SWAC Open Sessions

These are held monthly and are open to anyone, in any role, working in or with a SWAC agency, whether as a social worker, support worker, in an administrative capacity, as a panel chair or panel member. These sessions are also open to IROs in the local authorities linked to the three SWAC RAAs.

The Open Sessions are all held virtually via Teams. They take the form of a presentation by a speaker followed by questions and discussion, so are suitable for social workers to record as CPD. There is no need to sign up in advance to them, just join us on the day. The Teams links are embedded in this newsletter, or you can email Heather or Becky for the link. Information about Open Sessions and the Teams links is also sent out directly to as many people as possible within all the SWAC agencies.

We are now recording most of these sessions, if the presenter and those attending agree to us doing so. Ask Heather if you would like access to any of the recordings. We only record the presentation, not the discussions which follow, so attendance in person is still always best.

Walking with Families

Led by Al Coates. Al is a social worker and a parent through fostering and adoption of six children. He has co-authored several publications and reports and is a Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) practitioner. He works with carers/parents of children with challenging behaviour and trains professionals in relation to managing children’s complex and challenging behaviour. He founded and runs an online peer support community, “Walking with Families”, for adoptive parents living with CPV and will be talking to us about this.

— 19^th May 2026 – 9.30-11.00 am

Safeguarding in a Digital World

Led by Jane Poore from CoramBAAF.

— 16^th June 2026 – 9.30-11.00 am

‘I Lived for those Mornings’

Birth parents’ experiences of visiting their children in care, led by Polly Baynes, University of Bristol.

— 9^th July 2026 – 9.30-11.00 am

Family Network Meetings

Led by Sue Westwood, formerly of Adoption Counts, who co-authored a recent CoramBAAF Practice Guide on the subject.

— 11^th August 2026

National Developments

Annual visit from Sarah Johal, the National Adoption Strategic Lead from Adoption England, keeping us up to date with national developments in adoption.

— 24^th September 2026

For joining details, please contact Heather Freeman at heather.freeman@ccsadoption.org or Becky Hosken at becky@ccsadoption.org.

SWAC