Adoption Support Training

Training for workers supporting adopters caring for vulnerable children and young people who have suffered abusive and traumatic experiences.

Target audience and scope

The training is aimed at practitioners and clinicians from social care, health and education supporting adopters caring for vulnerable children and young people who have experienced trauma, abuse, neglect and/or loss. The aim is to increase placement stability, short and long term, by working with adoptive parents to help children to recover from traumatic experiences and to enhance their resilience and capacity to cope with stress.  

The training draws on the Hope for Children & Families (HfCF) Intervention Resources, an innovative modular approach which provides a toolkit of evidence-based resources and interventions for working with traumatised children and their families. It is a departure from typical evidence-based interventions in that it offers flexibility in selecting which interventions best suit a particular child and family. The approach is interactive, dynamic and collaborative, working closely with adopters and creates a platform for strategic and responsive applications of evidence-based interventions.

The training provides practitioners with a working knowledge of the toolkit of resources and interventions and how to use them in adoption support work with adopted children, parents and families.

Materials

The training uses 10 Intervention Guides for practitioners:

  • Introduction and overview
  • Establishing a profile for intervention and measuring progress
  • Engagement and goal setting
  • Modifying abusive and neglectful parenting
  • Promoting children and young people’s health, development and wellbeing
  • Promoting attachment, attuned responsiveness and positive emotional relationships
  • Promoting positive parenting
  • Working with children and young people: Addressing emotional and traumatic responses
  • Working with children and young people: Addressing disruptive behaviour
  • Working with families: Promoting healthy family functioning and managing conflict
  • Working with child sexual abuse

Course delivery

The HfCF intervention resources are modular and can be adapted to the needs of particular children and families. Similarly, the training consists of a number of discreet sessions and training modules which can be adapted to the context. Standard delivery of the training includes HfCF and the Agency working together to design a combination of specific sessions which fit the context of the Adoption Support services, ie. the profile of adoptive families served and the training needs of the staff.

Example of a structure for training:

  • Day 1 Sessions 1, 2, 3 – What accounts for the vulnerability and resilience of adopted children and the impact of earlier abusive and neglectful care; introduction to the HfCF intervention resources, establishing a profile for intervention, working collaboratively with adoptive parents and children to establish goals, a work plan, and measuring outcomes
  • Day 2 Session 4 – Working with adoptive parents and children to address the emotional, traumatic and disruptive responses of vulnerable adopted children
  • Day 3 Sessions 5, 6 – Working to further enhance adoptive parents’ understanding of the impact of trauma, abuse and loss, to develop skills in positive parenting and to be able to use HfCF resources to help promote development, secure attachment and emotional responsiveness in adopted children.
  • Day 4 Session 7 – Working to support adoptive parents to address the needs of adopted children who have been sexually abused, and/or who are displaying harmful sexual behaviour

The standard course above can be combined with coaching/support half-day sessions, offering a smaller group learning experience. The sessions, which can include supervisors, enable participants to reflect on their experiences of implementing their learning in practice, to resolve problems encountered, to further develop their knowledge, skills and confidence in using the HfCF resources. This will help support participants’ learning and development in working directly with adopted children and families.

Contact us to discuss your agency’s or individual training needs, costs and any other questions.