As part of our commitment to strengthening evidence-based practice and sharing and promoting the skills of the VAA sector, CVAA deliver a series of workshops and events on key themes in adoption practice.

Our events, ranging from practice workshops and evidence seminars to conferences, cater to all adoption professionals in all agencies and organisations, including:

  • Social work practitioners
  • CEOs and senior leaders
  • Marketing, finance and administration staff
  • Adoption support professionals
95% of attendees rate the opportunity to learn about what others are working as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.

Our events are designed based upon our priorities for outcome improvement:

    1. Placement of priority children – To improve equality of outcomes for those groups of children who are less well served by the adoption system than others
    2. Permanency planning – To improve early decision-making about permanency, whatever the right permanent home for a child, and develop new and effective models of permanency planning where appropriate
    3. Adoption support – To improve the effectiveness and availability of excellent, life-long adoption support, to all parties to adoption, including birth families.
100% of attendees would recommend CVAA practice events to a colleague.

Practice Workshops

CVAA Practice Workshops are intimate, interactive, network-building opportunities where discussions are led by your priorities for the day. At these full day events you will hear about the core principles of effective practice in a particular area, and then participate in discussion and sharing of ideas and challenges. Our Practice Workshops provide a space for front-line practitioners (including newly qualified staff or those new to the VAA sector) to explore practice areas and share case studies and learning from past experience, guided by senior practitioners from within the sector. You will receive CPD materials in the form of videos of practice presentations, summaries of the discussions, a Theory of Change tool and a suggested guide to help you disseminate the learning from sessions within your agency, along with reading materials, further resources and a CPD certificate.

If your agency is a CVAA member, you can access resources from all of our events by logging into the members area. Non-CVAA member delegates receive resources via email. All delegates are encouraged to disseminate their learning within their agency or organisation.

“This is the most relevant training I have been to for my job” 
Workshop attendee

Evidence Seminars

CVAA Evidence Seminars bridge the gap between practice and research by giving you the opportunity to hear directly from leading academics. An accompanying ‘response from practice’ presentation encourages adoption practitioners and managers to incorporate evidence into your work, and to measure the impact and outcomes of what you do.

Our programme of Evidence Seminars has been designed through extensive consultation with the VAA sector and focuses on facilitating networking and practitioner development, as well as research dissemination. As the with Practice Workshops, you will receive CPD materials in the form of reading materials, summaries of the discussions, a Theory of Change tool and a suggested guide to help you disseminate the learning from sessions within your agency. You will also receive a CPD certificate.

“Myself and my colleagues who attended the event are meeting to discuss the content and feed back to our team but also what we can take to improve our practice.” 
Evidence Seminar attendee

VAA Networks

The Practice Programme is not just for social workers – we also provide networking and collaborative opportunities by thematic area.

Our Marketing Group connects marketing, communications and recruitment professionals from across our membership, who in many cases are the only ones in their agencies to specialise in this area of work. This group meets quarterly and has been instrumental in much of CVAA’s marketing work, including 2019’s National Adoption Week VAA campaign - #AdopterChoice.

Since 2018, we have worked closely with Julia Feast OBE on our Facing New Frontiers programme of policies, procedures and practice around Access to Records in Post Commencement Adoptions. We have created a network of VAA practitioners specialising in this area who have greatly valued the chance to meet others in this field, share their practice, and develop policies and procedures to guide VAAs in this important area.

Events Calendar

To view CVAA's Practice Programme cancellation policy, please click here.