Workshops for Adoptive Parents and other Permanent Carers

This page lists our workshops for adoptive parents, special guardians, long term foster carers and other permanent carers. Click on the course title or register tab to view detailed information. You can register via our electronic booking form and pay online. We are unable to take bookings or payments over the phone.

Please note that there are further seminars open to adoptive parents and other permanent carers, as well as to social workers and other professionals under Public Seminars.

If you would like to go onto a waiting list for an event that is fully booked please email training@pac-uk.org. You will be contacted if a place becomes available and be sent a notification email when we run the event again.

Once you have submitted your registration form you will be taken to a payments option page where you can either pay via debit/credit card for online payments or choose an offline payment option for purchase order payments and cheques. You can submit your registration form and pay via debit/credit card at a later date by clicking here.

Please note, for online payments your booking is not complete until payment is received. We strongly advise you to make payment at the time of submitting your registration form to avoid disappointment as the majority of our courses do sell out.

All information processed in relation to your booking adheres to PAC-UK's Privacy Statement.

Adoption and adolescence: Discussing the transitions from teenager to early adulthood

Free Event

Date: October 21, 2024

This FREE to attend online event is open to all parties affected by adoption and permanency, including social workers and other professionals.

Chaired by Tanya Killick (PAC-UK Adopteens & Projects Practice Manager), five younger adult adoptees look back and discuss the challenges of adolescence.

What does it feel like being an adoptee and a teenager? How does being adopted affect teenage identity? What helped with transitions? What challenges do adopted teenagers face? What happens to relationships with parents, siblings, friends, authority figures and romantically?

Join Aaliyah, Dawn, JP, Peter Humfreys and Tiegan Boynes as they discuss education, relationships and identity exploration.

Event start time 1.00pm | Event end time 2.15pm

(Zoom links will be sent to everyone who registers closer to the time - please check Junk folders)

Availability: Spaces remaining.

Film premiere: Adopted in school – understanding the needs of adopted young people

Free Event

Date: October 22, 2024

This FREE to attend online event is open to all parties affected by adoption and permanency, including social workers and other professionals.

Young people who are adopted can sometimes find that school is a tricky place to be. They can feel that the challenges they face and the behaviours that stem from such challenges are misunderstood.

Commissioned by West Yorkshires five Virtual schools (Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield) a group of young people who are part of our Adopteens service share their personal experiences and ideas for change.

They invite you to view this film with an attitude of acceptance, curiosity and empathy: to hold their voices in mind and consider the actions you might be able to take and to make their school experience more positive.

Introduced by Jo Mitchell, National Service Lead, PAC-UK

Event start time 1.00pm | Event end time 1.45pm

(Zoom links will be sent to everyone who registers closer to the time - please check Junk folders)

Availability: Spaces remaining.

Forever family: Birth family perspectives on maintaining sibling relationships

Free Event

Date: October 23, 2024

This FREE to attend online event is open to all parties affected by adoption and permanency, including social workers and other professionals.

A powerful and insightful event on the sibling connection and the impact of separation by adoption and the importance of maintaining these relationships which can be among the longest and most meaningful in our lives.

The session will be hosted by birth mother, Angela Frazer-Wicks MBE as well as birth parents Kristy, Jill and Andy. Vicky Swift (Adoption England) & Angela will share their expertise on sibling contact and how keeping links can transform lives. Family Rights Group, with birth mother Sammy, will explore their mapping tool of support services for birth families and how crucial these can be. And three birth fathers will share real-life experiences of how different care plans impact sibling relationships.

Introduced by Emma Crowther-Duncan, North Adult Services Regional Manager, PAC-UK

Event start time 1.00pm | Event end time 2.15pm

(Zoom links will be sent to everyone who registers closer to the time - please check Junk folders)

Availability: Spaces remaining.

(It’s not all) Long Lost Family: Reflections on intermediary, reunion and new services and funding through FamilyConnect

Free Event

Date: October 24, 2024

This FREE to attend online event is open to all parties affected by adoption and permanency, including social workers and other professionals.

