Coram BAAF

09/10/2026

🎙️ What do kinship carers want professionals to understand about the assessment process?

In this podcast, our kinship consultants Ann and Clare discuss the importance of listening to kinship carers, sharing insights from the focus groups that helped shape the development of the Form K assessment tool.

🎧 Listen to hear what kinship carers told us about their experiences of assessment, including:

✅ The importance of frankness and transparency, especially when discussing difficult topics
✅ Giving carers the time and space to think about contingency planning for the child
✅ Building trusting relationships with families and developing long-term, sustainable support plans

💡 The conversation offers valuable insights for anyone involved in assessing, supporting, or working alongside kinship families.

🔗 Listen on our website: https://corambaaf.org.uk/resources/corambaaf-conversations/episode-35-kinship-assessment-process-listening-carers

08/10/2026

🏡 What makes a good kinship local offer?

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act introduced a legal duty for local authorities to publish and regularly update an accessible kinship local offer.

To explore what this means in practice, we were joined by National Kinship Ambassador Dr. Jahnine Davis to discuss the findings from her insight report on kinship local offers and the support needs of kinship families.

Watch the recording for guidance on:

✅ How and why a local offer needs to describe a local authority's approach to kinship care, not just be a list of support and services

✅ Key principles needed to underpin a local offer that reflects a whole-family ("think family") approach

✅ Real-life examples from local authority managers and senior leaders of the barriers and enablers involved in developing a local offer

📚 Whether you're reviewing an existing offer or developing one for the first time, this webinar provides practical insights to help ensure kinship families can access the support they need.

🔗 You can watch it on our website here: https://corambaaf.org.uk/training-consultancy/free-events-and-recordings/policy-and-practice-briefings/improving-local-offer

07/10/2026

Last month we ran a series of webinars on the Law Commission’s recent Kinship Care consultation paper to engage with members and ensure that their views are reflected in our consultation response (Deadline 16 October).

During those sessions, we ran a quick menti on some of the key proposals including the introduction of a bespoke Kinship Care Order, whether this order should replace Special Guardianship Orders or Child Arrangement Orders, and if kinship carers should be able to acquire shared Parental Responsibility by agreement, without a court order.

• 66.7% agreed that a bespoke Kinship Care Order should be introduced
• Views are closely split on replacing SGOs/CAOs versus preserving families’ choice of legal orders, with 44.9% in favour of replacement versus 42% on preserving a choice.
• 64.3% were in favour of allowing kinship carers to acquire shared PR as long as safeguards were in place, this compares with just 5.7% who felt that kinship carers should gain PR without any additional safeguards.

The consultation closes on 16 October 2026 and represents an opportunity for individuals to collectively help shape future legislation in Kinship Care.

Share you views with us at: [email protected]
Complete your consultation response here: https://lawcom.gov.uk/publication/kinship-care-consultation-paper/
Watch the recordings of our Law Commission webinars: https://corambaaf.org.uk/training-consultancy/free-events-and-recordings/policy-and-practice-briefings

Should a bespoke Kinship Care Order be introduced? Tell us your views in the comments below!

07/10/2026

📖 Good support plans help kinship families get the support they need, when they need it.

This year we worked with Kinship, the University of Exeter, and kinship carers to produce our Making a Support Plan: a kinship care companion.

🤝 Effective support planning helps kinship carers by:

✅ Clearly setting out agreed support and responsibilities
✅ Giving carers confidence that their child's needs will be met
✅ Helping to prevent challenges and pressures from escalating over time

Yet support plans are too often overlooked, rushed, or too generic to reflect a family's unique circumstances.

💡 This free guide aims to change that by helping professionals and kinship carers create support plans that are meaningful, practical, and tailored to each family's needs.

Inside, you'll find best practice guidance on:

📌 Being clear and upfront from the start
👨‍👩‍👧 Working together for the child
⏱️ Allowing time for meaningful planning
⭐ Building on strengths
🔮 Planning for the future

📚 Free and open access for anyone working with, supporting, or coming into contact with kinship families �https://corambaaf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Practice%20area/Kinship/Making-a-Support-Plan-Professionals-guidance-final.pdf

06/10/2026

🚨Last chance to join our free Breakfast Briefing: What is kinship care? 7 October, 9.00am - 9.55am

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 What is kinship care?

Join our free briefing session to better understand:

✅ The vital role kinship carers play in supporting children and strengthening communities
✅ The different types of kinship care arrangements, including formal and informal arrangements
✅ The support needs of kinship families and why local authorities are required to publish a local offer

📅 Kinship Care Week is all about raising awareness of kinship care across the country, which is why this webinar is open to everyone.

