We are very excited to hear that there are free tickets for the pantomime ‘Puss in Boots’ showing at the Nottingham Arts Theatre for shows on Wednesday 7 December for a daytime performance to be seated by 1.45pm ready for the show and the fun to start at 2pm, or Thursday 8 December for an exciting evening performance at 7pm.

These tickets are free to Nottinghamshire looked-after children, with up to three more free tickets for carers, siblings and family members. Please note, carers and family will be expected to travel to and from the venue at their own cost, including parking.

Tickets are limited and will be issued on a first come, first served basis. To book them please contact Michele Wright at Michele.Wright@nottscc.gov.uk

If you have any special requirements or require more than the allocated four tickets, please speak with the children’s social worker in the first instance.

We can't finish this piece without a panto themed joke:
Why was Puss in Boots?
Because it was Winter, and his feet were cold!

Here at the recruitment team one of us has been poorly with the flu - they hadn’t got around to having their flu jab and, although they are feeling better now, it's a good time to remind you all that you can have a free flu vaccination.

To request a voucher for a flu vaccination, go to https://www.digitalflu.co.uk and use the code N7C6C8.

You will need to enter your name and email address and a voucher will be sent to you by email with instructions on how to find a local pharmacy and make an appointment. It’s really easy to do and the sooner you are vaccinated the sooner you’re protected. For more information about flu vaccinations, have a look at the NHS website or the Nottinghamshire County Council website. If you have any questions about the flu vouchers, please email flu.vacs@nottscc.gov.uk

On Monday 19 December, Nottingham Trent University is once again opening its doors to offer looked-after, care-experienced and estranged post -6 pupils to join them and explore NTU at a free campus event.

Pupils will work with one another, university staff and current care-experienced students to find out more about options after school or college, life at uni, and financial support.

Activities available on the day will include interactive workshops, a chance to explore the campus, and a Q&A with care-experienced student ambassadors. Free lunch and refreshments will be provided too.

Young people wishing to attend need to register via this link before 12 December: Explore University - December 2022

If you have any questions, please contact the organiser, kathryn.gardiner@ntu.ac.uk.

The minutes from the last FLAG meeting are now available. The next meeting is scheduled for 16^th January 2023 at 7pm online - Click here to join the meeting.

We will send out a reminder nearer the time.

Get ready for the festive season with amazing mashups of Christmas carols, seasons songs, joyous pitch battles and sublime singing. The perfect start to the Christmas countdown!

Inspire are giving foster carers a chance to win a family ticket for An Inspired Christmas Concert on Tuesday 6 December at Royal Concert Hall (also available to view online).

To enter, email competitions@nottscc.gov.uk with your name and email address using the subject line Foster Carer Competition. 

The winner will be picked at random. The deadline for entries is Wednesday 30 November 2022. 

A big thank you to everyone who was able to make the staff and foster carer conference earlier this month. We had a really great turn out and it was fantastic to see so many people in real life since our last in-person conference back in 2019.

We had some fantastic speakers and workshops but as the day is designed to fit in with the school run hours it can sometimes feel a little rushed. To compensate for that we are sharing some more information from the speakers here so you can refresh your memories, or if you weren’t able to make it, you can see what was discussed on the day!

Firstly, we had our guest speaker, Jenny Molloy aka Hackney Child. Jenny had an incredibly tough home life growing up. She eventually decided her home was too unsafe and took herself and her brothers to the local police station and began her new life living in a children’s home. During her talk, she read an extract from her book and shared a short but powerful video sharing her story of coming into care. She has written books under the pen name “Hope Daniels” and I know some carers have already ordered these books to read at home. She was a really compelling speaker, and I don’t think I was the only one with a tear in my eye at the end of her speech! You can see her talking briefly in this YouTube video here and also see the film that she showed at the conference Hackneychild - Life in the Care System on YouTube.

Next, Dan from Training Care Solutions gave a presentation about adult attachment styles. Unfortunately, he had been stuck in traffic on the way to the conference, so he was late, and his first workshop had to be cut short. The slides from his talk are attached so you can look at them in your own time. He talked about the Harry Harlow Harvard experiment in the 1950s Harlow's Studies on Dependency in Monkeys [YouTube] in terms of trauma and its long-term impact. Dan recommended a book by Bessel Van Der Kolk called The Body Keeps the Score. He also recommended work by Gabor Mate and there are lots of different videos on YouTube of his various talks. A copy of Dan’s presentation is available via the link at the end of the piece

Finally, we had a fantastic taster of the upcoming VR Headset training from the family workers team. There were four dates added recently on My Learning My Career which at time of going to press are already fully booked place now. Each session can only offer six spaces due to the number of headsets we have and also so that the participants can be supported through the training which, as we saw in the workshop, will be very hard hitting.  

You can register your interest in the VR training here and the training co-ordinators are working on booking more dates.

This month we are focussing on caring for babies and newborns.

Foster Care Caring for Babies and Newborns is a course that covers important aspects of caring for a newborn, such as safe sleeping, feeding, brain development and withdrawal. This course should be completed and regularly refreshed by any foster carers who care for this age group.

There has been a new date added for this training of 13 March 2023, but in the meantime, we would like to share a couple of resources around this with you and remind you that if you do have any questions or concerns around an infant you are caring for speak to your health visitor/health professional and social worker.

• The Lullaby Trust - Safer sleep for babies, Support for families
• Bottle feeding advice

Finally, the training programme is up to date and on the carer’s website and is a good resource for finding details in one place.  Bookings are still made via My Learning My Career, but this is a handy way to see all of the courses in one place.