On the 8th and 9th of April 2020, IFCO hosted two ‘Coffee Conversations’ Webinars in partnership with The Care Leavers Association (CLA) and the Institute of Recovery from Childhood Trauma (IRCT) to talk about the issues raised by Covid-19 in the social care sectors across the globe.
We had representation from 13 different countries and panellists and participants from a wide range of sectors, including social workers, child protection lawyers, trauma experts, Leaving Care managers, charity sector workers, foster parents and of course those with care experience.
Some of the key themes we discussed over the three days were
· COVID-19 in a cross-cultural community
· Importance of relationships
· Challenge of connecting with families of origin
· Creativity as a form of self-care and creating space to step out of fire-fighting mode
· Using digital and more traditional methods of contacting people who may be more isolated from front line services
· Importance of upholding children’s rights throughout
· Ways of providing foster carer support through therapeutic consultation/support groups/peer networks
· Digital Poverty impacting on Care Leavers
· When organisations are under stress staff are anxious and insecure
· Challenges ahead when we come out the other side of this
On the 8th April we were joined by the following panellists
Carrie Wilson-Harrop (England) – Carrie is the Treasurer of IFCO and has been a board member since 2015. She has been the Young People’s Project Coordinator at the Care Leavers Association for 7 over years; leading and designing programmes to support young people in and leaving care including preparation for Independent living to Empowerment and life coaching. She was a kinship carer to her younger brother for 7 years. Currently Carrie is carrying out Masters’ degree at the University of Loughborough studying Childhood, Youth Social Policy. She is also trustee for IRCT.
Billie Jo Mc-Dowell (Northern Ireland) – IFCO Youth Board member, qualified social worker. Having previously worked in a children’s residential setting, she currently works with young people who are or are at risk of becoming homeless. Billie-Jo is also care-experienced, having been in both family and residential placements over the course of her time in care. She draws on her experiences to help influence her practice and ensure it as person-centred as possible to provide the best outcomes for the young people she works with.
John Role (Malta) – John is an IFCO board member and has been a qualified Social Worker for over 40 years, who in 1996 set up a new foster care system in Malta. ln the 20 years that followed, together with his team, he worked hard to establish a good fostering service by introducing new practices, policies, legislation and raising awareness about the need for foster care. At present he is working with homeless youth. He is also a committee member of the Maltese National Foster Care Association.
Jo Derrick (Scotland) – Jo is the Vice-President of IFCO and has more than 15 years’ experience in the fostering and children’s services sector both at an operational and, more recently, strategic leadership level. In 2011 Jo became a registered foster carer with her local authority. In October 2019 Jo took up the post of CEO for Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (STAF).
Sylvia Duncan (England) – Sylvia is the Chair of IRCT and a Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist who since qualifying in 1972 has dedicated her professional life to working with traumatised children and adults. She has researched and published widely in the field of child abuse and neglect and provided therapeutic services for children and families in recovery.
You can catch up on this webinar here
Coffee Conversation 8th April
On the 9th April we were joined by the following panellists
Carrie Wilson-Harrop (England) Carrie is the Treasurer of IFCO and has been a board member since 2015. She has been the Young People’s Project Coordinator at the Care Leavers Association for 7 over years; leading and designing programmes to support young people in and leaving care including preparation for Independent living to Empowerment and life coaching. She was a kinship carer to her younger brother for 7 years. Currently Carrie is carrying out Masters’ degree at the University of Loughborough studying Childhood, Youth Social Policy. She is also trustee for IRCT.
Jo Derrick (Scotland) Jo is the Vice-President of IFCO and has more than 15 years’ experience in the fostering and children’s services sector both at an operational and, more recently, strategic leadership level. In 2011 Jo became a registered foster carer with her local authority. In October 2019 Jo took up the post of CEO for Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum (STAF).
Sylvia Duncan (England) Sylvia is the Chair of IRCT and a Clinical Psychologist and Family Therapist who since qualifying in 1972 has dedicated her professional life to working with traumatised children and adults. She has researched and published widely in the field of child abuse and neglect and provided therapeutic services for children and families in recovery.
Jacqui Sansom (England)- Jacqui Sansom is a Trustee of The Institute for Recovery of Childhood Trauma and has been a family and child protection lawyer for 20 years. Since 1997 Jacqui has worked in private practice representing parents and children in both private law and public law proceedings and during that time she was also a Treasurer for a Women’s Aid Refuge. Since 2010 Jacqui has worked as an in-house lawyer for a Local Authority where she has conducted many care proceedings cases and advised social workers and other professionals on legal panels. Jacqui is also a Parenting Mentor in her own company Powerless 2 Powerful Parenting where she created her created her Powerful Parenting Programme, which is the culmination of her therapeutic training, over 20 year’s legal experience working with parents and her own personal experiences. She has she studied Neuro Linguistic Programming, Emotional Freedom Technique, Matrix Re-imprinting and Clinical Hypnotherapy and believes one of the most essential ingredients for a child to develop healthy beliefs and resilience to confidently meet the challenges life offers us is to ensure that the home environment is a safe and secure haven as he/she grows up, and, for this to happen we need to show up as Powerful Parents who understand ourselves better.
Gerri Wetherell (England)- Gerri Wetherell is an Independent Social Worker and Expert witness. She has over thirty years of social work experience in fostering, with child protection, family support services, and for the last ten years, as a highly credible court witness in complex legal proceedings. She first began her career in social work in 1989, when after fostering for many years, she was recommended to train as a social worker to “go and shake things up a bit”. Gerri now works Independently as a Social worker and Expert Witness; She is currently developing a whole new dynamic parenting assessment model (CUBAS*) and accompanying assessment manual, training and licensing, all to be launched in late 2020.
You can catch up on this webinar here
9th April Coffee Conversation
We will be hosting more Coffee Conversations in the future, if you would like to be involved in future events as a panelist or participant, please email us at ifco@ifco.info with the subject area you would like to be involved in. Please also keep your eye out for our content calendar for upcoming events!