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Listen to this31 AUGUST
NEW ZEALAND
The Public Service Association (PSA) says John Key’s suggestion that care for vulnerable children could be contracted out to private, for profit, corporations is dangerous and unacceptable.
Richard Wagstaff, PSA National Secretary, said "Child, Youth and Family (CYF) has been systemically underfunded and overworked for years, so to say the solution is privatisation is offensive.
"Serco have shown that they can’t run a prison without putting staff and prisoners at risk, so why would we entrust them and other similar companies with our most vulnerable children?
"John Key should spend a day in a social workers shoes, and then he’ll see the immense passion and skill that they bring to their work.
"Proper funding for the services to keep our children safe is a must.
"Does John Key not think our kids are worth it? Contracting out to save money puts them at greater risk," said Richard Wagstaff.
Monday, 31 August 2015, 2:27 pm
Press Release:
Public
Service Association
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28 AUGUST
After child protective services in California remove a child from his home for abuse or neglect, his care becomes the responsibility of the county that removed him.
Every child entering the system is assigned a social worker, who bears the tremendous burden of parsing through limited options to find that child a place to live. For each case, social workers must wrestle with questions about the child’s situation and the availability of certain types of care before choosing a placement–including those that are out of county.
All social workers make these decisions in accordance with the California’s Department of Social Services Child Welfare Services Manual. The manual provides guidance and protocols for placing youth in out-of-home care. The regulations form the base of the complicated decision-making process for placements. Social workers must use their judgment to interpret the manual to make decisions about where to send children and youth.
According to the manual, a child should be placed in the “least restrictive, most family-like environment.” But finding that optimal “environment” changes from case to case, said Katherine Mason, a social worker for San Mateo County.
“You consider placing siblings together or close by, consider a home that has a similar cultural makeup or that allows the kid to be close to their home community,” Mason said. But a less subjective factor may be more influential in determining where a youth may be sent. “It’s sad, but I’d say the biggest factor is where the placements are available,” she added.
Types of care
Social workers can put youth in one of four types of placements: Kin care, foster families (either though the county or a foster family agency), group homes and community treatment facilities.
The state’s preferred type of placement is kin care. It is designed for youth with relatives willing to care for them after they are removed from their parents’ home. If no relative is able or willing to take the youth in, social workers must choose another type of placement for the youth.
The least restrictive option is a foster family home, either licensed by the state or certified by a foster family agency to care for youth. The Child Welfare Services Manual lists this as the second priority option social workers should consider in placement.
Youth with special needs for behavioral, health or mental health treatment are placed in group homes or community treatment facilities. Social workers can only assign youth to these types of care when a youth needs special treatment and can only be served at a group home or facility. These are the most restrictive options and can only be used as a last resort for treatment.
Although regulations and guidelines exist, Michael Weston, spokesperson for the California Department of Social Services, said there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to place youth. “[Social workers] are assessing the child, and the needs of the child,” Weston said. “[When] you’re looking at children, there’s no boilerplate strategy.”
Out-of-county placements
In one in five cases, social workers and the juvenile dependency court decide that sending a child out of county is the best option they have.
Counties retain responsibility for youth they send away. The sending county must specify the youth’s needs and outline its duties in relation to the youth’s care with the receiving county. According to the state’s manual, a written agreement clarifying each county’s role must be executed.
However, sending youth out of county, according to California’s state regulations, should generally be a last resort for social workers. If kin care or a suitable in-county placement isn’t possible, out-of-county placements can be chosen.
Some counties in California, as of 2014, had no treatment facilities. Youth needing high-level care from those counties would have to cross county lines to receive treatment.
According to data from the Center for Social Science Research’s California Child Welfare Indicators Project, nearly 36 percent of all group-home placements in the state were out of county.
Social workers are not always able to place children in group homes in their county of residence because of the limited number of group homes in the state. But financial considerations may be driving disparities in counties where group homes are located, according to Patrick Gardner, founder and president of Young Minds Advocacy Project.
“There are certain counties that have developed a certain capability for group homes and part of that is because it’s cheaper to operate in some places than others,” Gardner said. “Counties with a higher cost of living have a tendency to place kids in less expensive places.”
