Why become a Staf member?

Staf, formerly the Scottish Throughcare and Aftercare Forum, was formed in 1998 and is Scotland’s national membership organisation for all of those involved in the lives of young people leaving care. Staf is the only membership organisation for frontline workers and managers focused on throughcare and aftercare of young people from a care experienced background, with over 65 diverse and dynamic membership organisations.

Our vision is that the wellbeing and success of young people leaving care across Scotland is indistinguishable from that of their peers in the general population. In everything we do we live our values: We Listen, We Care, We Love.

Staf has grown significantly as an organisation over the last few years, with increasing sectoral influence and a broader array of events and learning and development opportunities available to our members.

With three exciting new national projects focussing on justice, trauma, and relationships underway, there has never been a better time to get involved.

Benefits of Staf Membership

  • Join a network of over 70 members spanning the public, voluntary, and private sectors to influence national change
  • Free focus groups and forums available to all members, connecting you with colleagues across the country to share practice and develop policy
  • A range of exclusive events open only to Staf members – such as this year’s roundtables with The Care Inspectorate
  • Discount rates on Staf conferences and large training events
  • Bespoke member support available through the Staf Enquiries service, helping you to improve practice by sharing best practice from fellow practitioners and managers in Scotland
  • Regular updates on sector developments in policy and practice through e-news and membership mailings
  • Access to learning and development opportunities, including training and consultancy work
  • Get involved in our national projects focussed on trauma (Project Return), relationships (Mapping Relationships) and Youth Justice (Youth Justice Voices)


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Membership Levels

Are you working to support young people in and leaving care through providing services? Are you looking to deliver above and beyond your corporate parenting responsibilities? Are you an individual that wishes to help support the work we do here at Staf?

We have a range of membership levels available to all of those involved in the lives of young people leaving care. Memberships run on an annual basis, and we will be in contact at least one month in advance of your annual membership expiring each year with details on renewal and available upgrades.

Individual Associate Membership £25.00

Individual Associate Membership is a means of supporting and keeping in touch with Staf for those who have an active interest in support for young people leaving care.

Individual Membership £199.00

Individual membership allows one named person from an organisation to attend Staf events at the discounted member rate, including free access to Staf focus groups and forums.

One-Plus-One Membership £399.00

One-Plus-One membership allows two named people from an organisation to attend events at the discounted member rate, including free access to Staf focus groups and forums.

Team Membership £599.00

Team membership allows up to 6 people in the organisation to be eligible for attending Staf events at the discounted member rate, including free access to Staf focus groups and forums, and is fully transferrable between other team members.

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Staf’s Work

All of Staf’s work is underpinned by our values: We Listen, We Care, We Love.

We strive towards our collective vision of a Scotland where the wellbeing and success of young people leaving care across Scotland is indistinguishable from that of their peers in the general population.

We have recently launched a new three-year strategy where you can find out more about how we seek to make this a reality. Below you will find an overview of some of the exciting work we do here at Staf that you can get involved in by becoming a member: 

Influence policy and practice

  • We run dedicated quarterly focus groups on continuing care, employment for care leavers, and supported lodgings. These are all free to attend for Staf members and give you the opportunity to engage with colleagues across Scotland, as well as The Scottish Government
  • We have recently set up a Policy Engagement Group to ensure the voice of our members is at the heart of all of our policy output: from blogs, to government consultation responses, and wider influencing work
  • Staf has representation on a range of committees, including the Love Working Group of The Independent Care Review, The Scottish Government’s Secure Care Group, and the National Steering Group on Trauma Training; we additionally form part of the steering group for an International Child Trauma conference in 2020 with Dr Bruce Perry

Creating platforms for care leaver and practitioners’ voice

  • We have launched a national project called Project Return, supporting care-experienced people, and workers, to create meaningful and transformational change in how we understand trauma in the care system
  • In conjunction with the Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ), we are working to amplify the voices of care and justice-experienced young people, with our Youth Justice Voices project well underway
  • We are designing and delivering a tool which supports the prioritisation and bench-marking of relationship-based, collaborative practice as part of our ‘Building Relationships’ project and have recently supported our Youth Facilitator, Shannon Brown, to realise her dream – with the launch of Shannon’s Box in East Ayrshire Council to support young people entering care

Encouraging networking and collaboration to increase good practice

  • We have introduced local authority members’ forums to provide a specific and safe place to discuss practice in relation to the statutory responsibilities of delivering services for care leavers – free for all local authority manager
  • In 2019, we have hosted two care inspectorate roundtables, free and exclusive to Staf members
  • The Staf Enquiries service enables any member to contact us regarding practice issues, which we can then share with our broad membership, connecting you with colleagues to improve practice

Delivering learning and development opportunities

  • We offer bespoke training and consultancy work tailored to your organisational needs on areas such as: working with care-experienced young people; trauma-informed practice; trauma and stress management; and leadership training
  • We run national conferences and training events each year, with discounts available to members – this year, we have delivered a full-day’s training session with Dr Karen Treisman on trauma-informed organisational change, and welcomed Tony Bloemendaal and Dr Roland Verdouw, both of Dr Bruce Perry’s ChildTrauma Academy, to Scotland to provide insight into workforce wellbeing and trauma-sensitive care
  • Our Building Relationships project is developing tools to enable and empower you to improve relationship-based practice in your organisations and communities


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Further Information

If you would like any further information regarding the benefits of Staf membership or the work of the organisation – email us on [email protected] or give us a ring on 0141 465 7511 and one of our team would be happy to talk to you!