Service Announcements

Occasionally we will need to make changes to the way we deliver our various services. This may be in response to a change in demand, capacity, or external events.

Should we need to make alterations to one or more of our services we will publish the details on this page and we will also include a service announcement notification on the homepage of this site, to ensure you are aware of the latest changes and how they might affect you.

Please refer to the FAQs below for details on specific changes. If you have a question about our services that isn’t covered on this page please contact us here.

Covid-19 updates

We know that practitioners and agencies are under enormous pressure maintaining critical services for vulnerable children, and that there are particular challenges for children who are looked after and their families and carers. Although we have postponed face-to-face meetings, regular online discussions are taking place in all our forums and consortia so that practitioners have the opportunity to discuss the situation with colleagues and share ideas and solutions that ensure effective care and planning for children is still provided.

Provided below some recent updates for those working with or caring for care experienced children, particularly relating to fostering, kinship care and adoption. Feedback from AFKA forums is that for many individuals and agencies the current phase of the pandemic has been the hardest to date. The slivers of positive news about schools returning and the vaccine gradually allowing restrictions to be eased will hopefully allow the focus to shift to how best to pick up on lost ground, but opportunities for recovery and recuperation will be equally important given the extraordinary lengths to which people have had to go to maintain services. Please do share any approaches you are developing for supporting colleagues and service users and for managing the (eventual) transition out of the pandemic that we can pass on to others.