Adoption East Midlands Newsletter January 2024

As we look back on 2023 we have so much to celebrate, including:

• The launch of the Adoption Support Helpdesk
• Our developing Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) including clinical psychology, youth, speech and language and education
• The RIGHT trial
• The Birth Family Support Team
• Our trauma informed, Learning and Development programme featuring our new Prepare to Adopt course
• Pre-approval Therapeutic Parenting sessions
• The success of the Making Connections therapeutic sessions in Adoption Support 

We’ve also seen many prospective adopter approvals and matches made and received a lot of positive feedback about the support we provide to families. Our picnics and young people’s events have again also been very popular.

We have a lot to look forward to in the coming year and lots of opportunities to keep involved and connected. We hope you’ll keep up to date here through the newsletter as well as following us on our social media channels.

We're already looking ahead to 2024 and are excited to be planning our February 2024 half-term young people's events.

We’ll be holding two events for 3- to 8-year-olds and parents at two different venues across the region, as well as two local adventure base days for 8- to 17-year-olds.

For more details check out our events page or get in touch at adoptionevents@adoptioneastmidlands.nottscc.gov.uk.

Our 2024 Learning and Development programme begins this month with our ‘Welcome to Adoption Support’ session on Tuesday 16 January 2024. Our series of collaborative sessions with Child Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) also starts this month.

The sessions are always a great opportunity to meet other adoptive families, share experiences and knowledge and build on understanding of a wide range of adoption-related issues.

To find out more about our learning and development programme and the support we offer, take a look at our Adopters’ Support Hub.

Staff across Adoption East Midlands and some of our partners recently attended a webinar exploring the topic of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) organised by the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) here at AEM.

Led by Social Worker, Researcher and adopter Rebecca Govan, the Lunch and Learn webinar explored the prevalence and effects of FASD and was an informative and thought-provoking session; we look forward to seeing how Rebecca’s research develops.

For more information about Rebecca’s research visit the Birmingham City School of Education and Social Work website below.