Our Training Programmes are designed for - Social Workers - Psychologists - Therapists and other allied disciplines - Parent Mentors

To be sure you secure a place on one of our Training Courses, please apply within 60 days of the start date.
Family Futures' training includes a handbook for each participant on the topic of each course.

Our ratings by course participants over the past 2 years have averaged out at:

• 9 out of 10 for presentation
• 9 out of 10 for course handbooks
• 9 out of 10 for food and training environment when the course has been held at Family Futures
  
  Please click here to download flyer on all of our forthcoming training

COST REDUCTION
Please note that due to the economic climate all our in-house
1-day training courses at Family Futures have been reduced to a rate of £150+VAT

                  3 NEW TRAININGS
Developmental Re-Parenting: A 1 Day Introductory Course*
1 June 2010
Presented by Wendy Daniel & Sally Short
There is a growing recognition that children who are in foster care or adopted, who have experienced repeated traumas in infancy and have attachment difficulties require therapeutic parenting. The day course aims to:

• Outline a theoretical framework for Developmental Re-Parenting.
• Provide examples of how this can be achieved at critical points in the day.
• Look at the benefits of parenting in this positive way.

The course will be presented from both a social work and a parent’s perspective. It will also look at how challenging behaviour can be understood in terms of brain and central nervous system functioning. The course will stress the importance of addressing difficult behaviour on a cognitive, affective, and a sensory motor level. The course will be presented by Wendy Daniel, Social Worker and trainee Adult Therapist and Sally Short, a Foster Carer who has employed Developmental Re-Parenting with her child.

* 50% bursary available to adoptive parents upon application (limited number of places available)
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)

Life Story Work with Children Looked After:
A 1 Day Introductory Course
9 September 2010
Presented by Eugene Ellis; Child Psychotherapist &
Rachel Staff; Social Worker
Life Story Books are a prerequisite for every looked after child. However, Life Story Work is something which is not always carried out with all children in foster care or who have been adopted. This course is designed to give social workers the confidence and skills to do this vital work. The course aims to:

• Look at what information is required to make the Life Stork Work meaningful
• Look at the structure and process of the work
• Consider the issues and dilemmas for practitioners

The course will give case examples and also provide a forum for discussion. Participants will be supported after the course by telephone consultations as they begin to carry out the work.
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)

The Impact of Developmental Trauma on the Neuro-physiological Development of Children and How to Help Them Recover: A 1 Day Workshop
28 September 2010
Presented by Jay Vaughan & Tessa Scully*
Children who’ve experienced repeated traumas in infancy have compromised development, not just psychologically but neuro-physiologically. Writers like Bruce Perry, Allan Shore and Bessel A. van der Kolk have for some time now been alerting us to the fact that children who have been through the public care system are developmentally traumatised and that we need a greater awareness of the impact this has on the development of the brain and the central nervous system. The course is designed to:

• Track the developmental impact of trauma in infancy.
• To look at interventions and treatment that is neuro-sequential.
• To consider the implications of this for treatment services for children who are fostered or adopted.

*The course will be run by Jay Vaughan, a qualified Drama Therapist, Theraplay practitioner and Somatic Experience practitioner who has pioneered neuro-sequential treatment in the UK for children who are fostered and adopted and Tessa Scully, a Paediatric OT trained in Sensory Integration therapy.
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)


SENSORY INTEGRATION, ATTACHMENT & TRAUMA
Family Futures is pleased to be able to host this course run by Eadaoin Bhreathnach who has innovatively integrated attachment theory and sensory integration, theory and practice.  This approach fits within the framework of developmental trauma as an important therapeutic intervention.
An Introduction to Sensory Attachment Interventions
24-25 June 2010
This 2-day course is for professionals who are involved in therapeutic, educational, and daily care of children at risk, accommodated or adopted.
Cost: £200+VAT

