Summer 2015

Newsletter for family based carers in Edinburgh

Make someone’s day… Make someone’s life

P3 Friends and Family Support Group P5 Connecting on Facebook P6 Summer Reading Challenge

www.edinburgh.gov.uk/fostering

2 Edinburgh Carers’ newsletter

Neil’s column

STAFF NEWS Welcome to: Jamie Simmonds - Kinship Care Team Sarah McNeil - Recruitment Team Michael Greig - Foster Care Team Carol Craig - Business Officer, Panel Admin Nabu White - Locum SW, Recruitment Team Welcome back to: Elspeth Russell - from maternity leave and transferring to the Recruitment Team

It seems like summer finally arrived with the great weather we had during the family fun day on 7 June. It was good to meet so many of you enjoying the relaxed surroundings of Vogrie, in between drumming, snakes and Edinburgh Leisure games. We organised the family fun day as part of foster care fortnight, a celebration of foster carers across the UK. As part of the celebrations, Fiona McLeod, the acting Minister for Children and Young People asked for the letter enclosed with this newsletter be sent to all foster carers in Scotland to show her appreciation for the work you do, and also updating you on recent policy developments that will affect you and the children you care for. Back in March , we had an unprecedented demand for foster care placement. I want to thank you for your incredible response this. Stretches and people going out of their way to assist were so helpful and allowed us to keep a high number of children in Council placements. I’d also like to pass on my ongoing thanks to support groups who have invited me along and everyone who has taken the time to give me a call to discuss ideas for service improvements. Of course, huge thanks to all carers who have participated in our recruitment events, including the drop in evenings, STV Edinburgh interview, facebook Q&A and prep groups, to name but a few. As you all know, our best means of recruitment is word of mouth from carers so please keep up the good work of encouraging prospective foster carers to come to Edinburgh. If you have any ideas you would like to discuss, please do get in touch with me. Wishing you all a very enjoyable summer.

Neil Bruce Team Manager Looked After and Accommodated Children [email protected]

Farewell to: Susan Good - Team Leader, Foster Care Team Fiona Munro - Senior Practitioner, Recruitment Team

Participation Group Update As part of our evolving Participation Strategy I meet with Carers and staff to hear about where we are doing well and where we can do better. This is a hugely helpful process as it allows us to take time out from our day and look at processes that hinder, or that we have been doing for so long that no one is quite sure why we started doing it. Both groups have been hugely helpful in reviewing the Outcomes Tracker with Robyn Elliot from Commissioning and the FBC Carers’ agreement with Tricia Rosa. As always other ideas and solutions came forward after discussion which we can implement. The next participation groups will be held at Westfield House, both from 9.30 - 11.30am. Please feel free to join us. Carers - Monday 14 September Staff - Tuesday 15 September I’ll mail out nearer the time. In the meantime please email or call me with any ideas about how we can do things in a better way. Lovat Fraser [email protected] 0131 200 4088

GIVEAWAY .... GIVEAWAY .... GIVEAWAY .... GIVEAWAY

Filmhouse Cinema Ticket Giveaway In partnership with Filmhouse Cinema we have 20 free tickets for each of the Filmhouse Junior screenings each week. Filmhouse Junior are weekly films for a younger audience, shown every Sunday at 11am. Tickets are usually only £4.00 per person, big or small. Filmhouse Cinema is at 88 Lothian Road, EH3 9BZ. To book please contact the box office on 0131 228 2688 (Open from 10am 9pm daily) and quote ‘Corporate Parent’. Tickets will be held at the box office for collection on the morning of the film. Free tickets are allocated to looked after children and their foster families on a first come basis. Please only book tickets if you can use them, non attendance will jeopardise future offers. To see the schedule of upcoming films visit www.filmhousecinema.com/ seasons/filmhouse-junior/

GIVEAWAY .... GIVEAWAY .... GIVEAWAY .... GIVEAWAY

Edinburgh Carers’ newsletter 3

Friends and Family Support Group In January 2015 a preparation group specifically for friends and family members of foster carers was held. This was the first of its kind. Its aim was to develop foster carers’ existing support networks, by training and assessing adults already known to the children in their care to provide support and respite care. This will ensure continuity of care for the children who are able to remain in their own homes with minimum disruption to existing routines whilst their full time carers are on holiday/break. These carers will be used for planned breaks and for support to help prevent placement breakdowns. It will also allow the child’s care to be more normalised, within the existing network. The group consisted of a mix of adult children of foster carers (siblings), foster carers’ parents (grannies) and close friends of foster carers.

experiences of their families, but also their experiences of fostered children. The group showed an enormous amount of enthusiasm for the training and for the foster carer role, which made it a very positive experience for facilitators and participants alike. Once approved, the friends and family carers will be able to provide respite care as approved carers and be paid accordingly. This not only acknowledges the importance of their role but enables the carers to have a well earned break without feeling like they are imposing on friends or family, or causing unnecessary disruption to the child.

