Fiona Aitken, head of Adoption UK Scotland and she kindly sets the scene for the day and what was hoped. Please note that the leaf blowers were going rogue in the car park and that does impact on the audio at some points during this interview. Sorry.  

Then we cornered Simon Cawthorne Communities coordinator about some of the specific challenges in relation to some of the challenges that adopted children face in high school and the noted difference from primary. Simon also chats about children’s voices, then Al can’t keep quiet when outdoor play is mentioned and we discuss the workshops run on the day by the Smart Play Network. We discuss the benefits of risk taking and generally being outdoors in relation to children’s broader education and life skills.

We then managed to track down Maree Todd the Scottish Minister for Children & Young People, it was a very busy room so please bear with the audio.

Nikki Murray headteacher at Burnside Primary in Carnoustie and conference chair then joined us to share his perspective, he’s keen to see parents take agency with issues around resources in school and shared some of  his views on , regulation, repair, time and space placing children at the centre.  

After many years of trying and some coercion on our part we talked to Louise Bomber and she offer some excellent and inspiring insight as well as an exclusive announcement in relation to her new book.

It was an excellent day and we’d like to thank the kind hosts for our dinner.

There's the usual infobanter from Scott and Al and we hope you find it interesting and would like to get in touch with comments or suggestions then please do direct message us at our twitter feed here or on our facebook page here.

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In this episode we were prompted to discuss the initial adoption preparation that is a statutory requirement in England and Wales. Its a course run over a few days normally undertaken prior to prospective adopters making an application or at the beginning of the process. We pulled together the results from a Twitter poll that we'd put up as well as some thoughts and reflections that the kind people of Twitter had posted (we've included them below). We draw on our experience of attending and delivering training as well as looking at the Regs. 

There's the usual infobanter from Scott and Al and we hope you find it interesting and would like to get in touch with comments or suggestions then please do direct message us at our twitter feed here or on our facebook page here.

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In this Episode we speak to Paul, with his, wife they became special guardians to two of their grandchildren. Paul shares the challenges that they've experienced coming to a point of taking the grandchildren into their care, working with professionals with limited understanding and the lack of ongoing support that they've found lacking. 

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It is a difficult story and some listeners may find the details upsetting so, as always, listen with caution. 

Music by

Together, We Can Make It by Neutrin05 | https://soundcloud.com/neutrin05

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Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

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In this episode we speak to Joanne Alper from Adoption Plus about her new book 'Supporting Birth Parents whose Children have been Adopted'. It includes a range of contributions from different professionals and considers a range of issues that are present in many adopted parents minds as they as the care for their children and young people. It reflects on some of the challenges that families faces and some effective models of intervention. 

As always it's a engaging and interesting conversation on a subject that Joanne is passionate about. There's plenty to consider for professionals, parents and adopted adults. 

There's the usual infobanter from Scott and Al and some thoughts on upcoming episodes. 

We hope you find it interesting and would like to get in touch with comments or suggestions then please do direct message us at our twitter feed here or on our facebook page here.

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This week we speak to Tanya, an adopted adult and adoption social worker. She shares parts of her story and her views and perspectives on different aspects of adoption and the current system. 

You can read more of Tanya's story on the PAC UK website here and follow her on Twitter here. 

The usual warning if you’ve any doubts get a friend to listen first.  

We hope you find it interesting and if you’re an adoptee 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

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US

This week we speak to Emily Christou in relation to the Church's 'Adoption Sunday'. Emily works for the national charity Home for Good in relation to influencing policy change and raising awareness of specific issues. 

We discuss issues of faith, how they are perceived outside of the faith community as well as the legacy of some of the scandals that the church has been part of. Though we talk about the awareness raising function of the charity we do focus on some of the additional work that they have undertaken to develop national policy. Specifically the work on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Adoption and Permanency in relation to the value of the Adoption Support Fund as well as work on developing system knowledge of children of colour in the system and the specific challenges they face in looking for permanency and adoption. 

We hope you enjoy it and we'll be back on track with episodes and conversations next week. 

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This week we speak to Jamie Crabb and Rosie Canning representatives from the Care Experienced Conference. They give us some background in relation to the conference that was held earlier in the year, share some of the reasons behind it and being to discuss the recently released report that they have been sharing with a range of professionals and politicians. 

You can download the report here as well as find out more about the conference, we'd really recommend doing that as they are an important and interesting read. You can also find the Care Experience Conference Twitter Feed here to follow their progress and updates. They are using the reports to influence fostering practice as well as spark a conversation. 

We also have a little InfoBanter and there's a few thoughts on the storyline on the new film Joker. 

As always, thanks for listening and share the love.

This week's Episode is a snapshot from The Open Nest's conference #PreservationOrSeverance.

Al managed to gather some contributors to the day's events and asked them a few questions. Adopted adults Catt Peace, form the PATCHES Family Foundation and Clair (@howtobeadopted) shared a few thoughts on the events of the day and Open Nest Trustee Fran Proctor also outlined the hopes and aspirations for the day. Added to that Sarah Phillimore (@SVPhillimore) Family Court Barrister offered a different perspective on the day.

Scott and Al chat about the interviews and add a little infobanter.