Staf June Newsletter including your chance to shape our conference

Subject: Staf June Newsletter including your chance to shape our conference

Dear Friend

Welcome to the June edition of the Staf newsletter

As we approach the halfway point of 2025 and look ahead to a well-earned break over the school holidays, we are reflecting on a busy, inspiring and rewarding first six months of the year. It has been a time filled with collaboration, learning and progress - from concluding our 'Moving On' Change Programme, and building on our work around trauma-informed practice, to creating more opportunities for care experienced young people to shape the work we do. We are grateful to have worked alongside our members and partners on these initiatives, and excited for all that lies ahead.

June was full of highlights, one being co-hosting the IFCO 2025 Conference at Glasgow Caledonian University. This was an inspiring opportunity to share Staf’s work on a global stage, connect with colleagues from across the world, and bring back fresh ideas to strengthen our efforts to improve the lives of young people moving on from care.

We were also thrilled to host another sold-out Participation Network Gathering - thinking outside the tick box. This event brought together practitioners, young people and others passionate about participation, to explore more creative, meaningful ways to engage beyond the usual consultations and surveys. It was fantastic to see such enthusiasm for fresh approaches, and the conversations on the day were full of energy and ideas. If you would like to get involved with the Participation Network, please get in touch...and keep an eye out for news of our next event.

While work continues over the next few months, and we will soon be sharing all the 'Moving On' Change Programme outputs with all our members, we are also looking forward to more new developments after the summer holidays. We will then be launching new learning and development events, more details about our national conference, and our brand new online learning platform for members.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer and thank you, as always, for being part of Staf's important mission.

With best wishes

Jo Derrick
Chief Executive

We were so proud to co-host IFCO 2025 alongside The Fostering Network and the IFCO team. And what a weekend it was. From Brenda Matthews’ powerful keynote on identity and reconnection, to Fatima Whitbread’s unforgettable talk on resilience and belonging, the conference was packed with inspiring moments that left us feeling hopeful and energised.

It wasn’t all serious though. The gala dinner, complete with ceilidh dancing, brought so much fun and gave everyone a chance to relax, connect and celebrate together. The photos below really capture the spirit, energy and warmth that made this event so special.

We want to give a heartfelt thanks to every speaker, delegate, workshop leader and contributor. Your honesty, passion and generosity made the conference what it was, and we are so grateful to have shared the experience with you.

We will continue to build on the connections we created and strengthened at the conference to keep pushing for change that improves the lives of children and young people with experience of foster care.

A warm welcome to our newest team member

"Hello! My name is Hannah and I recently joined the Staf team as Youth Development Worker (Care Experienced Community).

I am keen to connect with members to chat about the participation work your teams are doing, and see if we can identify areas where we can collaborate to increase participation from care experienced people.

If you are keen to connect, please contact me and I’ll be happy to arrange a meeting."

Call for Staf national conference submissions

Following last year's sell-out conference, we are back at the Stirling Court Hotel on Tuesday 11 November 2025 with Thriving Together in Complexity: Deepening relationship-based practice with young people at the heart.

In a landscape where services and systems increasingly feel fragmented, stretched and complex, relationships remain our most powerful tool for change. For those working with care experienced young people - and for young people themselves - it is the strength and safety of relationships that can transform lives.

Tickets are on sale now. We are also inviting conference submissions from anyone who wants to share good practice, innovative and exciting projects, and emerging or current research that contributes to a collective vision for brighter transitions and connected lives.

Please submit your proposal to pamela@staf.scot by Friday 29 August.

If you would like to talk through an idea before submitting, or find out more about exhibiting at our conference, we would also love to hear from you. Let’s reflect, reconnect and reimagine - together.

Learn more

Thank you to everyone who joined our recent Winging It animation premiere and to the young people who co-created it. The animation brings The Real Toolkit’s resources to life by showing how simple, trusted tools and relationships make a real difference. Reece and Maggie also presented the animation at our latest Participation Network Gathering in Glasgow. If you missed these, you can watch Winging It below - please share and let us know what you think.

The Real Toolkit

Foundations of trauma-informed, relationship-based practice

Our free online course is proving popular with sector professionals and beyond. Learners who have completed the course so far have given excellent feedback and 5-star ratings.