We aim to run a further Friends and Family preparation group after the summer break and tap into this pool of individuals, many of whom have a wealth and lifetime of experience of caring for Edinburgh’s children. This will be The preparation group covered a bespoke version of the to the benefit of the children, the carers and will be an existing Fostering Network preparation training and took important part of ensuring placement stability. place over four sessions. This was scaled down from the usual six sessions as the participants all came with a huge In the next issue we hope to have a short interview with amount of experience and knowledge of the fostering role some of the group members from the pilot group. and of being part of a family who fosters. The facilitators If someone in your network is interested in attending the were delighted with the wholehearted contributions of the next Friends and Family Preparation Group, please contact group members, who not only shared their own personal your supervising social worker.

Who Cares? Scotland. Who are we? Who Cares? Scotland speaks up and speaks out for Scotland’s care experienced children and young people. There are loads of ways to access our help, get involved and support our work. Read more at www.whocaresscotland.org Find out how to get connected with us and each other, whether you are a young person, a professional or a supporter. What we can offer: • Make sure you are listened to and feel in control of your life in care by connecting with our Young Persons Worker in your area • Sign up to be a member and decide on what we do and how we do it

• Have fun along the way and get your free members only tool pack • If you’re over 26 and have care experience you can join our Alumni, and become an ambassador for future generations…

Campaigning - make sure care experienced Scots are heard and understood by everyone in Scotland. Ask us about becoming a Campaigner if you’re care experienced or not. The first step is to take the pledge at www.pledge2listen.org.uk Corporate Parenting - all corporate parents have to provide the best service possible for care experienced young people. Ask about our Corporate Parenting Training programme, to find out more about Corporate Parenting roles and responsibilities team with your ideas for fundraising Changing laws - we challenge decision makers and MSPs to ensure the best package of rights possible are in place to make Scotland the best place to grow up for care experienced young people, ask us how you can help

The Carers’ Handbook The Carers’ Handbook is well overdue an overhaul. It was printed in 2010 and a number of things have changed since then! I am consulting with carers and social workers to get feedback on how you’ve found using the book and what amendments you feel are required? For example , would you like the book available online? I have already met with some carers to talk about the book - and to get views on our recruitment strategy. However, I would really like to have the opportunity to meet more carers so please feel free to invite me to your support groups. You can email me on [email protected] .

4 Edinburgh Carers’ newsletter

“What’s LOVE got to do with it?” SPDN event “The giving of love is an education in itself.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) This spring’s Social Pedagogy Development Network event was hosted in Edinburgh in April, having been fully booked within the first two weeks! What an amazing outcome! You could clearly feel the love.... The SPDN kicked off with an evening session at the beautiful City Chambers. In true social pedagogic style people were pushed to think outside their comfort zone and to ‘critically explore perspectives on love within a professional context.’ This created quite a buzz and raised even more expectations on what the next day was to bring. The interesting evening came to an end with some mind blowing magic by Magic Adam and musical entertainment by the Royal High School Fiddle Group and Alan and Kyle Rowan from Firhill High School.

Day two was hosted at Heriot Watt University’s conference centre, due to the huge uptake. Unfortunately our key note speaker had to cancel last minute, so some changes to the agenda had to be made. The morning explored the five languages of love in a creative way, while the afternoon offered numerous workshops to explore love in a professional context. The workshops were pitched at different levels of understanding of Social Pedagogy, offering something for everyone, from newbies to oldies in Social Pedagogy. As you can see in the picture below, our goodie bags were made with love, and it was wonderful to already receive such amazing feedback on them. All the hard work paid off.

