Great stories from our children and families social work teams

December 2024

Care-ols service 2024

Thank you to all of those that helped make Care-ols such a huge success. It was a very emotional evening and enjoyed by all involved. A personal note of thanks to our singers, those who supported children and young people to participate, our social worker and foster carer who learned to sign to Silent Night, to those who read, shared their stories, welcomed guests, made tea, handed out mince pies, played instruments and all those that attended on the night. Elvet Methodist Church sounded beautiful. It was wonderful to work with our friends in Durham Music Service, Rebecca Turner, and Elvet Methodist Church to bring our whole service together to celebrate care at Christmas with our kinship and fostering families and residential children's homes. The ripples are massive and way beyond what we could have imagined and truly highlight the healing power of relationship-based practice, connection, play and music to bring people together.

Here are some photos filled with joy from the day!

We hope you all have a good and safe Christmas and New Year, and we will see you next year!

November 2024

National Adoption Week 2024

Each year, as part of their annual National Adoption Week celebrations, Adopt Coast to Coast celebrate their adoptive families by inviting them to a family event. This year, the event took place at Adventure Valley in Durham.

Over 330 adopters and children attended the event and enjoyed the rides, farm animals and Halloween activities. Feedback from the day was positive, both the adults and children said they had had a wonderful time. Here are some photographs of the families enjoying the day.

You can find out more about Adopt Coast to Coast and National Adoption Week on their website - Adopt Coast to Coast.

October 2024

Children of Foster Carers Month

Durham Fostering Service are delighted again to be celebrating 'Children of Foster Carers Month.'  This is an annual campaign embedded by The Fostering Network.  Each October, The Fostering Network raises awareness of the important role children of foster carers play in a fostering household. You might recall that last year they changed the name from Sons and Daughters Month to Children of Foster Carers Month, ensuring inclusivity with gender-neutral language.

As a service, Durham Fostering are sending 'thank you' cards to all carer's own children, recognising the role they play in being part of a foster family. In addition to this we are working with the marketing and communications team to look at celebrating some specific children in social posts - check our Facebook page in the next few weeks!

So, what can you do to help celebrate carers children this month too? If you are visiting any foster carers with their own children, please say hello to them and acknowledge the support they play in helping their parents foster. Give them a 'thank you' and recognise this month is about celebrating them!

September 2024

Art cares

The Head of Children's Social Care had the pleasure of attending a brilliant art exhibition in Bishop Auckland this month called Art Cares and Visible Invisible. Two thought-provoking exhibitions which provide first-hand insights into the experiences of young people in care and those with disabilities in the workplace.

Art Cares brings together 29 unique artworks by young people who have experienced living in care. The artworks share the young people's thoughts, feelings, and passions, while celebrating their diversity and sending out a clear message - "We are people, not problems."

Invisible Visible, meanwhile, invites an unflinching foray into the individual and collective experiences of those with disabilities in the workplace. Created by Hope Caitlin Simpson, a 23-year-old poet, photographer and visual artist from Bishop Auckland, the exhibition details seven unique and anonymous first-hand accounts of being disabled in the workplace.

The exhibitions will be open to the public at Bishop Auckland Town Hall from Monday 23 September, 10.00am to 4.00pm, until Saturday 30 November. I would really encourage you to pop along.

Did you know that three of the art cares prints are also on permanent display at Abbey Woods office where our Children in Care Teams are based? Powerful images that remind us that children and young people can communicate their wishes, feelings and experience in many ways and not just with their words.

August 2024

Coming into care packs

Coming into care packs was an idea developed by members of the Children in Care Council, with the aim of supporting children and young people in their first few weeks of being in care. Earlier this month, young people came together to pack the first 60 'Coming into care' packs which are now on their way to reaching the children and young people who need them. 'Coming into care' packs consist of comforting age-appropriate items that will be shared with the young person to help them settle into their new home.

July 2024

Fostering Care STAR Awards

Durham's Fostering Service have been celebrating this month!

A wonderful event was held at Bishop Auckland Town Hall, joining together the children, young people, foster carers, families and supported lodgings providers who have been part of Durham's Fostering service over the years. Everybody enjoyed the red carpet experience and attendees were treated to entertainment from our 'Care to Dance' Young People.

This event was a chance to celebrate everybody involved in Durham's Fostering Service who continuously go above and beyond, providing young people with love, guidance, and a safe place to call home. Those in attendance were also recognised for their ongoing commitment and dedication to the young people they look after and support. A huge thank you and congratulations to them all!

