International Centre News August 1st 2017

John DiamondWelcome to our August edition of the TCJ.

In June I was invited to speak at the FICE Czech Republic conference on ‘Substitute care of vulnerable children in selected European countries’, where I spoke about ‘the UK care system for traumatised children’. As mentioned in our June newsletter, FICE are still interested to hear from other UK organisations who might be interested in joining them.  With their emphasis on supporting the UN convention on the rights of the child, in a time of our changing relationship with Europe, this is an opportunity for child care organisations to come together to support and strengthen the authority of the convention.

In this edition Dr Jane Herd writes about how her personal interest in working with hard-to-reach youngsters, became the work of her new consultancy organisation ‘Orb8’. She offers a four part holistic schema with which to think about the presenting problems and potential interventions with young people. In support of our commitment to sharing practice and research, we are fortunate that Dr Herd also offers a link to her PhD thesis, from out of which she has developed the work of Orb8. Read her article here.

We are republishing the latest Every Child Leaving Care Matters (ECLCM) newsletter, as they seek new political support to meet the needs of those young people who when leaving care are too often ‘cast adrift’. We have continued to support their CARING TEAMS concept (see our June edition), which is explained in the newsletter. See previous issues to follow articles about ECLCM, the Care Leavers Foundation and Care Leavers Association.

Dr Keith White writes two articles about the work of Millgrove, which has been both his family home and a residential community for three generations, since his Grandfather established it in 1899. His article ‘It’s really very moving’ explores the experience of a man who visits Millgrove to look at records relating to his own family history. In his second piece, ‘like a child’ Keith shares his observations of two young siblings enjoying a birthday meal, despite the emotional troubles present in other community members, and the external social context of the recent terrorist attacks. It is a reminder of the important role residential settings can play in offering children such simple but nurturing ‘good experiences’.

Finally for this issue, David Lane reviews a recent book ‘Child Sexual Exploitation after Rotherham’ by Adele Gladman and Angie Heal, and we introduce the Social Pedagogy Pocket Guide, a valuable introduction for anyone interested in learning about the theory and practice of SP.

A warm welcome to our newest members:
Dr Vera Vojtova, Faculty of Special Pedagogy, University of Brno, Czech Republic
Rolf Widmer, President of the Swiss foundation of the International Social Service.
Ines Isasi De la Cruz, of EPAF Fostering Service, Spain.
Abiti Melembe, who runs a children’s home in Kenya.
Marie-Luise Enderl,  Social Worker, Hamburg, Germany.
Dr Jane Herd, CEO of Orb8, a UK mental health consultancy service.

Don’t forget: our popular Scrapbook Page on the website has lots more reviews, releases and articles for families, carers and children.

Lastly, the Therapeutic Communities has issued a call for papers – you can find out more here.

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