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love”(LaoTzu, 6th century BC) “Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” (Vincent Van Gogh)

These lovely T-shirts were designed by young people from the Edinburgh’s Family Project and sold at the SPDN. If you missed out on the SPDN, but still want a souvenir on what’s love got to do with it, please get in touch with us. Liliana and Christine [email protected] [email protected]

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Connecting on Facebook

Our fostering facebook page has been an unprecedented success. Many of your are already connected to it online and it’s lovely to see your smiley photos pop up when you like a post! If you haven’t already liked us you can find us by searching Foster with Edinburgh on facebook. We hosted our first live Q&A at the beginning of June to mark Foster Care Fortnight. Carers Stephen and Elaine joined us online as the questions poured in from people interested in fostering with us. As with anything new we weren’t sure how well it would work, but it went very well. We had some interesting questions and keen people who we hope to follow up with. Recruitment -21st Century style!

Do you care for kids aged 10+? Did you know if you care for a young person over ten years of age you can access 24/7 support from Howdenhall residential unit through membership of a new support group. The group is providing a real opportunity for the services – foster care and residential to develop and learn together and from each other.

‘There is only so much you can speak to friends and family about because of confidentiality, so it is about making connections with other professionals who work with older kids.’

We spoke with Lynne, a single carer for a 12 year old boy, who was part of the pilot support group between Family Based Care and Howdenhall. Lynne has been a foster carer for four and a half years. Having started off as a baby carer for two years and going on to foster a young sibling group, most of her contacts are baby carers.

There are often speakers, such as last month’s speaker, a care leaver talking about her experiences of care.

Theresa Dickson and Fiona Parke steer the group from FBC, along with Alan McDonald from Howdenhall. By the time you read this, the Earlier this year a pilot scheme was set up so carers who are members group will hopefully have their official name. could phone experienced staff for support at any time, before they As well as providing important support, the group meet monthly at reached crisis point and help stop placements break down. Howdenhall, where carers can talk about any issues they may have.

If you are interested in joining the group, get in touch with Theresa. [email protected]. Theresa hopes as interest increases that will create support groups attached to more residential units. The only Lynne says of the scheme: ‘If you have a crisis at the weekend it’s criteria for becoming a member is caring for a child over 10 years + a lifeline. I have only had to phone the out of hours once, luckily. It from any scheme of foster care – mainstream, specialist, disability and is important to know it is there. It was late at night when I phoned permanence. and instead of going to bed anxious, they were able to reassure and As Lynne says: ‘They encourage you to phone before you reach a crisis support me. I was able to go to bed with a clear head and wake up point. They are there to listen and support you.’ refreshed. The lady I spoke to was absolutely brilliant and very very supportive.

Family fun day Having endured gales and rain for the previous month, we were fortunate to have the sun shining down on us for the Family Fun Day at Vogrie on Sunday 7 June. We had an action packed day, with lots of activities that children could dip in and out of. From Animal Man (who was actually a lovely gentle lady) to Edinburgh Leisure we ensured that there was something to do at all times. The drumming workshops were a personal favourite, one that catered for every age and ability. Who cares? Scotland were also there getting young people to sign up. Read more about them on page 3. It was a shame the café was closed, carers may not have gotten their caffeine fix, but hopefully the ice creams made up for it for the kids! Our lovely facepainters Carole and Catarina made sure everyone looked lovely and following the treasure hunt, the grand finale with piñata bashing showed off Carol’s creative skills. We are thinking of hosting the next family fun day at a central high school location, giving us a wet and dry weather option as well as being safely enclosed and accessible. If you have any opinion or recommendations, please let us know. Drop a line to – [email protected]

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Summer Reading Challenge The libraries’ Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge Scotland – ‘Record Breakers’ can be found in every Edinburgh City Library. The Summer Reading Challenge is fun and free. All children have to do is to read six library books of their choice between the 20th June and the 23rd August. When they register at their local library they will get a fold out poster full of amazing record facts from ‘Guinness World Records. There are spaces to rate their six chosen books and also for stickers that they’ll receive for each

book read, including amazing scratch ‘n’ sniff stickers! After three books they get a book mark and then when they’ve read all six they receive a medal, a certificate and a Record Breakers zip/key fob. They’ll also be entered into a prize draw for some fabulous extra prizes. Check out our website for all the latest news www. edinburgh.gov.uk/recordbreakers or www.recordbreakers.org.uk for loads of record breaking fun!

The Fostering Network’s Scottish Social Pedagogy Conference

Edinburgh had the privilege to host The Fostering Network’s Scottish Social Pedagogy conference: “Achieving systemic change in Foster Care: the Potential of Social Pedagogy - A practice exchange day learning from our Head, Heart, Hands programme,” at Edinburgh’s Surgeon’s Hall in March. It presented an amazing opportunity for empowering foster carers, social work colleagues and other professionals involved in the HHH Programme. A big thank you to Sara Lurie for bringing people together, and allowing all HHH sites from Scotland to showcase their achievements to date.