"I've finished the course - and LOVED it."
"I really appreciate the use of a case study in the training, it helped with reflecting on what practical steps could be taken to become more trauma-informed in daily work."
"I have sent to our training and development team to see if we can have it as a standard somewhere."

The short course is available to everyone on the Open University OpenLearn Create website. And an easy read version of the course will be available soon.

If you would like to have a chat about the course, or about how Staf can support your learning further, such as a potential training session in your workplace, please contact dawn@staf.scot.

Check out the course

National Leadership Network

The Steering Group have been working through the 24 Expressions of interest forms that came in for our current project funding opportunity. More info will be shared in due course.

The Consultants have been working on their plan to promote the NLN merch. Renee was at a Perth Champs event, and helped hand out merch to many of the young people and staff there. Below is Renee handing over an NLN t-shirt to Heather, who leads the Champs work locally.

Renee has continued to lead on creating a logo for our developing work around NLN Podcasts. This has had input from all the Consultants too. We will be sharing our logo on NLN socials soon.

Chris and Gary delivered a relationship focused workshop at the IFCO Conference in Glasgow. This was a fantastic session with attendees from all over the world. Chris and Gary (pictured below) also recorded their reflections on their session so you can have a listen. The workshop was well attended and received great feedback. If you would like to know more, please get in touch.

As part of the plan for highlighting and distributing our merch, the Consultants have been planning an NLN online quiz. Look out for more info on this very soon.

In June, we joined our friends from the Perth Champs at a celebration event for their 60+ young people. We had an info stall with merch, and gave out lots of t-shirts, pens and bags to many of the attendees. Susanne from the Steering Group and Gary took part in a Q&A with friends from The Promise Scotland, Who Cares? Scotland, Our Hearings, Our Voice, and MCR Pathways.

We also visited a small part of the NLN-funded Stirling Champs Board project, ‘Career Pathways’. A group of 4 lads with care and justice experience met up with Gary to talk about their part of the project, which is focused on sport and cooking. The lads cooked steak fajitas for themselves and veggie fajitas, and they sat together with support staff for a good chat. The lads (aged 14-21) talked lots about how important this group is to them and how much of a safe space it is to talk about anything with the staff. There was lots of great conversation about new skills being learned, such as now cooking for family members and feeling confident to apply for a full-time cooking course at college. Lots of great chat about the benefits of developing their leadership in sport, through planning their own gum sessions and considering teaching tennis to younger people locally. It was great to hear first-hand how grateful the lads were that this project was funded and how much it now means to them.

Gary attended a recent session with the Digital Youth Network, a large group of organisations active in the youth work sector. The session highlighted the good work of the Shameless Youth Project. This was a great opportunity to network with people who are working in a similar way to the NLN but many of whom are not in the care experience community.

Last time, we highlighted a Winning Scotland celebration event the NLN supported, The Future of Care - Empowering the Workforce, which also included a keynote speech from Shumela. They recently shared a short film of the day that includes input from Gary.

Steven from the Steering Group led his final leadership session at Polmont in June. Supported by Staf and CYCJ, this was a great opportunity for Steven to plan and develop 2 x 1-hour sessions with a small group of young men. Steven has written a blog about his experience that we will share soon.

We were also involved in the latest national Participation Network event in Glasgow. NLN Consultants and Steering Group members were involved in the planning of this event and led a session.

Contact Gary

Government Internships for Care Leavers

This year’s Department for Education Internship Scheme for young people leaving care is open 4-25 July. The scheme is designed to allow young people and adults with care experience to develop their skills and confidence within a professional environment, through an 18-month placement in departments across the UK Civil Service, including the Scottish Government.

In Scotland, this scheme is open to young people and adults aged 18-30 who are, or were, in receipt of Continuing Care or Aftercare, and meet the Civil Service nationality criteria. Get more information at the link above or contact leavers.care@education.gov.uk.

King's Trust Get Into courses

Do you know a young person who wants to enter the workplace, and is looking to build skills and expertise? They could be eligible to join a King's Trust Get Into course to gain sought-after skills, hands-on experience, and access to job opportunities and qualifications.

The King's Trust offers a range of Get Into courses over the summer months, with local partners across Scotland. These are open to people aged 16–30, not in full-time education or employment, and who have right to work documents.

For more information, please contact Annisha.Montgomery@kingstrust.org.uk.

Subscribe

Subject: Staf June Newsletter including your chance to shape our conference