Holloway prison has set up Kinship support group. (PACT)

Great to see the bigger organisations getting involved.

What is pact doing at HMP Holloway?
pact is piloting a new Kinship Care Support Service, offering help to families who find themselves in this situation.

Our Kinship Care Support Manager is developing a range of pioneering support, aimed at people who find themselves looking after a relative's children when that person is sent to prison.

The aims of the Kinship Care Support Service
Our aims are as follows:

to support family members and friends who care for children whose parents are in HMP Holloway
to help resolve conflicts between the carers and parents of the children
to help facilitate contact between children and their parents in these prisons
What does pact offer?
The Kinship Care Support Service offers a range of support to carers:

someone to talk to about any concerns you have as a carer
help to explore how these concerns could be resolved
relationship counselling for prisoners and kinship carers. This service is offered in partnership with Marriage Care and is suitable for all manner of family relationships, not just married couples or partners
links to a wide range of local and national services
Getting in touch



I have had email conversations with the lady that is running this group, they saw the impact of the carers bringing in children to see parents in prison. Well done HMP Holloway!

Im gonna be on the radio!!!

Today i had a call from BBC radio Leicester, they are interested in my Kinship quest and will be doing an interview about my journey and the new support group. Weds 6th Jan is when i'm there going live around 10.10. I am sooooo nervous yet excited that i have this opportunity.

Bring it on!

Bill Maynard supports Hinckley ROCKS

Well took the bull by the horns and tracked down a phone number for the lovely Bill Maynard aka Green grass in Heartbeat! What a super duper guy, he is going to help me along with the BBC raise the profile of my support group!

ooo mixing with the famous now lol

Will keep posting as my journey develops. xxxx

The Grapevine, Leicesters own fostering magazine

Well i haven't been on here in a while, so busy with the pressures of life and essays etc. But i had to take a moment to share my good news with you all.
I am reaaly pleased to find an article has been published for the counties Fostering magazine!!! Looks like i will be writing regular articles on my Kinship care quest, woo hoo would you believe it!


zipadeee do dah, zipadeee day, my oh my what a wonderful day. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Leicester Mercury feature

Woo hoo, i made it in to the papers about my MP lobby day and my support group.

I became passionate about Kinship care when a few months agao i gave up my job to care for my 2 nieces, on the back of that i started the course. I have come so far on this journey already and attended a MP lobby day in Westminster, have raised awareness in the paper, have been invited to join a fostering comittee in Leicester and im off to London again on Thursday for 'The First National conference' with the 'family rights group' x

Mp Lobby day - Kinship Alliance

Woo Hoo, Off to London today to campaign, woo hoo, could be famous after this guys!
But i can rest assure you i will be keeping my clothes on, lol
I have a niggle in the back of my mind that i still haven't got my head round studying this week, yesterday was mad too, housework in the morning, meeting in the afternoon and bed early for my 5am wake up call this morning. Liz and i are styudy buddying for thursday and friday, so hoping i will feel better about my work come the weekend!

Anyway, I am campaigning for The Kinship care Alliance.

The Kinship Care Alliance is campaigning for greater recognition, respect and reward for family and friends (‘kinship’) carers. These carers, often grandparents, aunts or uncles, step in to care for vulnerable children when they cannot live with their parents. This may be because of parental alcohol or substance misuse, mental or physical ill health, domestic abuse, divorce or separation, imprisonment, bereavement and yet the carers often receive little or no financial or practical support. They and the children they care for are the forgotten families of family policy. We want to change that.
Best get ready.

TTFN xxxxxxxxxxxx

Crappy start already! - Reading Week

Arghhhhhhh i am writing this to help clear my mind!!!
I had planned this morning to study and its now almost half past 10 and i haven't started!
Reason - KIds, got some issues going on and my memory is clouded as i have been on the phone since 9 making calls and having discussions! Sure Lin will be with me on this one!
I have tons of washing, house is a tip, tights to pack but you know what! stuff it all and im gonna shout from the roof tops TODAY IS STUDY DAY, LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!! And that includes my fella who keeps asking me questions.

Ok, think its out of my system, time for some paracetamol, red bull and nicotine, hopefully i will then be ready! ummm wonder if this will help me do a good written piece or cloud my judgement, soon see


TTFN xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Action for Children Advert

Action for Children ‘Davina McCall’ DRTV advert New three year appeal Children’s charity Action for Children has launched a major, three year nationwide appeal to highlight child neglect and raise funds to tackle the issue.

