Fostering: Understanding the lives of children in care

Fostering: Understanding the lives of children in care
Join foster carers, care-experienced people, fostering agency staff, social workers, teachers, and others for an online event designed to share insight, practical tools, and lived experience to help you in your role supporting children in care.

👉 What you'll gain from attending:

• Fresh perspectives on the challenges children in care face - and what that means for carers and professionals
• Practical strategies for improving communication, trust, and stability in care placements
• The chance to share experiences and learn from others across the fostering community and sector
• Direct insight from people with lived experience of being in care

🎞️ Film screening – Be-Longing

As part of the event, we’ll also show the award-winning short film Be-Longing, which powerfully portrays a child’s journey through trauma, trust, and identity in foster care. Even if you’ve seen it before, the screening offers a springboard for deeper discussion and reflection, led by the film’s director, Michael McKenzie.

💬 Live discussion & special guest

• Q&A with director Michael McKenzie
• Special guest speaker, Natasha Blake - sharing her professional and lived expertise
• Space to connect with foster carers, agency staff, adoptive parents, kinship carers, social workers, teachers, and care-experienced individuals

🔑 Key discussion topics

• Collaboration matters - how carers, agency staff, social workers, parents and teachers can work together to support children
• Bridging the gaps - tackling the impact of poor communication in the care system
• Solutions that work - practical ideas you can take away and use in your own role
• Diverse voices - hearing from a wide range of experiences in fostering and adoption
  
  

🌟 With Special Guest - Natasha Blake

Natasha Blake is an experienced Therapeutic Foster Carer. She offers a safe haven alongside her daughter Javanna Jack-Blake, and they specialise in providing safe, nurturing, and trauma-informed care for children and young people with complex emotional and behavioural needs. Natasha has a PG DIP in Therapeutic Fostering and Adoption uses a range of therapeutic tools such as life story work, reflective practice, attachment-based approaches, and restorative techniques to build trust, resilience, and positive identity.

Natasha is dedicated to empowering children to heal from past experiences, strengthen their sense of belonging, she has develop the skills over the last 17 years she has dedicated to fostering children and is well equipped with giving them the right balance of what they need for a brighter, independent future.

📌 Who should attend?

• Foster and adoptive parents
• Kinship carers
• Care-experienced individuals
• Fostering agency staff and managers
• Social workers, teachers and support workers
• Campaigners, policymakers, and anyone passionate about improving outcomes for children in care
• Filmmakers and creatives interested in portraying care-experienced issues through film

💡 Why attend?

This is a chance to gain real, usable insight and tools, connect with others who share your challenges, and be part of a collaborative conversation about improving the lives of children in care.

📍 Event details

Date: Wednesday 24 September 2025

Time: 7:00 - 8:30 pm BST

Location: Online (best viewed on desktop/laptop)

This session will be recorded.