Aberlour Fostering, the City of Edinburgh Council and Orkney Islands Council were able to feed back on their experience of how Social Pedagogy influenced their daily practice. We were lucky to have Scott Dunbar, Service Manager for Looked After and Accommodated Children, speaking at the conference. He spoke about why managers and leaders need to invest in social Scottish Social Pedagogues, l to r: Anne Kunz (Aberlour Fostering), Christine Spurk and Liliana Santos (The City of Edinburgh Council), Manja Golobic (Orkney Islands Council) pedagogy. This gave attendees from fostering agencies and councils across Scotland a great opportunity to hear about the impact of SP first hand. Participants were able to explore the meaning of social pedagogy and take ideas back to their organisations about implementing some of the practise reported during the event. The event was inspiring for everyone, as it was a platform for social pedagogy enthusiasts to come together. The organisations involved contributed to a great atmosphere with a lot of food for thought. We are grateful that we are able to be a part of it. We were all touched by the examples of foster carers, empowering messages of our colleagues and evaluation of the programme to date. We hope it sparked interest for others to follow... By: Anne Kunz, Christine Spurk, Liliana Santos and Manja Golobic.

s id k h it w g in k o o C Ingredients

125g plain flour 40g cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2 eggs 200g granulated sugar 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 120ml reduced fat buttermilk 60ml milk 12 Oreos ©

For icing 1 tub vanilla icing chocolate sprinkles

Method

Prep time: 30 min Cook time: 20 min Ready in: 50 min

6. Take the tops off the Oreos ©, 1. Preheat oven to 170C/Gas and place a side with the 3. Line a 12 hole cupcake tin filling, filling side up, in with paper. a paper cupcake case. 2. In a parge mixing bowl, sift Top with the cake the flour, cocoa powder, mixture. Repeat with 11 bicarb and baking powder. more cases. 3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar, and gradually 7. Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes. beat in the slightly softened Allow the cupcakes to butter. cool before adding the icing. 4. Combine the two mixtures 8. Once cool, spread the vanilla gradually, beating well after icing over each cupcake. Add each addition. sprinkles. Split the remaining 5. Mix in the buttermilk and beat Oreo© sides in half, and until smooth. Add the milk to place on top. thin the mixture slightly.

Oreo Cupcakes Makes 12 cupcakes

Edinburgh Carers’ newsletter 7

Kid’s cyber corner

Reviews Dr. Book Recommends

Dr. Book’s three choices this time are taken from the 64 books promoting the libraries’ Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge Scotland.

We hope you are looking forward to the summer holidays, and that the sun shines for you. Here are some links to keep you busy…

Keeping fit this summer or maybe need some work experience? Why not try volunteering with Volunteer Edinburgh? They have lots to choose from, take a look … www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk/ Keeping fit this year Do you have your LA Active card yet? Enjoy loads of free sporting fun and get fit this summer. Have a look at the Looked After and Active section of Edinburgh Leisure online about.edinburghleisure.co.uk/ what-we-do/community-projects What do you do on a rainy day? For a rainy day with the kids some educational fun online with games and stories at kids.nationalgeographic.com/ Have you heard the new TeenFM radio station? Lots of celebrity gossip and of course, music, and a chance to get involved in online radio. Why not have a look at, teenfm.co.uk/ Teenage boys, do you think about your health? Check out everything from how to deal with acne to smelly feet at www.nhs.uk/livewell/teenboys Fancy a local food festival, across Edinburgh this summer why not find out about local food projects across the city. Check out poweroffoodfestival.wordpress.com

Oi Frog! by Kes Gray Cats sit on mats, hares sit on chairs, mules sit on stools and gophers sit on sofas, but frog does not want to sit on a log! Jam-packed with animals and silliness, this original rhyming story will have young children in fits of laughter For 3 to 6 year olds

Wild animals: Ripley’s believe it or not! by Camilla de la Bedoyere From the clever camouflage of the leaf insect to the bizarre bathing habits of macaque monkeys and much more! Astonishing facts and incredible photographs on every page... all with a lion-sized helping of weird and wonderful facts from the animal world For 7 to 10 year olds

