east mids conf s lideshare

Copyright Sally Donovan 1

East Midlands Adoption ConsortiumAnnual Conference 2015

Building Effective Support

Sally Donovan14/04/2015


• Author of No Matter What and The Unofficial Guide to Adoptive Parenting

• Contributor to Community Care Magazine• Member of the DfE Expert Advisory Group for

Adoption Support14/04/2015


No Matter What – the Sequel

• Our child will not wash• Our child will not eat• Our child will not go to bed• Our child is being excluded from school• Our child verbally abuses us• Our child steals from us• Our child smashes things up• We have little support• We are on the verge of a tragedy14/04/2015


Stepping back from the brink

• Excellent, responsive, empathic front line Social Worker

• Honest advice – don’t waste energy fighting with CAMHS, find your own respite, fund your own support ….

• Self-funded therapeutic intervention • Four day, small group training in therapeutic

parenting• Change of leadership at school14/04/2015


Our Longer Term Solution

• Not to involve any professional who doesn’t ‘get’ trauma incl NHS, Ed Psych

• Work in partnership with school• Take control of and fund our own training• Give up regular employment• Pay for therapeutic help when we need it• Acceptance• Self care• Building peer support network14/04/2015

Copyright Sally Donovan 614/04/2015


Role on the Expert Advisory Group

• Gather and communicate views and experiences of adoptive families

• Bring my own experience• Test the design of the Adoption Support Fund

against a wide range of situations and experiences

• Ask difficult questions• Continue to push for improvement

14/04/2015


The support adopters would like

• Post adoption support to be seen as the norm and a right

• Named and competent social worker – frontline support, able to hear the hard stuff hold a family through crisis, non judgemental, practical advice, signposting

• Access to regular, free, small group training and ‘supervision’

• Training in specific issues eg social media, life story work, education

• Choice of therapeutic providers

14/04/2015


The support adopters would like

• Local multi-disciplinary governing boards including user-representatives

• Effective crisis intervention• Integrated therapeutic approaches in school,

access to Virtual Heads and use of Education Plans for adopted children

• ‘Ombudsman’ to challenge poor practice and advocate on behalf of parents

• Honesty about the likely challenges that lie ahead

14/04/2015


Challenges of Improving Therapeutic Support

• Regional variation in quality of PAS• Regional variation in CAMHS provision• Lack of providers • Lack of an evidence base• Lack of professional awareness around the

needs of adopted children and their families

14/04/2015


Challenges of Improving Therapeutic Support

• Distance between adoptive families and local decision-makers

• Lack of mediation between authorities and families – defensive practice, perverse incentives

• Risk that additional funding is swallowed up or props up existing failures

14/04/2015


Adoption Support Fund

• Additive• Disruptive• Efficient• Designed to protect and encourage existing

good practice• Involves families in decision-making• Accountable to taxpayers

14/04/2015


Prototype

• Launched June 2014• 10 Local Authorities• 209 applications, 191 approved, average

£7,138 per application to mid-March 2015• DDP, play therapy, family therapy• Positive feedback from families• Lots of learning to inform national roll-out

14/04/2015


National Adoption Support Fund

• Launched 1 May 2015• Funding in place 2015/16• Evidence and feedback will be

collected• Adjustments and learning ongoing

14/04/2015


LA assessment of support

needs

Family and LA agree

provider of support

AdoptionSupport

Fund

Local Authority

Application by LA to ASF

External provider of

support (Inc.

CAMHS) funds

Provide support to adopters

funds

Adoption Support Fund

14/04/2015


The ASF will pay for:• Sensory integration therapy• Multisystemic therapy• Filial therapy • Psychotherapy• Theraplay • Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy • Creative therapies e.g. art, music, drama, play • Specialist clinical assessments where required (e.g. Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder)• CAMHS assessment, multidisciplinary assessment including education and heath,

cognitive and neuropsychological assessment, other mental health needs assessment. • Therapeutic parenting training• Extensive therapeutic life story work• Respite care (where it is part of a therapeutic intervention)

OFSTED REGULATED PROVIDERS

14/04/2015


The ASF applies:

• Post order, although applications can be made and approved pre-order

• Up to and including age 18, or 25 where there is a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an Education Health & Care Plan

• To children adopted from care in England, or adopted from Wales and living in England

14/04/2015


Expert Advisory Group Mk 2

• Looking at all aspects of post adoption support including education, health and social services

• Adopters, adoptee, representatives from charities, LAs, academics

• Will address wider issues – CAMHS, evidence base, CPV, kinship care, 3 year rule, representation, as well as monitoring and building on ASF

14/04/2015


Peer support can offer

• Emotional support• Practical suggestions• Information sharing

BUT should not be seen as a cheap alternative to professional, therapeutic support

14/04/2015


Peer Support

Social MediaTwitter, FacebookBloggingtheadoptionsocial.com@sallydwrites

User-Led Groupsthepotatogroup.org.ukwearefamily.wordpress.comThe Open Nest

Online ForumsAdoption UKAdopterssupportuk.freeforums.netMumsnetNetmums

Support GroupsLA or VAA ledAUKWe Are Family‘Organic’ groups

Mentoring and Buddying‘Organic’Adoption UKCornerstone

14/04/2015

east mids conf s lideshare

Documents

copyright sally donovan

support adopters

therapeutic support

little support

post adoption support

therapeutic approaches

therapeutic help

child steals