Subject: Sign up to our newest events

September newsletter

Dear Friend

With summer coming to an end and schools back in session, it feels right to pause and reflect on the progress of recent months, while also looking forward to the action and growth ahead. Firstly, you have until Tuesday 30 September to take advantage of a discounted early bird rate for the Staf National Conference.

Our regular focus groups and forums are back in full swing, with dates in the diary for all 4 over the next few months. These online events are free for Staf members, and we always welcome new faces, so please share with your colleagues who may be interested. You can also contact us to learn more.

And we are hosting a new series of 'Moving On' route map engagement sessions for Staf members, to discuss next steps following the conclusion of the 'Moving On' Change Programme. We will also share the outputs from the change programme for our members to review.

As always, if you or a young person you support would like to get involved in any of our projects or events, please get in touch. We are always looking for fresh faces and perspectives to contribute your valuable insights, knowledge and creativity.

We look forward to seeing many of your through this busy time for Staf events. Thank you for your continued support and partnership.

Best wishes

Jo Derrick
Chief Executive

Something to say about friendship?

Enter our new art and writing competition

Do young people you know have something to say on the theme of friendship and care experience? The team behind our Transforming Friendship Support Project has launched a new art and writing competition.

We want to hear from care experienced people, in the form of a painting or drawing, poetry or short story, photography or music, whatever they have to say about friendship.

Each entrant will receive a £15 voucher as a thank you for taking part. Their work will be submitted into our online exhibition. Three works will be chosen for commendation at our National Conference.

Please share this competition with your colleagues and young people you support.

Find out more

Reflective supervision residentials

A thank you for taking part and what comes next

We are pleased to share that our programme of residentials across Scotland on Reflective Supervision has now concluded. This work was a key part of our Supportive Workforce initiative, funded by The Promise Partnership.

In total, we delivered 9 residentials across Scotland, with 113 participants from across 17 local authorities and 11 different organisations. The residentials provided expert training on supervision, as well as space to explore practical tools and reflection on supervision practice. To build on this learning, we also held 4 recall days, bringing past participants back together to reflect and improve their supervision practice.

We are so grateful to everyone who joined us – your commitment, openness and contributions, both for the residentials and recall days, created a truly special experience and learning space. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

Participants highlighted increased confidence in their supervision practice, and the value of both practical tools and the opportunity to connect with colleagues from across services. We are proud to have hosted space for the workforce to learn and to feel cared for over the course of each residential.

We will share full report very soon, capturing the key messages and insights from our residential programme. These tie in with our 'Moving On' outputs, both of which contributed to the development of our new learning and development plan. The issues raised will form the basis of our upcoming learning and training events.

Early bird rate for Staf National Conference ends soon

Thriving Together in Complexity:

Deepening relationship-based practice with young people at the heart

Plans are well under way for our 2025 annual conference, taking place on Tuesday 11 November at the Stirling Court Hotel. We are preparing to announce the full programme very soon. Following last year’s sell-out, tickets for 2025 are flying out. Don’t miss your chance to be part of this inspiring day of learning, connection and shared ideas. Early bird offer ends Tuesday 30 September.

Book your place now

More upcoming Staf events

We are hosting a number of online member engagement sessions to discuss the next steps in developing the 'Moving On' route map. Here we will share outputs from the 'Moving On' Change Programme for you to review, and discuss how we finalise the route map that will lead us to keeping the promise by 2030. There are 5 dates available - please register once for your chosen date. These events are free for all Staf members.

Implications of Continuing Care Focus Group

Tuesday 23 September 2025

Local Authority Managers' Forum

Wednesday 8 October 2025

Supported Lodgings, Supported Carers Focus Group

Tuesday 28 October 2025

Care Leavers into Employment, Education and Training Focus Group

Tuesday 18 November 2025

Participation Practitioners' Forum

Wednesday 29 October 2025

Staf National Conference

Tuesday 11 November 2025

Free online course: Foundations of Trauma-Informed,
Relationship-Based Practice

Our free, short introductory course, developed with the Open University, is available for anyone supporting children, young people, and their families, especially those who may have experienced trauma. The course explores trauma-informed and relationship-based practice, and provides knowledge that can be applied across a wide range of people and situations.

The course is available on the Open University OpenLearn Create platform to complete at your own pace. To learn more or discuss how Staf can support your learning, including workplace training, please contact dawn@staf.scot.

Steering Group

The Steering Group has been as busy as ever this month. They reviewed the six-month reports from the two £50,000 NLN-funded projects, providing detailed feedback, and reflected on input from individual grant recipients. They also turned their attention to shaping plans for an external evaluation of the NLN, and shared ideas for a major event scheduled for next year. Their next focus will be reviewing full applications from the current round of funding, which will support up to ten new one-year projects of £15,000 each.

Consultants

Our Consultants have been leading on several exciting initiatives. They met with Darren from Braw Talent to discuss the film accompanying the NLN animation, and are taking the lead in planning next year’s NLN event. They have contributed to discussions on a proposed external evaluation, and released a new podcast episode on relationships, participation, workloads, teamwork and more. Alongside this, they unveiled a new podcast logo.

Leadership blogs

We continued to encourage voices from across our community through the ongoing leadership blog series. This month, we are grateful to Declan Andrews and Zoe Roy - friends of the NLN - for sharing two brilliant posts, which you can read on the NLN Blog.

Partnership working

We have been delighted to strengthen connections across Scotland. At the Youth Justice Voices celebration in Glasgow, Neli, Paige and Gary enjoyed updates, highlights and plans from partners. Gary also joined a National House Project webinar to hear about the positive impact of their work throughout 2024/25. In Perth and Kinross, we celebrated a successful collaboration between Services for Young People, Articulate and Creative Catalyst, supporting young care experienced men to develop leadership skills, complete Duke of Edinburgh and Dynamic Youth Awards, and showcase their creativity through t-shirts, artwork and more.

We were also thrilled to be contacted by Caring Scotland, which is offering NLN participants the chance to join their Listening Project. This initiative will record experiences to be preserved in the National Library of Scotland, featured on the National Theatre of Scotland website, and showcased in a national touring installation across six Scottish locations.

For more information, please contact gary@thenln.org.

Events and resources for people with care experience

Musicares is the only music mentoring/tuition project for care experienced children and young people (5-25) across Scotland. We use music as a therapeutic tool to raise the confidence, wellbeing and skills of our participants through enjoyable music making activities. We cater for any instrument and genre of music as well as educational and career advice delivered by our superb qualified team of music industry professionals.

Participants have at least 6 hours of one to one sessions as well as access to group sessions. Applications are an easy form on our website musicares.co.uk.

It is completely FREE and we cover room hires and access to instruments to remove any barriers to participation.

Please contact info@musicares.co.uk if you require any further assistance.