Contact Arrangements for Children who are Fostered & Adopted
21 October 2010
Presented by Wendy Daniel & Rachel Staff
Contact has become one of the most contentious issues in family placement. Research evidence as to whether contact is a proactive factor is questionable. High levels of contact for protracted periods while cases are in proceedings, the explicit and implicit messages that come with contact and "termination" of contact are difficult to manage.  
Family Futures has pioneered the concept of "facilitated contact" pre and post order as a way of ensuring that contact is both safe and meaningful. Family Futures believes that face-to-face contact should be seen as a therapeutic opportunity rather than a re-enactment of the past.  This course will look at ways of making contact safe, meaningful and therapeutic for all parties.
A copy of the handbook will be provided as part of the training package.
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)

Transitions - Moving Families
1 April 2010
Presented by Eugene Ellis & Ann Kitson
Helping children to move from foster home to permanent placement has been a neglected area of practice. For many children such moves are fraught, hasty and represent the loss of a significant carer. An added complexity occurs when siblings are moved together especially if they are in separate placements.
Family Futures has advocated that in certain situations serial placement of siblings is a more "natural" way to proceed and to help develop new attachment based practices can minimise the risks and how the role of foster-carers can be enhanced.
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)

New Developments in Assessing and Teaching Looked After Children and Children who are Adopted
Won't Do or Can't Do?
28 April 2010
Presented by Marion Allen; Educational Specialist
She will be demonstrating the use of her new publications; Resource Packs for helping children in the classroom.
Please click here for flyer
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)

Introduction to Family Futures Assessment Handbook
26 May 2010
Presented by Alan Burnell & Rachel Staff
Family Futures have published their assessment handbook designed to help social workers and other professionals make assessments of children covering the following issues: -

This highly acclaimed assessment handbook provides a framework for analysing information gathered about a child based on theory and research from the fields of attachment theory, developmental trauma and neuro-science.
A copy of the handbook will be provided as part of the training package.
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & Assessment Handbook)

Sibling Placements
13 May 2010
Presented by Ann Kitson & Wendy Daniel
Placing sibling groups is a complex process, which often raises strong feelings when the separation of siblings is considered.  It is the convention that sibling groups should be placed together and research suggests that this is a protective factor.  As a result of our work with children who have experienced early trauma and experience attachment difficulties, we have come to question these assumptions. Our work has highlighted the need for very detailed assessments of sibling attachments.  The day will explore the assertion that, for some children, separating sibling groups is a low-risk option and that some sibling attachments hinder rather than help the re-parenting of traumatised children.
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)

Matching
Assessments of Children & Prospective Adoptive Parents
25 March 2010
Presented by Alan Burnell & Ann Kitson
One of the hardest tasks in family placement is matching children and prospective parents.  In family placement reports there is a lot of descriptive and factual information on both the child and the parents but no framework for matching the two.  At Family Futures we have adapted attachment based child and adult assessments and have developed a framework for matching the strengths and vulnerabilities of the parents with a profile of the parenting needs.  In this way it is possible to make more complimentary matches and to plan adoption support programmes that are bespoken and specific to a particular child and its new parents.  This approach enables pro-active planning and a way of analysing post-placement difficulties in parenting a child with attachment difficulties.
Cost: £150 + VAT (Incl. lunch & training handbook)

Dan Hughes Courses
Dr. Dan Hughes is a psychologist whose developmental attachment therapy has been much acclaimed by parents and professionals, both in this country and the USA.

Theraplay®
Family Futures is pleased to be able to host the Theraplay® introductory certificate course. Family Futures is committed to running the complete Theraplay training course to enable UK participants to qualify in Theraplay®. We therefore also host the intermediate course and supervision days.

Focus on Adoption Courses for Local Authorities to buy in;
Matching, Contact, Siblings, Transitions, Parenting & Panel Training
Designed as training for Social Workers & Therapists on key issues in contemporary adoption practice.   These courses are designed for Local Authorities to buy in for groups of staff to be trained in the above key issues.  Participants for each Focus on Adoption Course will be supplied with a comprehensive handbook, included in which will be rationales, frameworks, research and references.  Please contact us regarding cost and dates.

Parent Mentoring Courses
Family Futures has devised a 5-day course for parents wishing to be parent mentors and for social workers who are training and supporting parent mentors.

For further information on any of the above courses, please contact Joanne Collett; Training Services Co-ordinator joanne@familyfutures.co.uk / 020 7354 4161

Application Forms