Adult and young child outside

Price of pupil poverty guides webinar

The price of pupil poverty guides – 4 November 2021, 10.00 – 11.00am

Join Children in Wales for an awareness raising session on The Price of Pupil Poverty Guides (Children in Wales | Price of Pupil Poverty).

Webinar poverty series: session 2 

Find out how you can take simple steps to adopting a whole-school approach to poverty-proofing your setting, to ensure that the cost of the school day does not cause barriers to learning and wellbeing for pupils from low income and disadvantaged families. (Children in Wales | Price of Pupil Poverty).

The webinar will provide an opportunity for schools and other settings to gain information, understand the impact poverty has on the everyday school lives of pupils, and provide possible solutions on how to poverty-proof and make a difference.

Sadly as a result of the pandemic, we are seeing a growth in the detrimental impact of poverty on pupils’ wellbeing, and increasing financial pressures on families. The Price of Pupil Poverty Guides can be a used as a tool to help mitigate the impact.

Speaker and biography:

Kate Thomas, Price of Pupil Poverty Development Officer, Children in Wales.

The role is funded by the Welsh Government and aims to raise awareness of the Price of Pupil Poverty Guides across Wales. Kate has been with Children in Wales for three years and has a background in Youth Work, Children’s Rights, Participation and Housing.  As part of her work, Kate works with a number of schools across Wales to provide training and to support them in implementing the guides and mitigating the negative impact poverty has on their pupils.

Book this external event

Safeguarding disabled children & young people

30 November 2021
09:30 – 16:00

A one-day course

This one-day course aims to increase practitioners’ understanding and confidence in the specific issues involved in safeguarding children and young people with disabilities and improve skills in responding to their safeguarding needs.


Research shows that disabled children are at an increased risk of being abused compared with their non-disabled peers (Jones et al. 2012). They are also less likely to receive the protection and support they need when they have been abused (Taylor et al. 2014). This training emphasises the importance of child focused practice as case reviews highlight that professionals often focus on the health and care needs of disabled children and may struggle to identify and respond effectively to safeguarding concerns.

Book this external event

Creativity, diversity, and disability

A group of staff and students at Cardiff University would like to mark the UN’s International Day of Disabled Persons on 3rd December with a collaborative, digital, multimedia event: “Creativity, Diversity and Disability: A creative representation of lived experiences of the move to a more digital world due to the Covid-19 pandemic”.

This will be digital exhibition of creative expressions from individuals, groups, and organisations that depict, present, and represent experiences of and from individuals, groups, and organisations.
We welcome creative contributions in a range of formats suitable for a digital display including:

  • Images — photographs, graphics, scanned drawings, etc.
  • Written Poetry or prose
  • Spoken (recorded) poetry or prose
  • Music

If you would like to contribute to the event, please send a submission by 5th November to cddwales2021©gmail.com. We welcome submissions from individuals, groups, and organisations, particularly those from groups underrepresented in current conversations on disability.

More details
Two adult hands with a children's hand on top

Care-experienced children: understanding and supporting care-experienced young people

Care-experienced children / Plant sydd a Phrofiad

21 October 2021
19 November 2021
17 December 2021
7 January 2022
14 January 2022
3 February 2022

A one-day course
This one-day free training course is aimed at practitioners working directly with care experienced children in a range of settings including family support, youth work, play work, teaching, outdoor and arts activities to have a greater understanding of their support needs.

The training will be informed by the experience and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic – which has of course impacted the experience of looked after and care experienced children significantly since March 2020. In particular, this will include consideration of resilience, the impact of trauma and consequent need for trauma informed approaches to be used in order to support individuals. The training will explore the variety of living situations practitioners may come across, the meaning of terminology used, and focus on what young people have said about their experience of being ‘in care’.

Book event

Challenging stigma, discrimination & poor outcomes for young parents in & leaving care

Challenging the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes for young parents in and leaving care: #MessagestoCorporateParents 

Louise Roberts, Rachael Vaughan, and Dawn Mannay 

Young parents in and leaving care can often feel unsupported in negotiating the challenges of becoming a parent. Dr Louise Roberts conducted a five-year Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE) research study that was funded by Health and Care Research Wales. The idea for the study came from Voices from Care Cymru, and listening to parents’ views and experiences was a key priority of the research.  

The book published from this study reflected on the experiences of new parents, and others who were looking back on their experiences of becoming parents. Some parents who took part felt that they had people to support them, but others felt isolated and alone. Some parents were living with their children, while others were separated from their children. The book considered the support available when young people become parents and after completing the book Louise wanted to look at ways to improve support systems in Wales.  

Louise applied for funding with colleagues Rachael Vaughan and Dawn Mannay, for a project that aimed to challenge the stigma, discrimination, and poor outcomes for young parents in and leaving care.  The project worked closely with young people and other key stakeholders to consider and promote good practice for parents in and leaving care. 

The project has developed a charter #MessagestoCorporateParents and other linked outputs and events, including a webinar focussed on Supporting Parents in and Leaving Care which will take place in November 2021. 

You can also find out more about the project and its outputs and events on these dedicated webpages Supporting Parents in and Leaving Care: #MessagestoCorporateParents. 