Find out the official top 40 music charts with all the celebrity gossip and more in the UK at www.mtv.co.uk/music/charts Do you like books? Why not have a look at what’s going on in the book world. Books for all ages and competitions too at www.booktrust.org.uk/ Love nature, love your planet, find out more about the WWF and learn more about the planet with fun and games and apps to download at wwf.panda.org/ how_you_can_help/games/

REMEMBER REMEMBER STAY SAFE ONLINE! Why not show your carers or parents how to use Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram and how to stay safe online. More info and help at www.thinkuknow. co.uk

Enjoy... Marion Boyle, IT Development Officer (LAC) City of Edinburgh Council

Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen Ade loves living at the top of a tower block. From his window, he feels like he can see the whole world stretching out beneath him. But one day, other tower blocks start falling down around him. Strange, menacing plants begin to appear and no one knows where they came from. Now their tower isn’t safe anymore. Ade and his mum are trapped and there’s no way out. For 10 to 13 year olds

8 Edinburgh Carers’ newsletter

Upcoming Events badger fieldmouse

Free art workshops

For ages 8 – 12 at the Royal Botanic gardens running from June to September. No booking required, please see, www.rgbe.org.uk/whats-on for more information and full list of dates.

fox hedgehog mole owl rabbit squirrel

Did you know? • Light from the Sun reaches Earth in around 8 minutes.

Arthur’s Amble, Free

Go on a gentle guided walk around Hunter’s Bog and St. Margaret’s Loch to learn more about Arthur’s Seat’s turbulent past. Find out about the people who lived and worked in the Royal Park park and learn more about the rare wildlife that makes the park so special. Several dates over the summer holidays. Search Arthur’s Amble on www.historic-scotland.gov.uk

Edinburgh Leisure free summer activities

Free football, rugby, baseball, cricket and athletic events for 5-16 year olds in the Meadows 3 July- 9August www.edinburghleisure.co.uk/news/free-multi-sport-sessions-kidsmeadows-summer

Teddy Bear Adventure Thursday 16 and Friday 17 July, 10:30am-12noon

• At around 1,392,000 kilometres (865,000 miles) wide, the Sun’s diameter is about 110 times wider than Earth’s. • The longest river in the world is the Nile River, it reaches 6650 kilometres in length (4132 miles). • The highest waterfall is Venezuela’s Angel Falls. With a height of 979m, (3,212 ft), Angel Falls defines majesty. Its greatest single drop measures 807m (2,648 ft). • Scotland and Britain’s highest waterfall is Eas a’ Chual Aluinn (grid reference NC281278) in Assynt, Sutherland. It has a sheer drop of 200m (658 ft). When in full flow it is over three times higher than Niagara Falls.

Designed by the City of Edinburgh Council Corporate Governance 12.430/EA/ July 2015

Have your say... Let us know what you think about Caring for our Children and any ideas you have about what you’d like to see in the next edition. If you want to contribute, please contact the editor with your story, review or idea by 1 September 2015. Michelle Donegan, Communications Officer, Communication Services, Waverley Court, Level 2, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh EH8 8BG email: [email protected] tel: 0131 469 5226 You can get this document on tape, in Braille, large print and various computer formats if you ask us. Please contact ITS on 0131 242 8181 and quote reference no 12-1164A. ITS can also give information on community language translations. You can get more copies of this document by calling 346 9060.

Harlaw House Visitor Centre EH14 7AS Hosted by the Pentland Rangers, Barnaby the Pentland bear is going on an adventure. He is looking for young explorers to join him on his journey through Harlaw Woodland. Bring a Teddy Bear and wellies Booking essential: 0131 529 2401 Email: pentlandhills@edinburgh. gov.uk Visit www.pentlandhills.org/events Free.

Pre Fringe Children’s Festival

1 - 5 August, 10 - 2 pm Free festival fun at the Three Sisters on the Cowgate Different events including ceilidhs, kids movies on the big screen and a puppet rock bank. Find out more at www.edinburghspotlight.com under festivals

Central Library Lego Club

Central Children’s Library run their free Lego Club every second Wednesday, 6-7.30pm for 7-11 year olds. All children should be accompanied by an adult.

Craft event

Central Children’s Library also run a free craft event every Friday for ages 5-11 from 3-4pm and a storytime for 3-5 year olds on Thursdays at 10.30am. It is also worth connecting with your local library on facebook to keep up to date with other events. Check the website for any last minute events or festival tickets: www.edinburghfostering.org.uk/our-carers