Children who have been supported by social services

We encourage you all to sign up for these events and training opportunities. By working together as a county, we can make a difference.

Luke Rodgers: A Tool for Change - Understanding the lived experiences of children who have been supported by social services

The Care Leaders are facilitating free training to all staff, to understand the lived experience of children who have been supported by social services. It’s free for all education settings that teach Kent children!

The virtual training is a series of six sessions, each between 60 to 90 minutes and follows the lived experiences of young people from birth to adulthood. The training offers theory and practice-based skills and explores real life experiences to help staff better understand their young people. These include; transitions and how to support young people and their families through them; adverse childhood experiences and how they impact behaviour; development and learning; and how to use the PACE model (Playful, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy) to build relationships with young people and enhance their ability to learn.

Our facilitator for these sessions is Luke Rodgers BEM. He is a Lived Experience Leader; after a life in care, Luke founded several award-winning initiates that support children in care. He is a former Fellow at The Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and has been facilitating training for the last 11 years. He uses personal and professional insights in his training, his approach is informative, accessible, and influenced by storytelling.

Watch Luke introduce the Care Leaders Virtual Training

All sessions are facilitated between 3:45pm to 5pm. We will be providing you one of three opportunities to attend this training. The dates that are being facilitated are:

• January to March 2023
• March to May 2023
• May to June 2023

To sign up to our training all you have to do is:

1. Register your interest
2. Choose your preferred training dates
3. Attend the training!

Once you are signed up, we will send you everything you need to attend the training and regular reminders! It’s that easy. If you want colleagues* to join this training, just forward them this article and they can sign up for free too! Please encourage your Senior Leadership Team to attend this training as they can empower whole school change.

Please find further dates and information in The Care Leaders Virtual Training poster (PDF, 932.4 KB)

*this is only available to education settings who teach Kent children.

VSK in partnership with Kent Education Psychology Service Multi-agency workshops

The aim of these workshops is for education settings across districts to have the opportunity with support from KEPS (working alongside VSK, STLS and SEN Inclusion Officers) to identify the most effective practices for supporting their Social Services experienced young people, including Children with a social worker (Ever6 CWSW), Children in Care (CiC) or Previously Looked After Children (PLAC). We aim to create cohesive collective thinking spaces for SENCOs, DTs and DSLs to share ideas and practices in a trauma informed, solution focused way. At the end of the workshops, we aim to look at a ‘Kent Tool Kit’ to share our knowledge, practices and findings across the county and to help create ‘next steps’ for schools, districts and, as a whole.

Please register your interest by emailing VSKAdvisoryTeam@kent.gov.uk.

Additional Resources

VSK Advisory Team are pleased to share with you their latest trauma informed resource Christmas for Children and Young People who have experienced Trauma - Resources for families and professionals working with trauma experienced young people

Get in touch

If you would like to discuss your Ever6 CWSW or PLAC cohorts in more detail or would like to share your ideas or best practice, please do get in touch.

• Request advice for children with a social worker cohort - consent and privacy
• Request advice for previously looked after children - privacy notice