We listen. We care. We love.
In the second blog of our ‘Spotlight on best practice’ series, we look at the joint inspection of services for children and young people in the City of Edinburgh Council completed in June 2019. Here’s what’s working well in Edinburgh in delivering services for young people leaving care and the practices that are driving improvements in performance. Read more
Read Staf's full response to the consultation on incorporating the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into our domestic law in Scotland. Read more
Papoula and Norma recently took a trip down to Brighton to hear all about relationship-based practice in Brighton and Hove Council's Children's Services department. Find out what we learned in this blog. Read more
In the second edition of our podcast, we met with Joanna McCreadie (Seamab) and Rosie Moore, who co-chair the Love work group at the Independent Care Review. Listen as Pamela Graham, Head of Learning and Development at Staf, asks them about their work on love. Read more
Staf Learning and Development Project Worker, Papoula Petri Romão tells us all about the upcoming Mapping Relationships workshops. Read more
Here’s what’s working well in Fife in delivering services for care leavers and the practices that are driving improvements in performance. Read more
As part of our Importance of Relationships project, we were delighted to welcome First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to our offices in Glasgow on Monday 11th March to hear from young people and workers about the vital impact of positive relationships in the lives of young people in and leaving care. Find out what our members said about the visit. Read more
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been told by care-experienced young people and throughcare and aftercare workers how important relationships are to improving lives, at a meeting hosted by Staf. Read more
Staf's Importance of Relationships project was created to highlight the importance of relationships in the lives of care-experienced young people as they grow up and after they have left the care system. Find out more about this project, including interviews with young people and a worker that has made a difference in their lives, here. Read more
Staf has launched a new project called Mapping Relationships to support you to develop relationship-based practice. Find out more about how you can get involved in this exciting new project. Read more
Staf is embarking on a new project to support the development of relationship-based practice. In this blog, we give you a quick outline of the project. Read more
Read our response to the Scottish Government's strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness, and build stronger social connections - entitled 'A Connected Scotland'. Read more
Read our blog about what pets and animals mean to care-experienced young people and the benefits of animals in their lives. Read more
Thanks to funding from the Life Changes Trust and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, 2019 sees Staf embark on three exciting new projects, all sharing a common theme: relationships. Find out more here. Read more
How do we create a trauma-informed system which privileges relationships and allows our young people to thrive? Find out more from our Head of Learning and Development, Pamela Graham, in this blog. Read more
In an interview with the Guardian, Fiona Duncan (Chair of the Independent Care Review), talks about some of the findings so far, the next stage of the review, and what the review needs to do for care-experienced children and young people in Scotland. Read more
The Bright Spots programme was developed by Coram Voice and the University of Bristol to improve the well-being of children and young people in care by identifying and promoting practices that have a positive influence on them. This report summarises the findings from the responses to the Bright Spots' Your Life, Your Care survey in six local authority areas in England. Read more
We know that children who face adversity greatly value their relationships with their brothers and sisters. Stand Up for Siblings is a new collaborative project aimed at protecting the rights and promoting the wellbeing of brothers and sisters in such circumstances. Find out more about Stand Up for Siblings. Read more
The Scottish Care Leavers Covenant is a bold and committed promise to young people who have experience of the care system: that they matter. Read more
The views of Aftercare workers in Munster on the needs of young people leaving care and gaps in the current system. This paper, by Julianne McSweeney assesses the current situation in relation to aftercare provision and identifies gaps in the system in Ireland. Find out more and download this paper. Read more
Relationship Boundaries in Residential Child Care: Intimacy and safety in group care relationships (by Phil Coady) is a practitioner research study which explores the boundary decisions of residential child care workers in their relationships with young people. Find out more and download this paper. Read more
(Through the eyes of care leavers) The experience of young people leaving care and suffering from depression in Scotland. Marina Amaral's thesis examines the Throughcare experience and outcomes achieved by young people who are simultaneously leaving care and experiencing depression. Find out more and download Marina's thesis. Read more
Mary Glasgow facilitated one of our workshops at our Annual Conference 2017, setting out the principles of a restorative, child-centred and family-minded approach that aims to mitigate the effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Find out more and download Mary's presentation. Read more
Saffron Rohan and Simone Smith led a session on 'What does a really good care system look like?' at our Annual Conference 2017. This fun and interactive session encouraged active discussion and participation. Find out more and download their presentation. Read more