Our Plenary Speaker at this year’s National Conference, Jane Asquith, is an Independant Consultant and Trainer specialising in the development and management of Fostering and Adoption Services. She has 25 years’ experience as a foster carer in the UK and is a qualified social worker and manager.

Jane has worked in the field for over 35 years. During her years in Family Placement she has developed a specialist placement scheme for teenagers. She went on to serve as a Director and Vice Chair on the Management Board of the National Foster Care Association UK (now known as TFN The Fostering Network UK) for 6 years. During this time she was involved in the NVQ development, the UK Foster Care Standards and the competence assessment framework. She later worked as a consultant and Trainer with BAAF UK for 9 years and was a member of the DFES and looked after Children’s Fostering Task Force and Advisory committees during 2004/2005.

Jane has been involved with IFCO since 1997 and has delivered training workshops in many different countries and spoken at many conferences on the developments related to out of home care and child protection policies and practice. During 2006-2007 and 2009 she was involved in two successful EU twinning Light projects in Romania, the first to develop their Domestic Adoption Service and the second to deliver Accredited Foster Care preparation and post approval training programs.

Since her retirement, Jane devotes her time and skills to the development of services for children who need out-of-home care and she works through the Best Care for Children Organisation and Better Care Networks.