Care Experienced & Adoption Service
Putting care-experienced young people at the heart of trauma-informed, creative and collaborative support
Adopted, in or leaving care, and those who support them.
We offer expert psychological consultation, intervention, and support to improve outcomes for care-experienced and adopted children.
We work collaboratively with services to develop tailored support packages, rooted in psychological responsive practice, that meet their unique needs.
Some of our collaborative partnerships
Consultation & Therapeutic Support
Our Core Services
Psychological Formulation
These focussed sessions allow us to bring together what we know about a young person’s life experiences, to better understand their current needs. This helps to tailor support plans that are meaningful and responsive for each individual.
Psychological Consultation
These sessions provide teams with space to reflect and build their understanding of the young people that they are working with. They aim to tentatively make sense of behaviours that we may see and consider how best to support the young person. Consultation sessions can be attended by teams, individual practitioners or the whole network around a young person.
Reflective Practice
These sessions allow groups or teams to come together to think psychologically about the work that they do. This may be in response to a specific challenge or concern or to enhance group cohesion or connection. Sessions may be offered as a one-off or offered regularly in order to support psychologically responsive practice.
Strategic & Management Support
We can support leadership teams by embedding therapeutic frameworks into policies and procedures, as well as providing psychologically responsive leadership coaching and support. We can also provide advice on key clinical topics such as self-harm and mental health, including oversight of policies. Please also see our leadership page for more information on leadership training, support and guidance.
Learn More
Staff Support & Wellbeing
These sessions aim to foster resilience and psychological safety in your workforce. These sessions can be delivered one-to-one or as a group. They can be offered as a one off or as part of an ongoing package of support.
Specialist Services
Bespoke Team Days
We can host team days tailored to the needs of your service. These can be creative and interactive and typically involve team-building activities, as well as space for reflection.
Bespoke Therapeutic Frameworks
We can support your organisation by designing tailored models that define and enhance your psychologically responsive offer.
Outcome Measures Development
We can support your service to develop outcome frameworks to monitor key performance indicators.
Post-Event Team Reflection
Psychologically informed debriefs after critical incidents to support recovery and learning.
Psychologically Responsive Organisational Audit (CPRL)
In-depth service reviews with practical recommendations for enhancing psychological responsiveness.
What people say
”
My experience of working with the psychologists has been amazing.
They have helped, supported and advise me and staff team with young people I use to work with, giving us a deeper understanding why and how our young people think, feel, and behave. I like that the psychologists that I have worked alongside, listen without judging, and always offer practical advice, that makes a lot of sense and works.
”
Manager
Bliss Residential Care
”
Changing Minds have been part of the NHP journey from the very beginning.
They worked alongside us to develop our psychologically informed practice framework, supported us as a team and provide consultation to a number of our projects. We have worked together for over 8 years and very much value their input and advice.
”
Sue Hammersley
Director, National House Project
”
We have worked with Changing Minds psychology team for a number of years and the support they offer to our organisation is amazing.
The clinical psychologists provide ongoing psychological consultation, formulation, training and guidance for our staff and foster carers. Working with Changing Minds feels like they are just part of our team.
”
Adrienne Cronin
Team Manager, North-West Fostering
”
The work [psychologist] does with the Kilter team to support our therapeutic approach is invaluable.
She understands our young people and our staff and encourages a reflective and caring environment where the children we support are placed at the centre of everything that we do.
”
Nina Killen
Director
Direct Support for Children & Families
We provide direct psychological support, including assessments and therapeutic interventions. This may be funded through the Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund (ASGSF) or spot-purchased through other funding options.
Assessments
We can offer bespoke clinical psychological assessments to explore an individual’s unique psychological needs, strengths, and difficulties.
We utilise a combination of interviews, observations, and standardised psychometrics to inform support and intervention planning.
Therapeutic interventions we can offer:
Therapeutic Parenting (PACE)
DBT Skills (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy)
Theraplay® Informed Practice
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)
TI-PBS (Trauma-Informed Positive Behaviour Support)
DDP (Dyadic Development Psychotherapy) Informed Practice
Mentalisation-Based Treatment for Children (MBT-c)
CTF (Compassion Focused Therapy)
Narrative Therapy
CAT (Cognitive Analytic Therapy) Informed Practice
Sensory Based Approaches
ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)
Parenting Groups
Sessions can take place in flexible ways
Therapy rooms
Sessions can be held in person in our bespoke therapy rooms at our office in central Warrington.
Onsite (specific areas)
We have some capacity to provide community/school visits in some areas across the UK (please enquire for the areas our team can cover).
Virtual
Sessions can also be provided virtually over video conferencing software.