Counties also might have to send youth away because of a lack of foster family homes. “Sometimes [out-of-county foster family homes] are chosen just because there are not enough families in county,” Katherine Mason said. “You just don’t have a choice.”
Meiling Bedard
24 August 2015
https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/featured/county-ca-limited-options/12355
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26 AUGUST
Chirlane McCray calls for a new youth workforce program in this op-ed.
I was only 14, but my summer job as a YMCA swim instructor in Springfield, Mass., is still fresh in my mind. When I taught my guppies how to flutter kick, I made sure their little feet were making as many bubbles as possible.
That summer job, and all the ones that followed, helped lay the foundation for my working life. I learned the importance of being on time, treating people with respect and devoting myself to the task at hand.
Successful New Yorkers in every field have benefited from similar experiences. The long hours they spent working a cash register, counseling campers or filing papers taught them skills that can only be learned on the job.
The research backs this up. Early, meaningful exposure to career opportunities significantly improves the likelihood that teens will graduate from high school and earn more money in a good job. Here in New York City, summer jobs have also been found to lower the odds that a young adult will end up behind bars.
My husband, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and I recently launched the Center for Youth Employment, a campaign to connect 100,000 young New Yorkers to summer jobs, mentorships, and internships by 2020. This campaign is being led by the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, which I chair.
Our goal is to create a new youth workforce infrastructure—one that works for all our children, including those in homeless shelters or foster care. To break a cycle of poverty and neglect that likely began before they were born, these young people need high-quality jobs and internships.
That requires the government and private sector to work together on their behalf, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
This summer, we set out to double the number of Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) jobs for youth in shelters or foster care. I’m happy to report we surpassed that goal, creating 2,073 summer jobs for the city’s most vulnerable kids, up from 1,000 last year.
One of those jobs went to a 15-year-old from Harlem I’ll call Sofia. Sofia’s life hasn’t been easy. She lives with her father, who is unemployed, and she recently spent a year living in a homeless shelter. But these hardships have strengthened her resolve to make the most of every opportunity, including her SYEP job at the Red Hook Pool.
Sofia’s duties include taking out garbage, sweeping, watering plants and directing patrons to the locker rooms—which she can do in English and Spanish. She uses the money she earns to buy essentials like clothing, school supplies and toiletries.
At first glance, Sofia’s work at the pool might not seem relevant to her long-term professional goals, which include becoming a neurosurgeon. But that’s not how she sees it. Sofia is convinced—as am I—that she’s learning skills that will prove useful throughout her career.
Now we must work together as a city to provide every single young person in foster care or shelters with a summer job opportunity. If your company is interested in helping us build a 21st-century workforce, call the Mayor’s Fund at (212) 788-7794 or email fund@cityhall.nyc.gov. You’ll be making an investment that will pay off for your company—and your city—for years to come.
Chirlane McCray is the first lady of New York City.
24 August 2014
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24 AUGUST
She tried many times to escape a grim life she had never chosen.
Kate had a turbulent childhood. At age 8 she was removed from her drug-addicted mother, and eventually ended up being adopted. At the age of 14 she was removed from her adoptive family after she reported to the police that she was the victim of physical and sexual abuse there. Allegheny County officials had her placed in foster care, but she struggled there too and eventually ran away.
She ended up homeless, sleeping under a bridge on freezing Pittsburgh winter nights. Kate – a pseudonym the Post-Gazette is using to protect her identity – was troubled and vulnerable.
So when a 36-year-old man picked her up and brought her to his house on Fifth Avenue in an area not far from Downtown, she thought at first she’d found a safe haven. He called himself her “mentor” and then her “boyfriend.”
But in fact he was a pimp who assaulted and trafficked Kate, finding her clients through a free classified ads website and driving her to them. The Post-Gazette is not publishing the name of the trafficker at the request of the FBI, which said it could result in repercussions for the victim.
She lived in his house for several months, along with several other women, including his official girlfriend. All were pimped out by him. One of the girls was Kate’s adult cousin, addicted to cocaine.
