Support for special guardians from the connected persons team

What is the connected persons team?

The child you are looking after might have additional needs related to living in challenging circumstances before they came to you. The connected persons team can work with you on emotional and behavioural issues relating to their childhood trauma or disturbed attachment. Our support workers can also offer to teach you ‘Closer In’ play techniques, which help to develop strong bonds and build relationships between family members.

Your child’s school may struggle with their emotional and behavioural needs as well, and the connected persons team can help you to work with the school to look at how to best handle your child.

The connected persons team could help you with explaining your child’s life history and developing a healthy narrative for them to grow up with. We can do Life Story Work with your child to help them to understand their early life. We can also advise you if any of the child’s contact arrangements need changing or challenging.

What support can I get?

You are very welcome to attend our support group for special guardians which runs monthly. Ask through the helpline or see our newsletter for details. The groups will give you an opportunity to meet other carers with similar experiences and also to receive some training that you might find useful.

We also run a monthly play session for younger children up to 11 years of age, on special guardian orders (SGOs) at Medieval Mayhem, on the first Tuesday of the month. We want to develop a youth group for older children. We will let you know when we have set this up.

Your special guardian’s financial allowance will be reviewed annually by the social care finance team.

If the child you are looking after has needs that can be met by services in the community, we will help you to get in touch with the right person. For example, we can help you to get advice from the sleep clinic if your child struggles with settling to sleep.

If you have ongoing needs for support we can allocate a worker from the connected person team. They can visit regularly and give support and advice. Or, they could visit as and when you need help. For example, you might be settled with your child and then things could get tricky when they become teenagers.

If your child needs more specialist help, such as therapy, we can in some circumstances, make an application to the Adoption Support Fund for funding for this. The child needs to have been looked after immediately before the special guardian orders being granted.