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Spring 2011

OUR NEW CHARITY Timpson first supported the NSPCC in 2001 when it adopted the organisation’s high profile Full Stop Campaign as its corporate charity. John and Alex Timpson’s personal commitment to helping children in distress soon grew into a hugely successful relationship with ChildLine, the 24 hour Children’s helpline founded by the popular writer and broadcaster, Esther Rantzen.

John Timpson CBE, Timpson Chairman & CEO

WHY & HOW? The Timpson business is renowned for its exceptional ‘Upside-down Management’ culture, where colleagues have the freedom to do whatever it takes to deliver outstanding customer service and are supported in that mission by everyone else in the business. “Our business is very different to most high street retailers,” says John Timpson. “We don’t hinder our people by putting set rules and procedures in place, instead we let them serve their customers in the way they know works best for the customer. I personally receive a host of complimentary letters and emails every week from customers who are amazed by the service they receive in our shops. I take my hat off to our people who over the years have provided a great shopping experience or have done a little job for free and directed customers’ appreciation into the charity tin on the counter. I genuinely believe I have the best and kindest shop staff in the country…and customers too. We plan to keep doing what we do best for our customers and our new charity, After Adoption - deliver outstanding customer care and put appreciative pounds in the tin.”

Donate online www.timpson.com

Over the years very many Timpson colleagues have gone to extraordinary lengths to raise money for ChildLine - by climbing mountains, leaping out of aircraft and cycling coast to coast in support of the cause. All this activity culminated in Timpson raising more than £1million for ChildLine. Much of that money has been donated by loyal Timpson customers who have happily put a £1 donation in the charity box in recognition of the outstanding customer service they have received in-store. Now it is time for a change of charity. Inside, John Timpson CBE explains why, after many years supporting ChildLine, Timpson is now adopting After Adoption as its new corporate charity. In the following pages we reveal how John and Alex hope to repeat Timpson’s highly successful fundraising formula and, with the help of many truly amazing and supportive colleagues, raise £1m to help After Adoption deliver its highly acclaimed SafeBase programme to adoptive families in need of vital support.

HERE’S WHY I’m supporting After Adoption

He had a fantastic voice and joined Chester Cathedral choir only to be falsely accused of passing round nude illustrated playing cards during evensong – Alex asked for an apology, but the clergy refused to repent, so Ollie stopped singing.

We thought we knew how to be good parents, after all we were successfully bringing up three children of our own. We must have been naïve, for nearly 20 years we treated a procession of foster children in the same way we treated Victoria, James and Edward. We weren't surprised to find several children 'challenging'. Some sibling groups argued all day until I was near to screaming point. One very disturbed boy used a mallet to smash 120 panes of glass in our vegetable garden, another strangled our cat. But good times far outweighed the bad and the experience brought a welcome addition to our lives. I decided that we would only look after children younger than our youngest child, Edward, so it was some time before we cared for a teenager. But, in 1982, when we adopted Oliver, that was bound to change. Ollie was 6 when he arrived, full of nervous energy and lacking in confidence. He was good at running - he set a school record for 1500 metres - but often failed to turn up for games.

When Ollie finally left home we felt a black cloud had been lifted from our lives. We still worried about him but at least we were not awake all night wondering if he would return home. About that time Alex went on a foster carers' course organised by Cheshire Social Services. The speaker, Dan Hughes, was the first person to tell Alex about attachment disorder, the reason why so many children in care find life difficult and are tough to handle. In an afternoon Alex discovered that the way we had been handling Ollie (and many more) was wrong and would never work. "I suppose you have been stopping their television and sending them to bed early?" said Dan. "Yes," they all nodded. "Wrong," said Dan. "Concentrate on praising the things that go right, these children need their confidence built up not destroyed." Some in the room openly cried, if only they had been told earlier that their children need a special style of parenting.

before it could get local authority backing. We gave them a bit of money to run a few courses. Alex and I dropped in on a couple of sessions. They were bowled over, SafeBase had helped to change their lives. The combination of home visits, one to one advice and four full day group meetings taught them what they had long needed to know about Attachment and how to deal with their challenging children.

www.timpson.com Alex and John Timpson

Four years ago I got a letter out of the blue from Lynn Charlton at SafeBase. It was hardly surprising that I arranged for us to meet. Alex and I were still fostering but the family of three that brought up our total in care to 90 were to be our last (although Alex is now an active Home Start volunteer).