Using video testimony of birth parents and adoptees we ask: Why is finding relatives separated by adoption so important? What feelings come up? How does an intermediary service work and what support can we give? What does our FamilyConnect service offer and who can receive a free funded service?

With Jenny Brooks - birth mother and intermediary, Mike Hancock - adoptee and National Strategic Lead at PAC-UK and Sharon Lake - manager of our FamilyConnect Service at PAC-UK.

Event start time 1.00pm | Event end time 1.50pm

(Zoom links will be sent to everyone who registers closer to the time - please check Junk folders)

Availability: Spaces remaining.

Adopted people in-person meet-up - London

Free Event

Date: October 25, 2024

This FREE to attend in-person event is open to adopted people (aged 18 and over only) and will take place at our fully accessible Family Action Head Office, 34 Wharf Road, London, N1 7GR.

A day of workshops and lunch open to adopted people (aged 18 and over only) with keynote speaker Daisy who has powerfully told her story of transracial adoption and seeking justice in the podcast The Second Victim: Daisy’s Story available on Audible.

A chance to talk with other adoptees and choose from workshops on trans-cultural adoption; birth parent contact; identity; search and reunion and the experience of younger adult adoptees.

Event start time 10.00am | Event end time 4.00pm

(Please arrive at least 15 minutes early for welcome and refreshments - further information about the day is listed when you click on the 'Register' button below)

This event is now fully booked - to be added to the waiting list email judith.ellis@pac-uk.org 

Availability: 0

Online CPV-NVR Parent Group 40 via Zoom: Weekly online sessions (Wednesday mornings) for adoptive parents and carers of children presenting challenging, destructive and violent behaviour

Price: £3024.00

Date: November 27, 2024

The 10 weekly sessions (except school holidays) for adoptive parents and carers of Children and Young People presenting Challenging, Destructive and Violent Behaviour will take place from 10.00am to 11.30am on Wednesday mornings via Zoom on the following dates:

November 27
December 4, 11 & 18
January 8, 15, 22 & 29
February 5 & 19

The group includes one follow-up group session on 5 March 2025 plus one initial consultation meeting, one review meeting and one report per participant or couple.

We will be coordinating with the different half terms over the country and may adapt the above.

Availability: Last few spaces only.

Online CPV-NVR Parent Group 41 via Zoom: Weekly online sessions (Thursday afternoons) for adoptive parents and carers of children presenting challenging, destructive and violent behaviour

Price: £3024.00

Date: November 28, 2024

The 10 weekly sessions (except school holidays) for adoptive parents and carers of Children and Young People presenting Challenging, Destructive and Violent Behaviour will take place from 12.00noon to 1.30pm on Thursday afternoons via Zoom on the following dates:

November 28
December 5, 12 & 19
January 9, 16 & 30
February 6, 20 & 27

The group includes one follow-up group session on 13 March 2025 plus one initial consultation meeting, one review meeting and one report per participant or couple.

We will be coordinating with the different half terms over the country and may adapt the above.

Availability: Last few spaces only.

PAC-UK Training service user feedback

The parents thoroughly enjoyed the day and found it really helpful.Social worker

Brilliant and amazingly informative. I now have the confidence that the adoption is going to work. Prospective adopter

Excellent day. Really beneficial.Adoptive parent

Very impressed by the quality and the eloquence of the trainer. I feel very hopeful now. An excellent and informative day.Adoptive parent

Thank you. And thank goodness!Adoptive parent

That was a great training course today. Thank you! There was a lot of interaction between all the delegates.Adoptive parent

Just a brief note to say how much I enjoyed the training day. There was lots of opportunity for participation. We had a very nice, mixed group of people which helped a lot and Kim was excellent as she managed to mix audience participation and what she had to say, so well. I feel that I got a lot out of it.Adoptive parent