The charity is reaching out to the general public through an integrated programme of PR, advertising, marketing, campaigning and fundraising activities to raise awareness and understanding of neglect and the issues surrounding it, as well as raising vital funds to help neglected children and their families.

National, regional and trade media across the UK are being targeted with a hard-hitting news story that leads on key findings of specifically-commissioned research, exploring the extent and scale of neglect - as seen by frontline professionals who regularly work with children.

All activity is accompanied by calls to action to both the public and government to turn the situation around, supported by examples of the charity’s successful work in supporting children and families who are affected by neglect across the country.

The charity will also engage the public through an integrated online campaign using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and a viral email to potential and existing supporters, to encourage people to take their action for children by donating to the appeal, running their own, or participating in, fundraising activities and raising awareness of the issue.

Celebrity TV presenter Davina McCall launched the appeal with a primetime, 3-minute advert that appeared during Channel 4 News (October 12), talking about child neglect and calling on the public to support the charity’s appeal by making a donation.

Press adverts were used to trail the advert, and will continue to be used throughout the campaign. Davina, who will continue to appear in both brand and DRTV adverts, is joined in her support by a host of other celebrities who are supporting media activity, including Timothy Spall, David Morrissey, Jessica Hynes and ‘Shameless’ star David Threfall.

Driving the charity towards its goal of raising £17 million to help neglected children over the next three years, a wide range of fundraising activities are taking place nationwide. These include street prospecting, cold-telemarketing and direct mail to prospective supporters.

The charity is also embarking on a media partnership with eight local radio stations in the North of England and Scotland that are part of the Bauer network. Stations will be engaging listeners on the issue of neglect through locally tailored editorial and online content, in order to raise over £500K in support of the appeal.

“Neglect is a growing problem and one we must fix. The same issues for neglected children and their families are coming up time and time again-but we can make a difference,” said Action for Children’s Executive Director of External Relations and Communications, Polly Neate.

“That’s why it’s so important, through integrated marketing, PR, and fundraising activities that our appeal reaches out to all stakeholders. From parents to policy makers, we need to make everyone aware of just how serious a problem child neglect is right now, to call on them to be extra vigilant, and donate to our appeal so that we can save more children from slipping through the net.”

Induction at Warwick

Navigation by myself was absolutely outstanding i must say lol, Found car park 13 ok ( Thanks Brian) and followed my nose to costcutter by guessing and tadaaa we were at the coffee shop! Chuckle at Liz's driving though, decided to follow a lorry to protect Cliff ( her car) but almost forgot to adhere to UK traffic rules of stopping on a red light.
Spotted Jen, so made a beeline for her and as she didn't recognise me her vacant look was a picture lol.
Anyway interesting presentations today by several people followed by free lunch, only downside to this was spending too much time in the rain for fire drills that weren't even going off in the building we were in. To then walk back to the building to have ours going off. so was sent back to the car park again. Not funny when just getting over a bout of illness!
Was feeling very tired by the end and was glad to go and have a wander around the campus, followed by chicken & Leek bake and coffee, scrummy

Well back home with no school uniform purchases this time and adamant the diet has started again, so here goes for another week.

Terrraaaaa xxx

week 3

Well slowly but surely im getting there! I missed mondays lecture with Rachel as i was a poorly chicken, sniff sniff, but managed to make enrolement at Warwick on wednesday, well only just felt rough as oat! But my day was enlightened with a few of us purchasing some School uniform! Oh yes Warwick uni hoodies and Tshirts, gotta be done.
Lesson today was fab and learnt some info about google with Ihar and the discussions around racism along with a video, such an eye opener that!

Well back to some homework along with facebook of course and lets see what next week brings xxxxx terrraaaaaaa

Monday, Monday - week 2

Today was Rachel day and the session was very enjoyable, listening to a podcast on Rousseau and having a discussion, talking about the tutorials over the next few weeks, presentations to be handed in and a discussion over news articles. 2 new starters too, the group just keeps on growing! xxx

End of the first week!