June 2024

Next Venture Fund

At County Durham we pride ourselves in hearing the voices of our care experienced young people and our care leavers have been awarded a funding pot of £10,000 by our Chief Executive to fund projects which will benefit all our care leavers. Since this project began we have named this fund the Next Venture Fund and young people are encouraged to apply for the funding and the brilliance of the initiative is that applications are taken to a panel ran by care leavers themselves, it is they who steer the direction of the project and help administer the finances. This initiative enables our care leavers to develop a whole range of skills to support them in their future careers, whether that is by applying for the money or being involved in the panels.

The purpose of Next Venture Fund is to promote positive emotional health and wellbeing by building social networks, reducing isolation, and seeding new opportunities for care leavers to participate in. Since its introduction in March 2024, the fund has awarded almost £7,000 of activities, funding ten different projects to date ranging from funding Young People Advisors (YPAs) and care leavers to go for a day activity to build relationships. The benefit of this project is it enables professionals close to young people can be more of a friend who can support them a worker. Other projects of the result of this initiative include equipment for our baby and toddlers' groups running from the hub, start-up packs for young people moving to start university, training for young people to start applying for their own funding through the key fund and cinema passes for our care leavers.

The Next Venture fund has got off to a great start and there are many more amazing projects to come, and we cannot wait for the brilliant work that our care leavers will lead on.

April 2024

Lifelong Links

Lifelong Links aims to build lasting relationships for young people in our care in Durham. It helps bring together people that you want to connect with. These can be people that you know well but have not seen in a while (like a previous foster carer, a teacher or neighbour), family members that you have lost contact with or even a family member that you have not met yet.

The intention is to help young people establish lost links, re-enforce existing relationships or form new connections, so they can develop a strong, stable, and consistent network of support as they leave care.

This example of good practise is a choice for young people but with the support of a Lifelong coordinator, they can build a network that might have been lost, find out more about family history, and find answers to some of the questions they might have.

Lifelong Links - Building lasting relationships for children in our care

March 2024

World Social Work Month

This year we encouraged practitioners to take some time out of their busy day to stop and reflect with colleagues on their roles, their values, and the difference they can make when they work together with children, young people, families, and multi-agency colleagues.

One way our staff make a difference is how we support our neurodivergent practitioners to thrive in practice. One of our social workers, Debbie Cruddace, and our principal social worker, Shelley Gill, co-delivered a workshop for Social Work England with academic colleagues from Sunderland University. This was an online workshop following on from four similar workshops which offered face-to-face for leaders in Durham Children's Social Care as part of the leadership academy. Debbie graciously shared her lived experience of being a neurodiverse social worker with honesty, vulnerability and humour. We have co-produced neurodiversity guidance for practitioners and managers.

It also saw the last of six workshops focussing on anti-racist practice, equality, diversity and inclusion: Culturally sensitive practice co-delivered with the acclaimed author Vivian Okeze Tirado. It is crucial that social workers have high quality anti-racist practice Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Durham Children's Social Care have a strong commitment to this. 

February 2024

This month Durham celebrated Durham Practice Week. Over 700 practitioners, managers and directors attended events. We have received such wonderful feedback about our keynote speaker Nick Barwick and the experience and message he shared with our staff, carers and young people. We have learned so much about how we can come together as a service, and we will bring this learning into future events.

Watch Nick's message for Durham by watching the video at Nick Barwick on LinkedIn.

The focus of Practice Week this year was 'permanence and belonging'. We all have a part to play in supporting the children and young people we work with to feel safe, loved and have a plan that means they feel connected and secure with high aspirations for the future and space to heal from trauma and rebuild relationships that may have become fragile. This is how we aspire to practice in Durham, and you can find out more in our practice framework at Durham Children's Services Procedures Manual: resource library.

January 2024

Event to celebrate our care leavers

This month we held an event at County Hall to celebrate our care leavers and reflect on the publication of our Ofsted Focused Visit in November. Thank you to all our young people who presented, performed and attended, and of course to colleagues who helped organise the gathering which included poetry, song, sharing of experiences and cake. We are very proud of this recognition by Ofsted of the quality of the work we do!

Read about what Ofsted had to say about our staff who work with our young people at Ofsted inspection reports for Durham County Council.