Helping vulnerable children and young people to build protective behaviours is the key to keeping them safe. Full of creative ideas and activities, this guide provides the tools to help children develop these key skills. Topics include work around: building resilience and problem solving skills; identifying a 'safety network'; developing emotional literacy; awareness of grooming strategies and safe/unsafe touch; and cyber safety. The range of tried and tested techniques will be sure to engage any child in thinking about their personal safety, allowing adult carers to have confidence that their child will be empowered to better identify and avoid harmful situations and behaviours. Practical and easy to use, this is a valuable resource for professionals working with vulnerable children and young people, such as adopted or fostered children and those in residential care, as well as the parents and carers of these children.

Everybody says be careful online, but what do they mean? Lacey is a cyber-smart dog who protects kids by teaching them how to stay safe online. Join Lacey and her friend Gabbi on a fun, cyber safe adventure and learn the ins and outs of how to behave and how to keep yourself safe online. In this day in age our kids are accessing the internet about as soon as they can read! Cyber Safe is a fun way to ensure they understand their surroundings in our digital world.

Life story work allows care-experienced and adopted young people to understand their histories and come to terms with their feelings about the past. This accessible guide helps therapists and social care professionals to develop their skills to support children and families through their life story journey. It builds on the fundamental 6-step model for practice to incorporate elements from a variety of therapeutic approaches, from DDP to creative therapies. Theoretical explanations, case vignettes, and practical suggestions provide guidance on practice-based issues in life story work, such as working with parent/carer-child dyads, incorporating a birth family perspective, talking about traumatic stories, managing endings and constructing the life story book. Essential reading for anyone undertaking life story work, this guide enhances a time-tested model with up-to-date research and new ideas for overcoming the most common challenges practitioners face when delivering life story work.

For the busy frontline practitioner with little time to plan ahead, this hands-on guide presents imaginative and unique methods to engage families and caregivers throughout the process of assessing vulnerable children. Setting the context for each area of assessment, including strengths and resilience, risk and needs and the child's lived experience, the book then describes a series of activities or creative techniques to engage young people and their caregivers within this area. It outlines the materials required, aims of the exercise and method. It includes 'handy hints' based upon practical experience, making it a quick go-to guide for every day practice. It encourages practitioners to focus on building safety into relationships and to adapt their approach to take into account the impact of trauma and abuse on an individual's capacity to engage and to communicate verbally.

Since the Munro report (2011), a greater emphasis has been placed on the value of child-centred practice in social work with children, young people and families. It has come to be recognised that social workers cannot make an assessment or intervene to safeguard children and promote positive outcomes without engaging with the children themselves. This involves recognising the rights of the child, getting to know who they are, what they need, how they feel about their situation, and what they want for their future. Split into two distinct sections, this authoritative text focuses on the foundational knowledge required for child-centred work, unpacking the ethical and theoretical principles that form the basis of the approach and exploring current debates around working with children and families. Benefitting from the authors' extensive experience in academia and practice settings, each chapter: - Provides insightful practitioner testimonials and case study examples to help the reader apply what they have learned to everyday practice. -Highlights important research studies that give voice to children and young people, providing the reader with background knowledge of the evidence base for child-centred approaches. - Includes engaging questions and activities to enable the reader to reflect on what they have learned, and make links to their own practice, values and beliefs. With a strong focus on developing the reader's practice skills, particularly in engaging and communicating with children, Child-Centred Practice is an essential handbook for students and professionals involved in this complex yet rewarding area of social work practice.

Positive emotional health in a child's earliest years can be a critical factor in their future development. Offering practical suggestions for games, activities and exercises designed to promote emotional wellbeing in young children, this essential guide showcases a wide range of approaches such as mindfulness and meditation, Forest School and Reggio Emilia to provide a hands-on reference for teachers and parents. Drawing on over 25 years' experience as an early years professional, the author explores topics including playfulness, stillness, sensory play, creativity and staff wellbeing. Each topic references current best practices and international examples, and also includes a comprehensive list of further resources and activities. Providing an informative introduction to both theory and practice, this book demonstrates easy-to-implement ideas for any professional or parent engaging with young children.

Recent Serious Case Reviews into child deaths have concluded that social workers attention is drawn away from the child by demands placed on them by the adults, organisational structures and systems. This book repositions social work thinking and practice by placing the child's lived experience at the centre of its illustrative examples and cases.

Adopted children who have experienced loss, abuse or neglect need additional support for their emotional development, and are more likely to have special educational needs. This useful resource provides a complete plan for creating adoption-friendly environments in primary, secondary and specialist schools. The book is grounded on new research which gathered together testimonies from over 400 school staff members, adoptive parents and adoption specialists. With realistic consideration of pressures and limitations currently faced by schools, it gives advice on eight key areas for school development, including communicating with parents, training staff, using resources wisely and recognising children's individual needs. Completing the toolkit is a broad selection of photocopiable and downloadable plans for establishing adoption-friendly frameworks, and for demonstrating good practice to staff, pupils, families and school inspectors.

This highly practical resource introduces the concept of ‘Gymtherapy’; a pioneering approach to working with children that uses movement as a means of promoting emotional wellbeing. Gymtherapy brings together the physical and emotional benefits of activity alongside the importance of safeguarding and supporting children, particularly those who are socio-economically deprived or emotionally vulnerable. Written in an accessible and vibrant style, Gymtherapy provides a full programme of lesson plans, structured across five key areas: Identity and Self Esteem, Mindfulness, Anger Expression, Protective Behaviour and Gender Stereotypes. Each lesson plan is based on accessible, tried and tested strategies, and outlines learning objectives, equipment needed and step-by-step instructions for facilitating practical activities. The chapters are illustrated with engaging real-life examples, case studies, survivor stories and tips, while at the same time linking practice to the underpinning social theory. Gymtherapy is an invaluable guide for teachers, social workers, school leaders and anyone with an interest in providing for the welfare and wellbeing of the children they work with.

Through words, pictures, photographs, certificates and other 'little treasures', a Life Story Book provides a detailed account of the child's early history and a chronology of their life. Fully updated, this clear and concise book shows a unique family-friendly way to compile a Life Story Book which promotes a sense of permanency for the child, and encourages attachments within new families. Joy Rees' influential model works chronologically backwards rather than forwards, aiming to reinforce the child's sense of belonging and security before addressing the child's past and early trauma. The book contains simple explanations of complex concepts, practical examples, helpful suggestions and includes some simple checklists. This new edition has been expanded to include fostered children and those living in kinship care or with a special guardian. Perfect for social workers, adoption agencies, adoptive parents, foster carers and kinship carers, Life Story Books for Adopted and Fostered Children is a refreshing, innovative and common-sense guide.