Subject: Wishing you the best this festive season

December 2025 newsletter

Dear Friend

As we approach the end of 2025, I want to take a moment to thank each of you - our members, partners, supporters and friends - for the commitment, creativity and care you bring to our shared work. The festive season offers a welcome pause; a chance to reflect on what we have achieved together, and to look ahead with hope and enthusiasm to what lies before us.

This year has been one of strong collaboration and meaningful progress, and this newsletter captures just a snapshot of that collective effort. Inside, you will find details of upcoming dates for our 2026 focus groups and forums, alongside highlights from our Youth Justice Voices project, which continues to amplify young people’s experiences and insights.

You will be inspired by entries to our recent friendship art and writing competition, a reminder of the power of creativity, connection and kindness. There is also a round-up of Staf's work throughout 2025, signposting new resources now available to support practice and participation. We include the latest news from the National Leadership Network, as well as a summary of key developments in the Moving On Route Map, reflecting our ongoing progress and next steps.

As we close the year, I hope you take pride in all that has been accomplished, and take time to rest and reconnect with those who matter most to you. Thank you for walking alongside us - your energy and insight make this work possible.

On behalf of the whole Staf team, I wish you a warm, peaceful and joyful festive season, and every good wish for the year ahead. We look forward to continuing our work together in 2026, with renewed purpose and shared optimism for the year to come.

Best wishes

Jo Derrick
Chief Executive

Staf 2025 Wrapped

Thank you for being part an amazing year as we reflect on some of our highlights of 2025 - a year shaped by compassion, collaboration and community.

Moving On Route Map

We are happy to share an update on the progress of Scotland’s Moving On and Lifelong Support Route Map, one of 25 route maps being developed to show what needs to be done to keep the promise by 2030. Thank you to everyone who took part in our engagement sessions to help shape the current draft route map.

Read our latest route map update.

Youth Justice Voices - catch up & join in

Youth Justice Voices North East were asked to attend and present at the recent Safer Horizons event, planned and delivered by The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and Police Scotland, in Aberdeen. You can read all about our group members' reflections on the event in our new blog post.

It's been a busy 2025 for Youth Justice Voices members across Scotland.

Have a look at what else our 3 steering groups have achieved this year.

Youth Justice Voices are always looking to add more voices to our steering groups. If you are care and justice experienced, or know someone who is, and you would like to find out more about getting involved, please contact katrina@staf.scot.

Friendship art & writing competition

In our last newsletter, we shared the commendations from our art and writing competition, which invited care experienced people to respond to the prompt, "What does friendship mean to you?"

You can now see all the entries we received in one place. We hope it inspires you to think about the important role friendships play in the lives of those with care experience, and how we can help make sure maintaining friendships remains a priority.

Staf focus groups & forums

We have a busy 2026 planned, not just as an organisation but as a whole sector, and we look forward to working across our forums and focus groups to engage with Staf members as we implement the Moving On Route Map.

Dates for the year ahead are now live on our website.

You can now book onto the meetings coming up between January and March.

We will share the agendas ahead of these meetings - please email victoria@staf.scot if you have a question or topic you would like to see covered. You can also get in touch to be added to the Teams channel for these events.

Staf events Jan - Mar 2026

Implications of Continuing Care Focus Group

Tuesday 20 January 2026

Participation Practitioners' Forum

Thursday 29 January 2026

Supported Lodgings, Supported Carers Focus Group

Tuesday 24 February 2026

Local Authority Managers' Forum

Wednesday 28 January 2026

Care Leavers into Employment, Education and Training Focus Group

Tuesday 10 February 2026

Staf Summit

Details coming soon

Tuesday 17 March 2026

Steering Group

Gemma planned and delivered a language-focused quiz, attended by representatives from Falkirk Champs, MCR Pathways, CYCJ and Staf, plus NLN Steering Group members and Consultants. This was followed up by a Christmas quiz organised by Susanne.

It's great the NLN Steering Group recently received recognition for their funding focused work. This month, the team picked up their award, which followed on from a presentation Susanne and Gary gave in Glasgow recently.

Paige planned and led a reflective session in Glasgow this month with representation from the Steering Group, Consultants, Columba 1400 and Staf. Paige took us through some of the main moments of 2025, and asked everyone to reflect on what we had achieved and what we hope to happen in 2026. We then went out for lunch, which was great.

Consultants

Some of the Consultants took part in a Steering Group meeting to plan the next Participation Network event, which will be titled: Creating safe and trusting participation relationships and environments. They also met to discuss the research Barry is leading on, the timing of what we do next year, plus reflecting on the year and talking about hopes for 2026.

Steering Group and Consultants

Members of the Steering Group and Consultants have been discussing how they can work effectively in 2026. This has included discussing the idea of bringing both groups together as one and working on everything together in this next important year. The main pieces of work we will focus on are:

Sustainability of the project
Project evaluation
2 x funding individual grants and following up on funded projects
Producing an NLN Resource on ‘How we do what we do’
Delivering an NLN event
Celebrating our story so far

Beyond 2026

Barry has continued to lead individual discussions with various Steering Group members, Consultants and Hosts on the future of the NLN. He has sent out a survey, which has been completed by some of the team too. More info to follow soon.

Partnership working

At the recent Staf conference, the NLN team met staff from Compass, who loved our workshop. More info on them can be found at compasschildandfamilyservices.co.uk. Susanne and Gary met with staff from their team to look at possible connectivity in 2026.

This month, Gary met with our friends down south from the National House Project (NHP). This was an opportunity to meet new NHP staff, and update them on what the NLN has been doing and plans to do next year. Like many other friends and allies we have, they are keen to support the NLN regarding the project potentially moving forward post-2026.

For more info on the NLN, please contact gary@thenln.org.