May 2012

Children’s Minister Tim Loughton MP to open newly expanded PAC premises

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, Tim Loughton, will formally open PAC’s newly expanded premises on Monday 18th June.

The dust is now well and truly settled after several weeks of building work which has seen PAC’s home for over 20 years, 5 Torriano Mews, merged with its former neighbour number 4.

This major expansion allows us to bring our adoption support services - including counselling and therapy rooms, plus fundraising and administration – under one, much more spacious roof, leading to increased effectiveness across all our services.

Tim Loughton, pictured above right with PAC's CEO Peter Sandiford, was a guest at PAC’s Gala Dinner at the Savoy Hotel, London last November, together with the government’s ministerial advisor on adoption, Martin Narey.

Tim recently met with Peter and PAC's Head of Child & Family Service, Franca Brenninkmeyer, to hear about the wide range of adoption support work PAC carries out and to discuss the contribution PAC and other adoption support agencies make to sustaining and promoting successful outcomes in adoption and other permanent placements. 

The meeting provided an opportunity to highlight PAC’s partnership and collaborative working with statutory and other voluntary adoption agencies for the benefit of adoptive families, children and birth families. A discussion ensued about how adoption support agencies can contribute to the effective delivery of the Prime Minister’s Action Plan for Adoption, both locally and nationally.

Peter and PAC's Chair of Trustees, Steve Lane, are delighted that the Minister has accepted the invitation to open our new offices and relish the opportunity this provides for PAC to showcase its work.

PAC would like to invite our Friends and supporters to the opening on Monday 18th June at 10.30 am.  If you would like to attend, please reply to this email. Please note numbers are limited.

Enhancing Adoptive Parenting

This individualised parenting programme is designed for adopters facing challenging problems in children aged 3-9 recently placed from care.

The ten-session programme is delivered by PAC-trained workers. You can read more about the EAP programme here and download a leaflet here.

There are still a few places remaining on PAC's two day training course in the delivery of the EAP programme for social workers and other adoption and permanency professionals on 17 and 18 May.

Leon breaks through "The Wall" for PAC

It's not just our office walls (see above) that have been demolished in recent weeks! 

On April 22, at the 20 mile mark in the London Marathon, PAC's Leon Elias hit his personal physical and mental wall.

However, cheered on by PAC staff and other well-wishers, Leon mustered the resolve to complete the gruelling 26.2 mile course in a very creditable five hours, five minutes and 30 seconds - raising a tremendous £1,500 for PAC in the process! (NB this latter fact is entirely unconnected to Leon's recent promotion to Office Manager!)

Read and see more about Leon's marathon challenge here. 

Training roundup - Take 2!

Teething problems with our first e-newsletter in April meant that some links to our site failed to launch!

Following a number of sessions with our therapists the gremlins responsible have now been thoroughly tamed, and we are delighted to (once again) present highlights of our 2012/13 training programme:

For adoptive parents and other permanent carers

Trauma and adaptive behaviour (25 June)

Parenting children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in adoption and fostering (11 July)

Managing difficult behaviours in children and siblings (26 September)

For professionals

Training in the use of the Enhancing Adoptive Parenting manual (17/18 May)

Building family bonds by facilitating family and friends network meetings (24 May)

Preparing reports for panel (20 June)

Working with attachment issues in adults (25 September)

Public seminars

Living with an Angry Child (19 June)

Why is this child so different? Dissociation in children and adolescents (12 July) 

A reminder that PAC can provide training packages for local authority and other agency teams, and their service users. Contact training@pac.org.uk or call 020 7284 5872 for more details.

Workshops for schools

PAC's designated Schools Trainer delivers training to schools and other educational settings which work with pupils whose lives have been marked by traumatic experiences; many adopted and looked after children fall into this category, as do other children with disrupted early histories.

Find out more, including how to arrange a training session for your, or your child's, school here.

Adoption Action Plan: PAC responds

Another link which was unwittingly severed in our last edition was this response from PAC to the government's recently published Adoption action plan for tackling delay.

As ever. we'd be interested to hear your views on this, or any other adoption or permanent care related matter. Get in touch by replying to this email or by calling our office (now the drilling's stopped!) on 020 7284 0555.