Kate said she often felt anxious and depressed. “I had very poor self-esteem then,” she said in an interview at FBI headquarters on the South Side, her eyes filling with tears at the memory. “But at least I didn’t have to worry where to sleep and what to eat.”
When the trafficker brought Kate, then 15, and another young woman to a hotel room in Oakland one Friday night in February 2012, she went in expecting another client. But the man waiting for them was an undercover police detective.
She didn’t immediately realize it was a chance at freedom and a new life, because she ended up at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center. She would have run away if she could have. Instead she stayed and began the hard work of building a new life from scratch.
Kate wore a plain black T-shirt and black shorts during the interview, and sometimes nervously twisted on a chair as she talked about her past. She said she hoped it could help other girls trapped by traffickers, as she was.
“You are going to be strong,” she said, addressing those girls. “If it’s not in your heart you are not going to live it.”
The experience of Pittsburgh-born Kate, who is now 19, is a typical of those who are victims of human trafficking in Western Pennsylvania. But unlike her, most victims return to the only life they have known.
• • •
Human trafficking is the second most lucrative crime in the world after drug trafficking, according to the United Nations. It involves about 21 million people and generates $150 billion in profits per year worldwide, the U.N. estimates. Two-thirds of those profits come from commercial sex work. Human trafficking victims are defined by the U.N. as people who are induced by force, abduction, fraud or coercion into sexual exploitation (sex trafficking) or labor services (labor trafficking.)
Under U.S. law sex trafficking also refers to all people under 18 who are induced to perform commercial sex acts, no matter whether force was involved. But in many states, including Pennsylvania, minors can be prosecuted for prostitution, and so are treated as offenders instead of victims.
With relatively low immigration rates in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, the most common human trafficking victims are local teens involved in commercial sex work. Many of them, like Kate, have suffered sexual abuse and have troubled home lives. Many are runaways.
There are some 800,000 children reported missing each year in the United States, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. One out of six runaways reported to the center in 2014 was likely to be a victim of child sex trafficking.
FBI officials say it is a difficult crime to investigate and prosecute. Brad Orsini, FBI supervisory special agent, said there were no human trafficking cases opened in Pittsburgh before 2008. Now there are more prosecutions as public awareness increases and law enforcement officials pursue more cases. This year there were at least 10 suspected victims of sex trafficking, said Lynsie Clott, director of programs at the Project to End Human Trafficking, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that works with the FBI. Six of them were minors. Increased public awareness and more use of trafficking laws has led to more prosecution of traffickers.
• • •
Kate’s trafficker pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in 2014. Kate initially was upset over his arrest and prosecution. She was emotionally attached to her trafficker, as many victims are.
Bridget Simunovic, an FBI victim specialist who works with Kate, said it took time to build up trust with the girl and help her to move on. “And it’s still a struggle for her,” she said.
After the 2012 bust by the undercover detective, Kate was charged with prostitution and spent three months at Shuman Center. She then was placed in an independent living facility funded by Allegheny County Office of Children Youth and Families, where she lived with eight or nine other girls.
Her family situation remained difficult. Both her mother and father died that year. Though she has 17 siblings, some of them she has never met. Many live with their adoptive parents, and Kate didn’t keep contact with most of them.
The next year, Kate had a baby of her own. She started working to build a life for herself and her daughter. She studied hard and graduated from high school. She broke off contact with her cousin, who is still involved in sex work. “If you want to recover from crack, you shouldn’t talk to those who do crack,” she said.
She began to move past the ties that had kept her with the trafficker. She now says she is satisfied that he has been prosecuted. Soon after she turned 18, Kate packed her stuff and left the group home.
Her two-year-old child has become central in her life. During the interview, her face lit up when her daughter, who had been playing nearby, ran up to her chair. “She is making me crazy but also happy,” she said.
Kate rents an apartment, sharing it with her daughter and her boyfriend. She has a busy schedule, working six days a week as a nursing aide. In the fall she’ll start college classes. She’s particularly interested in psychology. “I’m fascinated by mental illnesses, the way the brain works,” she said.