💡 It will be particularly valuable for:
• New social workers working with kinship families
• Education professionals
• Health professionals
• Anyone wanting to deepen their understanding of kinship care

🤝 Come along to learn more about the challenges, opportunities and impact of kinship care.



Sign up here👉https://corambaaf.org.uk/events/kinship-care-week-breakfast-briefing-what-kinship-care-0

05/10/2026

🎧 What we’ve been listening to: Adoption & Fostering Podcast Ep 233: Life story work, siblings, Dennis Duckling and Paul Sambrooks.

In this episode, hosts Al Coates MBE and Scott Casson-Rennie chat with one of our authors, Paul Sambrooks. Paul is a former children’s guardian with the family courts advisory service (CAFCASS) and writes the Dennis Duckling series. The books, which are aimed at children age 2 -5, help professionals, parents, and carers talk to children about change, understand their wishes and feelings, and ultimately make sure that children’s voices are heard in the decisions that affect them.

Listen for perspectives on the challenges of helping children understand their stories, the importance of direct work as a time-consuming but vital part of social work practice, and how adults need to develop the skills and confidence to talk to children to ensure that they are heard.

Adoption and Fostering podcast👉 https://adoptionandfostering.podbean.com/
If you’re looking for tools and resources to help you have conversations with children in care and adopted children, you can visit our bookshop here 👉 https://corambaaf.org.uk/books/dennis-harriett-and-flynn-live-different-families

01/10/2026

Join us at the Coram Campus for Agency decision making in adoption

Last year our Adoption and Legal consultants delivered ADM training across the country. One piece of feedback from those attending was that the ADMs can often be an isolated role. That’s why we have decided to run these training sessions in person.

Join Agency Decision Makers from across England to explore the issues and dilemmas of the role. Including:

• The role of Agency Decision Maker in the context of legislation, regulations and guidance
• The implications of some of the most recent judgements related to approvals and protected characteristics
• Ways to demonstrate and ensure that the basis of the decision making is sound, and decisions are communicated effectively

These courses are co-facilitated by our Adoption and Legal consultants.

Find out more:
Agency decision making in adoption (children’s decisions) 25 November: https://corambaaf.org.uk/events/agency-decision-making-adoption-childrens-decisions
Agency decision making in adoption (adopter approvals) 26 November: https://corambaaf.org.uk/events/agency-decision-making-adoption-adopter-approvals
Sign up here:
Explore our special interest group for Agency Decision Makers:

30/09/2026

📣Join our Fostering in Colour film screening November 3, London

Fostering in Colour is the first documentary of its kind in the UK, telling the stories of Black and global majority foster carers in their own words.

Produced by the Black Foster Carers Alliance, the film opens up a conversation the sector has needed for a long time, about cultural matching, identity, and the children still waiting for the right home.

The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with contributors to the documentary and with time for audience questions.

Join us for a screening and panel discussion on 3 November at the Coram Campus 👉 https://corambaaf.org.uk/events/fostering-colour-documentary-screening

23/09/2026

Revised and Updated: Child Care Law Scotland

We’ve revised and updated our Child Care Law Scotland guide

Child care law in Scotland has changed a lot in recent years. This updated guide explains the latest laws and children's rights in a clear, practical way, helping professionals find accurate answers quickly and work with confidence.

For social workers and other professionals, the update means the guide now includes:

• The Promise and its implications for how services support care-experienced children and families.
• The Children (Scotland) Act 2020, which introduced changes around children's participation in decisions affecting them, contact arrangements and family justice.
• The UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, which places children's rights at the centre of decision-making and requires public bodies to consider those rights in their work.
• The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, which reforms aspects of the care and youth justice systems.
• The Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019, which changed how Scotland responds to harmful behaviour by younger children.

Find out more: https://corambaaf.org.uk/books/child-care-law-scotland

21/09/2026

What we’ve been watching this month: Stolen babies BBC

Told by the mothers and children who were separated from one another, this landmark documentary reveals the full scale of the UK's forced adoption scandal. Over four decades, 250,000 unmarried mothers were forced by the British state to give up their babies. Their first-hand accounts expose the system that tore families apart, its lasting impact, and the fight to uncover the truth that led to a moment of national reckoning.

CoramBAAF was happy to share information from our archives to support this essential investigation into historic adoption practices.

Watch on the BBC:

Exposing Britain's forced adoption scandal and how 250,000 babies were taken by the state.