Woo hoo, i mad it through week 1, yee ha, ok ok excitement over. The last day was reflecting over the week and talking to Lin over essay work, even after being told the second time how to do them, i still don't feel any better, lol Im sure it will come in time. xxx

Your having a Giraffe!!!!

Ihar, you so make me chuckle, have laughed so much with him today! Enjoyed the library tour and all the information about websites, very interesting and useful stuff. Had my first attempt at powerpoint and Ihar tricked us in to showing our pesentations to the class, there was a twist though ( naughty Ihar) some of us had to present it. Well i took the bull by the horns and got me booty up there and did a little presentation on Pinky.I was so suprised at the ease of powerpoint and was impressed with the outcome. Very nervous about presenting it, but i took this time to overcome my fear! I was even brave enough for Ihar to take a photo of me with my presentation.
BUT this afternoon was horrendous, took me 2.5 hours to do the diagnostic tests and i left like a zombie, banging headache and feeling sick! Was glad to get back and go to the petrol station to fuel up when i realised i had no money, then raced in home for a consultation with the childrens therapists that went on til 7, what an afternoon and evening, can't wait to end the day. xxx

Newbie day 3 with Lin

I've ended up updating this morning as i was running around like a wild banshee last night as we are rearranging part of the house to add a 6ft radiator for warmth in the winter and maybe a change of study space! So when i did eventually sit down, my daughter turned up to use the computer. Chatted to her for ages, when she left and all was quiet it was time to reflect on the day, So i loaded up moodle, opened my work book and was ready start, thought i would just check facebook and well that was it! I NEVER chat on facebook because i can't get off and last night was no different, i couldn't get off until 11pm! However it wasn't all wasted, had a great chat with Tija and added Zoe as a friend, so getting some good socialising done.
We did talk about the assignments and the dates, the transition dip which was quite interesting and has made me thing about how i can keep motivated over xmas! Lin just makes you giggle so much, productive day but with a fun element> Well thats all turors met now and i can see im gonna fit in to this well!

Well i better get ready for uni and will be back later for an update on todays events, see ya's! xxxx

Newbie day 2 with Fiona

Wow my head hurts and its only day 2. However really enjoyed the mass of information and given us lots to think about! I just got to evaluate and analyse in every day life and then essays will be a breeze. Ummm not sure about that really lol got quite good at using the blog, email, facebook, car forum and watch tv at the same time! Thats REALLY bad, will have the right ambience when reseacrhing and studying!

Feeling quite tired now, but i noticed on Davids blog its having the same affect. Up all night excited and motivated about doing this course and then sit at night blogging and typing. Well not having a late one tonight.

Night night bloggers xxxx

Newbie Day 1 with Rachel

whoo hoo, first day is done, was great to meet the rest of the group, enjoyed chattering to a few of them and finding out their fears are very similar to mine. Good exercise that, because you don't feel so alone!
Well just spent some time reflecting on the day and starting to build up the evidence for my first portfolio.
I am so not tired right now which is not good, i'm in a whirlwind and taking notes and ideas about my dissertation already! (thanks Rachel, you gave me the idea for that) although i feel i am thinking a long way ahead, i will always bear it in mind for advancing my work through the years!
Umm another diet coke or a hot chocolate?????
Thinking about the discussion on what you would change' ibetter start today and go for hot chocolate ( light of course!) lol

Night night bloggers xxxx


( The time for my postings says 15.45, im sure i was in class then, lol time is actually 11.54pm)

Pinkies attempt to Blog!

Well here goes;;;;;;;

1) my feelings about writing for a course assignment and using a blog;

ummm, to be honest i have had a challenging few weeks lately with lots going on, but thats my life, bit like Eastenders, always something happening, always something to deal with!
Although i am looking forward to writing assignments and studying i desperately need to learn that the world isn't always at 100mph and i need to slow down for me to manage assignments effectively. Lyn, hope you can help me with this one?????

Blogging i think is another fab way of communicating x




2)why do i think we write assignments?

So that we can undertake detailed independent study on a topic related to modules we will be studying to show that we fully understand the topics.




3)what do i think the purpose of a report is?

To provide more specific information and to give you an analysis of a topic. Once this has been done it can identify possible recommendations.




4)what do i think the purpose of an essay is?


Is based more on discussions of a topic and around the judgement of the person writing it.




Well thats my first post done just in the nick of time, he he xxx