Ms. Simunovic of the FBI, who keeps in close contact with Kate, said she thinks Kate is determined enough to achieve the goals she has set.
Ms. Simunovic believes that only long-term support of trafficking survivors by law enforcement and social services will prevent them from going back to the streets. “They need food, housing and constant support, unconditional love – all of those things they have never had,” she said.
Now Kate includes Ms. Simunovic in a list of people closest to her, along with her daughter, boyfriend and grandfather, whom she calls “poppa.” She said he was the only family member who always supported her and hopes to save money to have a bigger apartment where he could join her family.
Kate views her past ”a good life lesson.” Her daughter is the anchor of her new life. “She has kept me moving [ahead] for so long,” she said.
Oksana Grytsenko, a reporter for the Kiev Post
in Ukraine
23 August 2015
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21 AUGUST
USA
National Domestic Violence Hotline funded
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has announced the award of $4.1 million in Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) funds to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
The Hotline is the only national organization that provides crisis intervention, information and referral, advocacy, safety planning, emotional support, and counseling over the phone, through text messaging, and by online chat to both adult and youth victims of family violence, domestic violence or dating violence. These services are also available to family and household members of such victims, friends, and other persons affected by the victimization.
They also assist state and local domestic violence hotlines in response to increased demand in hotline contacts generated by a national public awareness campaign or other high profile media event. Additionally, through its youth focused program, loveisrespect, the Hotline engages, educates and empowers young people to prevent and end abusive relationships.
Seventy-two percent of those contacts were from victims and survivors. The rest were from friends, family and others. Over the last 19 years, more than 3.5 million people have received help from the Hotline around issues of domestic and dating violence.
Quick facts
• The Hotline connects callers to nearly 1,600
domestic violence shelters and 1,300 non-residential service sites that
are funded by the FVPSA
• In 2014, the Hotline received and answered 232,889 contacts through
calls, chats and texts.
• Since 1996, the FVPSA has provided nearly $53 million in support to
the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
• The Family Violence Prevention and Services Program is the primary
federal funder of domestic violence emergency shelter and other
supportive services in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, 5
territories and 274 tribes.
Additional links
• For more
facts on the Family Violence Prevention and Services Program
• The National Domestic Violence
Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
• loveisrespect.org,
1-866-331-9474 Text: loveis to 22522
• Domestic Violence Statistics,
Factsheets and Resources
• All ACF news releases,
fact sheets and other materials
Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
13 August 2015
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/media/press/national-domestic-violence-hotline-funded
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19 AUGUST
UK
DfE sanctions urgent probe
into children’s services spending
The Department for Education (DfE) has ordered a study into the spending habits of local authority children’s services departments ahead of expected central government cuts being announced in November.
An expression of interest document for organisations interested in carrying out the research, seen by CYP Now, concedes that the autumn 2015 Spending Review is “likely to see reductions in local authority budgets, which in turn will put pressure on children’s services budgets”.
The Spending Review, which will be published on 25 November, will set out how the £20bn further savings the government says are necessary to eliminate Britain’s deficit by 2019/2020 will be delivered.
Invitations to tender for the research study were issued this week, with the contract being signed on 4 September. Researchers will be given the remainder of September to carry out fieldwork with 15 case-study local authorities and will be expected to publish a report in October.
“We know that there is variation between local authorities in terms of both spend and outcomes, but we also know that there is no simple correlation between high-quality outcomes and the amount spent per child by local authorities,” the expression of interest document states.
“The department, together with Department for Communities and Local Government and HM Treasury, want to understand better how local authorities responded to funding pressures over the last parliament and their forecasts for changes in demand for, and expenditure on, children’s services in future.”
“The overall aim is to better understand the costs of, and forecast demands on, local authority children’s services and to understand some of the strategies local authorities are using to reduce costs, and some of the barriers to reducing costs.”
The document adds that the DfE wants to collect data on past trends and future forecasts in service users, as well as more detailed data on expenditure on service provision.
It is also keen to find out how councils have managed reducing funding and increasing demand for services, and what their plans are for coming years.
Last month a joint investigation by CYP Now, the National Children's Bureau (NCB), and The Children's Society, has found that local authorities are continuing to cut back heavily on early help services such as children's centres and young people's services this year.