You may be interested in these related blogs:

New book: The Children of Looked After Children
‘A Family of my Own’: When Young People in and Leaving State Care become Parents in Wales
‘It’s been a massive struggle’: Young people leaving care during COVID-19

Two young women walking

Between the lines: Trauma-informed practice, a lived experience perspective

External event notice

Between the lines & asking whys: Trauma-informed practice, a lived experience perspective

Open Access Learning & Development Opportunity

November 18, 2021

Register for the external event
Artifacts: Open Access Learning & Development Opportunity 18.11.21

Trauma is an issue that has the potential to impact upon all humans, and therefore becoming trauma informed is a human issue. Every single member of society has a role to play in understanding and responding to the affects and impacts of trauma. This does not mean that everyone must become an expert in trauma, but it does mean that we all have a part to play in understanding trauma, creating awareness of trauma from a range of diverse and unique perspectives, empowering other individuals and communities to create their own awareness of trauma; and within the context and remit of your own roles you all have a part to play in responding to and supporting those affected and impacted by trauma and adversity in one way or another.

At Artifacts, we start from the perspective that drawing upon our lived experience of the impact of trauma and distress can support in providing insight, can help to challenge current thinking and positively support in shaping service provision and delivery. Highlighting the value of connections, the need for hope, inspiration, purpose and meaning, and the complex, multi-facetted, interconnected and often inter-generational nature of trauma.

This session explores trauma in an incredibly open, honest, and candid way and it is the responsibility of those booking this session to ensure that delegates are aware that it explores content that could be difficult, distressing or triggering to individuals; and therefore, a part of attendance is recognition of this in terms of self-care.

External events notice

Take part in sibling kinship care research

Your opportunity to tell your story about your experience of bringing up your younger brother or sister

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Most people know that families are not always two parents bringing up their children, and that, for lots of reasons, sometimes children are brought up by someone who isn’t their mother or father. What is less commonly known is that in some of these families, it is an older sister or brother who is the main carer for their younger sibling(s). In fact, one study found that in England in 2011, as many as 23% of relatives caring for children who weren’t their birth children were older siblings – that is 35,200 people! But despite this being the experience for a lot of families in the UK, very little is known about what it is like to be a carer for your sibling.

Who am I and why am I doing this research?

I became interested in sibling carers because I was a sibling carer for my younger brother, and when I started working in research, I realised there wasn’t really anything out there about families like mine. Lots of research about ‘kinship’ families focused on the experiences of grandparents. While that is very important, I felt like the stories of siblings would be different to those of grandparents and their grandchildren. So I applied for funding to explore this with other sibling carers.

Who can take part?

I am looking to interview people (18+) who live in the UK and have experience of being the main carer for their sibling. Your sibling should have been under 18 when they came to live with you, but don’t need to be under 18 now. It doesn’t matter how or why you became their main carer – I am interested in hearing all stories from different perspectives and experiences.

What is involved in participating?

If you decide you’d like to take part, you can get in touch and we will have an initial conversation about the research. If you choose to take part in an interview, you can decide where and when would be best for you – this can be in person, online, or on the phone. I will talk you through a task that you can complete before the interview to help you prepare. When we do the interview together, the main focus will be on your telling your story, so I won’t talk very much, and I will ask questions and give prompts that help you to tell me about your life. That means that the interview can take different amounts of time depending on how much you want to say, but it is usually about an hour.

What next?

You can take a look at the information sheet here which will give you more information about the research and taking part. If you think you might be interested, or would just like to know more, you can send me an email stablerl@cardiff.ac.uk.

This blog post was originally published by Lorna Stabler.

The Health Foundation Releases its COVID-19 Inquiry Report

Please note: This resource is being hosted externally and not through ExChange Wales. Family and Community external events listings are posted to inform the wider community about external events including workshops, opportunities for families, children and young people, and helpful resources.

This post was originally posted by IWA.

Our director Auriol Miller was on the advisory board of The Health Foundation’s COVID-19 impact inquiry. Its report, which was launched in July 2021, found that:

  • The uneven impact of COVID-19 is mapped onto pre-existing health issues and inequalities, compounded by living conditions.
  • Geographical inequalities meant that those younger than 65 in the poorest 10% of areas in England were almost four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those in the wealthiest parts of the countries, but some groups, including people from ethnic minorities, disabled people, prison inmates, were also more likely to be at a risk from the illness.
  • The aftermaths of the financial crisis impacted the UK’s ability to rise to the challenges posed by the Coronavirus crisis.
  • Government action, such as self-isolation support or restrictions in service access, were impactful in redressing or aggravating the effects of the crisis: any recovery strategy must address the root causes of inequality in the face of the virus, and will require cross-government action. 

You can watch the webinar launch here.

ExChange Wales is not responsible for any external content or resources.

A group of people sitting around a table with laptops with headphones

Raising awareness of safe guarding children and young people

Care-experienced children / Plant sydd a Phrofiad
17 September 2021
09:30 – 12:30

A half-day course
This interactive training is set specifically in the Welsh context. It will allow participants to consider the issues for their role and organisation. Through taking part in a range of exercises, participants will gain an understanding of the key elements of working safely and responsibly with children and young people and learn how they can respond effectively where they have concerns.


This short course is aimed at people who are new to this work or who need a refresher on their knowledge and skills including current legislation.
Book this external event