Conferences and seminars
Grandparents Plus holds conferences and seminars for a wide range of stakeholders and also for professionals working in kinship care. Further details are available below.
EVENTS in 2011
Next : Imprisonment and Kinship care: the forgotten families of the criminal justice system – 14th July 2011
Grandparents Plus and Action for Prisoners’ Families will be coordinating a seminar to discuss the impact of parental imprisonment on their children and the wider family who often step in to care for them.
Every year 160,000 children experience the imprisonment of a parent. These children and their carers are all too often overlooked by service providers and policy makers. Family and friends carers play a critical role in supporting these vulnerable children, who are at risk of becoming offenders themselves, yet they are reluctant to seek help from children’s services.
The seminar will be chaired by Ryan Shorthouse from Social Market Foundation and will take place on the 14th July 2011 in the WILSON Room, Portcullis House, Westminster from 3.30 to 5.30pm. Speakers will include Sarah Wellard, Grandparents Plus, Sarah Salmon, Action for Prisoners’ Families, Cherecee Williams, Prison Advice and Care Trust, and a kinship carer will direct experience of imprisonment in the family.
Please contact Ben Wheatley for further information or to confirm your attendance. Email ben.wheatley@grandparentsplus.org.uk or call 020 8981 8001.
Too Old To Care? Improving support for family and friends carer
Kinship Care Conference
When: 9.30am – 4.30pm, Wednesday 29 June 2011
Where: Mothers Union, Mary Sumner House, 24 Tufton Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3RB
Directions to Mary Sumner House available here
Target audience: lead members for children’s services (statutory and voluntary sectors), managers in children’s services, social work managers and frontline staff, especially those working with kinship carers, commissioning managers and other policy makers and service providers. ALL WELCOME!
STOP PRESS! Discount rate of only £30 is available for charities and members of our Kinship Care for Professionals Group. Membership is free and open to all social care professionals working for local authorities. Simply indicate on the booking form if you wish to join and take advantage of this discount. (Standard rate: £50. Limited free places available for kinship carers.)
We are pleased to invite you to our unique one-day conference which will focus on older family and friends carers and how they can be better supported to bring up children. It will also explore practical issues on implementing the new Statutory Guidance on family and friends care which requires all local authorities to have a specific policy in place by 30 September 2011.
Grandparents Plus will launch our new research and short film into the specific problems faced by older family and friends carers. This will be followed by presentations and workshops exploring these issues which include:
- Age discrimination
- Dealing with multiple caring responsibilities
- Managing contact
Minister for Children & Families, Tim Loughton will provide his vision for supporting kinship carers. The conference will also explore supporting kinship carers from BME communities and running effective support groups for kinship carers.
Other speakers include Cathy Ashley (Family Rights Group), John Simmonds (BAAF) and Cathy Blair (Islington Council). Robert Tapsfield (Fostering Network) and Malcolm Dean, former editor of Guardian Society will be chairing the event.
BASW – The College of Social Work
The Munro Review and the Future of Child Protection – 19th September 2011
The Munro Review is out! Book your place on this important event in order to explore what changes are likely to happen in relation to child protection.
10.30am to 3.30pm, BASW Members: ￡25.00 / Students: ￡20.00 / Others: ￡35.00. For discounts of bookings for over 5 delegates contact Sarah Richards: s.richards@basw.co.uk. To download a booking form click here.
This conference will explore the recommendations from the Munro Review of Child Protection and will also consider some emerging practice issues. The event is priced to allow anyone in social work and social care to attend. The conference will count as 5 hours as PRTL.
Speakers include
Steve Goodman is former Assistant Director of Hackney Children’s Services and one of the architects of ‘The Hackney Model’ which was evaluated by Eileen Munro which is seen as a major influence on models of best practice in the future. Professor Sue White, who was part of the reference group on Munro and will talk about the implications of the Munro Review for managers and practitioners. Professor Harry Ferguson who’s most recent book is ‘Child Protection Practice’ (Palgrave, 2011) explores critical skills needed for workers to undertake effective practice. Ceri Willmott, manager of a radical new and vibrant social work service likely to be the shape of social work in the future.