It found that councils are set to cut spending on early intervention by more than eight per cent in 2015/16 – on the back of cuts in grant funding of 55 per cent under the coalition government.
Neil Puffet
14 August 2015
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17 AUGUST
CANADA
More than 200 people will gather in Charlottetown from August 17-19 to take action on the mental health of Atlantic Canadian kids and teens. Teachers, parents, youth, heath care workers, community groups, researchers and government representatives from across the region will collaborate to mobilize decision makers during a Symposium on Child and Youth Mental Health.
The Symposium has enlisted prominent international, national and regional experts to share their strategies for supporting children and youth. Keynote speakers Dr. Ian Manion and Dr. Mark Greenberg agree that mental health plays an essential role in overall health and well-being, and an investment in programs for children and youth has positive long-term results that last a lifetime. Dr. Manion, a clinical psychologist and scientist-practitioner who has worked for over 30 years with children, youth and families, will speak Monday night about hot topics and partnering for system change. On Tuesday morning, Dr. Mark Greenberg will address the benefits of social emotional learning in schools. Since 1981, he has been a leader in research on the benefits of prevention efforts on children and families.
An Atlantic Community Showcase at the Symposium will increase the spotlight on child and youth mental health programs and leaders in the region. The showcase will feature sixteen presentations and exhibits from organizations involved in innovative collaborative practices, policies, and research. In addition, two panel discussions and many workshops will give participants the opportunity to learn from others and build relationships to extend the work beyond the Symposium.
Participation by youth and children will be a key feature of the event. Twenty young leaders from across the region were selected to attend the Symposium as part of the Youth Leadership Program, which includes an additional day of workshops, in partnership with Girls Action Foundation, on the importance of youth leadership, peer support and intergenerational relationships. The youth delegates will attend workshops alongside the adult participants, as well as participate in their own teambuilding activities such as an Amazing Race through Charlottetown, wearing custom-made T-shirts from Fredericton-based clothing company Wear Your Label, which designs clothing to spark conversations about mental-health issues. In addition, a Children's Program will engage kids ages 3-14 in activities emphasizing positive mental health and its relationship to physical activity and the environment.
Press release: Canadian Free Press Release & Media
Distribution Service
14 August 2015
http://www.wireservice.ca/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=16680
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14 AUGUST
UNITED NATIONS
Secretary-General, on International Day, says he counts on youth to be ‘torchbearers of sustainable development’
Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the commemoration of International Youth Day, in New York today:
Happy International Youth Day. We are meeting together at a very promising time. Governments have just agreed on a bold new sustainable development vision to transform our world by 2030. Today’s young people can help realize the sustainable development goals.
Youth face many challenges, including poverty, conflicts and unemployment. But, young people are not simply accepting this as their fate. They are rising up to challenge power structures, speaking out for justice and human rights, and advocating global action for people and the planet.
As we mark this Day on the theme of civic engagement, I stand with these young activists. The sustainable development goals are for you – and they will only be achieved with you.
The new agenda aims to end poverty. It takes a comprehensive approach, integrating the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development.
This agenda is for all countries – no matter what their income. The goals aim to tackle systematic problems that young people understand so well – like inequality, wasteful consumerism and the lack of decent jobs.
More and more Governments, businesses and individuals understand that we cannot burn our way to prosperity without damaging the planet. This agenda reflects that awareness.
Member States know it will take more than “business as usual” to succeed. We are forging a revitalized global partnership to mobilize everyone for our common future.
Young people have participated actively in drafting the new development agenda: millions of youth have told the United Nations about the world they want. Others contributed to drafting the Global Youth Call. And the major group for children and youth has spared no efforts in mobilizing youth-led organizations all over the world to make sure youth are at the forefront of the new agenda.
I am urging Member States to include youth in the delegations for the upcoming summit to adopt the agenda. When it comes to carrying out this agenda, I count on the world’s youth to be torchbearers of sustainable development.
I am pleased that the Office of my Youth Envoy is launching a new youth “gateway” to help engage young people in the implementation of the new agenda.
