We are excited to share that as of today, Tuesday, 21 June 2022, we have officially changed our name to the Association for Fostering, Kinship and Adoption Scotland (AFKA Scotland).
AFKA Scotland remains an independent charity that promotes and facilitates evidence-informed best practice in fostering, kinship care and adoption, through advising, training, and influencing practitioners and policymakers, and supporting them to improve outcomes for children and families.
Our new name more accurately reflects our work within the changing landscape of care in Scotland and our commitment to Keeping the Promise. This change comes after several months of internal discussion, as well as consultation with AFKA Scotland’s members, which include all 32 Local Authorities in Scotland as well as several voluntary and independent adoption and fostering agencies and individual members including health and legal professionals
Kinship care has always been an important part of our activities and we are so pleased that this is now reflected formally in our organisational name. We continue to co-host the Kinship Care Advice Service Scotland (KCASS) providing support, guidance, and training to Kinship Care Practitioners across Scotland.
AFKA will continue to host Scotland’s Adoption Register, supporting children and families to find their match and for practitioners to develop best practice in their work on adoption and permanence.
As part of this change, we have launched a new website, afkascotland.org, with all our communication platforms such as email and social media pages also reflecting the change. Our Charity number and administrative and bank details remain the same.
“Our organisation has always responded to the changing landscape of care in Scotland and our name must reflect how our practice has developed over the last 6 years,” said Executive Director Angie Gillies. “AFKA Scotland will continue to respond to our members and to the voice of people with care experience, support implementation of the Promise and to promote evidence-informed best practice and policy through collaborative research.”
We ask that anyone interested in learning more about the change or with questions to please contact us at info@afkascotland.org.