ARCHIVED EVENTS:
Spotlight Seminar Series – exploring the reasons why grandparents and other family members step in to care for children, this series will hear from some of the leading experts in their fields.
2nd February 2011
Our first Seminar focused on how parental alcohol and substance misuse impacts on kinship carers and the children they are looking after. Research we released at the event highlighted the 140,000 kinship carers affected in this way. Invited speakers from Adfam, Mentor UK, The Children’s Society, and a grandparent carer led discussions at the event also attended by professionals from the sector, opening a valuable and thought-provoking dialogue.
To download Andrew Brown’s (Mentor UK) Seminar presentation please click the link below.
You can download the Seminar briefing papers here.
More information on Mentor UK’s EU Kinship Carers Project is available from their website.
In conjunction with our first Seminar event The Sun newspaper highlighted the issue of parental substance misuse and its effect on kinship care, with a feature article. Click here to read the article.
PARTY CONFERENCES 2010
Grandparents Plus teamed up with a number of partners in the family policy and social care sectors to deliver a party conference programme at the Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Party conferences this year. You can find details via the links below.
The Family Room is a coalition of 15 different family policy charities, co-ordinated by the Family and Parenting Institute. You can download the programme here.
The Care Receptions are being hosted by Carers UK and 20 other care organisations, including Grandparents Plus. You can find details here. You can download presentation ‘Is all fair in kinship care?’ by Jean Stogdon by following link at bottom of page.
RECENT EVENTS
17 November 2010 Grandparents Plus Chair, Jean Stogdon spoke at the Community Care conference, Children and Families Live. You can download a copy of her speech below.
28 October 2010 – Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Network National Day and Lobby of Parliament. For the second year running 120 grandparents and family and friends carers together with over 100 children descended on Westminster from over 40 constituencies across the country. An event for family and friends carers was also organised at the Scottish Parliament on the same day. You can read more about the event here and back the campaign here.
8 June 2010 – Michael Young Memorial Lecture delivered by historian David Kynaston, author of Family Britain. The event also saw the publication of a new scoping study on Grandparenting in Europe which has been produced by the Institute of Gerontology at Kings College London for Grandaprents Plus and the Beth Johnson Foundation, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. You can download a copy of the report here.
2 March 2010 Report Launch and Panel Debate
Grandparents Plus and the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched Protect, Support Provide: examining the role of grandparents in families at risk of poverty - the final report from our Poverty Project. Panellists speaking at the event included DWP representatives from each of the main parties: Helen Goodman MP representing the Goverment, Andrew Selous MP for the Conservatives and Steve Webb MP for the Lib Dems. The event was chaired by EHRC commissioner, Kay Carberry. You can download a copy of the report here.
24 November 09 Kinship Care Conference
Grandparents Plus and the Care Matters Partnership held a major conference on kinship care. You can download copies of the presentations here.
28 October 09 Grandparents Raising Grandchildren National Day&Lobby of Parliament
On behalf of the Kinship Care Alliance Grandparents Plus organised a lobby of parliament for grandparents and other family and friends carers. You can read more about the campaign here.
23 March 09 Rethinking Family Life Report Launch
Anne Begg MP hosted the launch of our Rethinking Family Life report in parliament in March. Speakers included Rt Hon Baroness Hollis of Heigham, Maria Miller MP, Stephen Burke of Counsel and Care and grandparent carer Julian Wootton alongside Sam Smethers our Chief Executive. The report and other materials can be downloaded here.
20 January 09 Rethinking Family Life Policy Seminar
In January 2009 Grandparents Plus held a stakeholder policy seminar to consider new research on the role of grandparents in family life. You can download a copy of the presentations below.