This is the largest generation of young people in history – and with this agenda, they can shape history. A child who is 10 will come of age with the sustainable development goals.
I call today’s youth the “SDG generation”. We need to support young people’s health, well-being and human rights. I am especially concerned about young women. They deserve reproductive health services.
For years, I have been leading a global push to improve the health of the most vulnerable through our “Every woman, every child” campaign. We have made progress, but we have to keep pressing for better results for all people.
Next month, I will launch an updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health. Young people are at the heart of this effort.
Wherever I go around the world, I do my best to meet with young people – in refugee camps, university halls and small groups. Just two days ago, I made a video call to students in Palestine at a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency [for Palestine Refugees in the Near East], UNRWA. I expressed solidarity with the students and called for resources to support them.
The children were so inspiring. One young girl appealed for funding so students like her can become doctors and engineers and “make our own future”. These children, like all children, deserve to realize their potential.
I have asked my Youth Envoy, Ahmad Alhendawi, to mobilize more support to help young people everywhere, particularly youth affected by conflicts. He is spending the Youth Day this year in the Philippines engaging young people displaced by conflict and promoting civic engagement. These young people have unprecedented networks. They can mobilize the world. They can lead us to a better future.
On International Youth Day, I call on the world’s young people to join forces with the United Nations. Use your strength to advance our goals for a better future. Together, we can create a life of dignity for all.
Thank you.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Press Release: 12 August 2015
http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sgsm17006.doc.htm
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12 AUGUST
A network of regional youth groups is stepping in to help thousands of children left without support in the wake of Kids Company's collapse.
Working with the Cabinet Office, UK Youth, an umbrella charity, is pledging that no child falls through the cracks after Kids Company closed on Wednesday.
Charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh said fears for the children's future were "breaking her heart". The Cabinet Office said the young people's welfare was its main concern. It also said it was now working closely with local authorities to make sure they had access to the services they require.
'100% committed'
Abigail Oatway, senior national programme manager for UK Youth, which oversees a network of youth clubs and organisations, said: "I am confident that they will pull together to ensure that the young people who are being affected get the services and support they need. My CEO is 100% committed to ensuring that these young people get the services and support they need."
She said UK Youth had been keeping a close eye on the Kids Company situation for the past few weeks, but this had intensified over the past few days following talks with the Cabinet Office.
Earlier, Ms Batmanghelidjh made a robust defence of the work of her charity, which is facing accusations of financial mismanagement, and attempts to raise enough funds to support it.
'No capacity'
She said it had taken on work with children which should have been undertaken by statutory social services, and she put the number considered vulnerable at 36,000.
"They say that social services are going to be able to take care of them. It has no capacity. In fact we have had a whole department made up of solicitors and social workers whose entire role was to try to get these kids into social services and child mental health," she added.
"We used to have to go to judicial review because social work departments wouldn't take the cases because they just can't."
She also defended her charity's approach to taking on cases.
"What are you going to do when a 10-year-old turns up asking for help, saying they've been raped. Are you going to say, 'Sorry, I don't have enough money, go away'?"
'In deficit'
Ms Batmanghelidjh suggested there was no longer the same amount of money in the private sector available to charity fundraisers.
This was reflected by Mrs Oatway, who highlighted the very difficult funding climate in which youth charities were operating.
She also warned that the days of a "generic youth service" in every local area were dying. "Funding for the youth sector has been cut and cut, and services upon services have closed, " she said. "Everything from buildings being sold to youth workers being made redundant."
Much of this, she said, was down to councils in many areas putting services out to local tender within the charity sector and requiring charities to find funding for half or two-thirds of the original grant.
UK Youth said last year 77% of regional youth organisations in its membership were in deficit.
According to its annual report from 2013-14, statutory youth services nationally have had their funding cut by 33% since 2011. Since 2012, 2,000 youth workers' posts have been cut and 350 youth clubs across the country have been closed down, it adds.
David Simmonds, who chairs the Local Government Association's children and young people board, said: "When a charity such as Kids Company closes, and it has been providing services commissioned by a council, we will ensure that any vulnerable users are identified and supported appropriately."
Hannah Richardson, BBC News
August 2015
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-33804134
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7 AUGUST
Skills and qualities you will need for fostering
Vulnerable children and young people will be coming into your home. For this reason you will be asked to go through a period of preparation and assessment. You will need to show that you have the skills required to care for other people’s children and that you understand how it feels for children to be separated from their own families.
You are likely to have many of the skills needed to become a foster carer and we will work with you to ensure you have the training and support that you need to progress to become an approved foster carer.
As a foster carer you will need to:
1. be able to provide a good standard of care for other people’s children (this will involve promoting their health, education and leisure interests)
2. be able to listen and communicate with children in a way that is appropriate for their age and understanding
3. be able to help the child keep in contact with their friends and family as appropriate
4. be able to set appropriate boundaries and manage children’s behaviour without the use of physical punishment or other unreasonable discipline methods
5. ensure that the child is cared for in an environment where they are safe from harm and abuse
6. work as part of a team with the child’s social worker, teacher and other professionals.
You will need to think about these questions:
1. are you warm, positive and nurturing?
2. do you have patience and understanding?
3. can you provide care and commitment?
4. can you be flexible but also capable of setting clear boundaries?
5. can you be emotionally resilient?
6. can you communicate openly and honestly?
7. can you share the responsibility for the care and development of children?
8. can you take constructive criticism?
9. are you a good listener?
10. are you solution-focused?
Contact:
NRS Foster Care Recruitment.
Tel: 020 8690 9010
Email:
lewishamfostering@networkrs.co.uk
http://www.foster4lewisham.co.uk
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5 AUGUST
Course aims to help companies hire more efficiently
A polygraph course presented by some of the world's foremost polygraph experts aims to help companies cut costs by training HR Staff in the art of deception detection. The two-month course will enhance participants' interviewing techniques to help businesses hire better and reduce the potential of theft or fraud.
"The purpose of this course is two-fold," says CSI Africa CEO and course organiser, Amelia Griesel. "On the one hand we're helping companies to internalise polygraph examinations to help them cut costs. On the other, it's a question of training them in effective interviewing techniques to cut through deception when considering potential employees."
Commercial crime, an umbrella term for a number of business-related crimes including theft and fraud, costs the South African economy billions of rands per year. According to africacheck.org, 79,109 incidents of commercial crime were reported between 2013 and 2014. It adds that "a single incident can involve tens of millions of rand."
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3 AUGUST
Improving outcomes for children and youth in residential settings
Ontario is bringing together a panel of experts to review the province's child and youth residential service system.
The panel will consult with stakeholders including associations, service providers and individuals with lived experience of child and youth residential services. The panel includes:
• Dr. Kiaras Gharabaghi, Director of the School
of Child and Youth Care at Ryerson University
• Deborah Newman, former Deputy Minister in the Ontario Public Service
• Dr. Nico Trocmé, Philip Fisher Chair in Social Work and Director of
the McGill School of Social Work
A report and recommendations from the panel will be provided to the government by the end of the year.
This review builds on the government's efforts to improve outcomes for all children and youth. It complements transformations already underway in child welfare, youth justice, mental health and special needs.
Ontarians are invited to provide input into the review by emailing residentialreview@ontario.ca or by calling 1-855-235-8932 between 8:30am-4:30pm, Monday to Friday until October 31, 2015.
The review is part of the government's plan to support families and create positive environments where children and youth can reach their full potential.
Quick facts
• This residential service review is a key
recommendation from the recent provincewide review of the Child and
Family Services Act, which included input from more than 400 youth,
families, service providers, associations and advocates across Ontario.
• Ontario spends $1 billion on care and treatment services in
residential settings for children and youth and $152.4 million for youth
justice custody/detention.
• Residential Services are provided to children and youth in group
homes, foster homes, provincially operated facilities and 60 dedicated
youth justice open and secure custody/detention facilities.
Panel of experts to begin a review of
residential services:
http://news.ontario.ca/mcys/en/2015/07/panel-of-experts-to-conduct-review-of-residential-service-system.html
31 July
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