When Ollie became a teenager things got much worse. He caused chaos at school, where he started an enterprise selling cigarettes and Vodka. His attendance at lessons was spasmodic. We took him away before the Head issued the inevitable red card. At 14 I discovered that After Adoption does he disappeared in one of our cars ‘what it says on the tin’ - providing help in eveon a 3 day 250 mile joy ride. At 17 he was becoming involved in drugs and we had to lock up our ry possible way to adoptive families as well as finding cash. He was so unacceptable in the house he started permanent homes for 'hard to place' kids. They support adopted children and birth parents who must living in a caravan in the garden. come to terms with their children being raised by Friends were surprised that we, such experienced par- someone else. ents (by then we had fostered over 30 children) After Adoption were developing their SafeBase couldn't cope. "Send him to us," they said, "he can programme to give adoptive families just the help stay the weekend, we'll soon sort him out." Far from we had needed many years ago. SafeBase was in helping, these well meaning remarks made us feel worse. They confirmed that we, as parents, were a fail- the development stage - it had to prove its worth ure. ©Diageo

n 1977, when Alex answered an advert asking for foster carers I didn't realise how much our lives were going to change. We were assessed, passed the test, and six months later two brothers aged 4 and 3 came to live with us.

That afternoon made a big difference, we regained our self respect and got back our life. Immediately our relationship with Ollie improved.

My guide explains Attachment in simple words and pictures.

PLEDGE

After a few months I was becoming a bit of a mentor, In a frenzy of risk averse guidelines and cost-cutting, social services are in danger of abandoning the job regularly meeting Lynn and her team to discuss how SafeBase could develop. We had two clear objectives: they are there to do. I have written enough words it is time for action. The next generation depends on today’s parents there is a job to be done.

After Adoption have already distributed 15,000 copies of the book - it seems to help people understand Attachment and why it has such an influence on whether young people grow up with confidence.

I'm lucky, with a profitable business and nearly 900 shops we are in a position to help. Remember our objectives - to widen knowledge of Attachment and spread the availability of SafeBase. I think we can do both pretty quickly. After a lot of heart searching I have decided to change our company charity from ChildLine to After Adoption. ChildLine is a great charity, indeed I was a ChildLine trustee for several years and have pledged to give ChildLine a further £50,000 for each of the next three years. But After Adoption needs us even more. Our money can help SafeBase help to support 1000 families a year and tell millions of people about Attachment.

After Adoption has risen to the challenge. I have pledged a minimum of £1million (£200,000 every Understanding Attachment (the essential bonding year for 5 years). They in return have promised to in early life) must benefit anyone involved with offer SafeBase nationwide by 2015. young people. Not just adoptive parents but all parents plus a wide range of professions - teachers, As well as having collecting boxes in every shop (put probation officers, doctors, prison officers (40% of young people in prison have been in the care system) £1 in the box when we do a job for free) we will talk about SafeBase through news sheets and sell the social workers, magistrates, judges and indeed Attachment Book. cabinet ministers. At best the SafeBase programme will benefit 120 families in the next 12 months. In that time 2,500 new foster families will be established. But at a time of budget cuts SafeBase is struggling to fill the 120 places on offer. It is not just the money that is holding back local authority support. A few weeks ago Alex tried to help a friend's daughter who is keen to become a foster carer.

I've also got a challenge for Local Authorities. Next year we will use the bulk of our funding to go 50/50 with Social Services to pay the cost of the SafeBase programme in their catchment area. It might seem a long way away from shoe repairing but as I said at the beginning, when Alex applied to become a foster carer I didn't know quite where it was going to lead.

To get information Alex went to the local social services department - it was shut (since Cheshire was split in two there have been a lot of changes) she moved on to the Council offices where they were pleasant but no-one could help. No leaflets, no one to talk to, just a promised phone call that never came.

“We’ll be doing lots of free jobs for a £1 donation.” A Timpson Trainee in London

©iainmoore

“I have pledged a minimum £1million £200k every year for 5 years.”

During one of our discussions I decided to write a book. I was about to go to Las Vegas - a mini break but a long time on the plane. Lynn gave me a collection of text books on Attachment - intellectual words written by experts. I wanted to explain Attachment in pictures with very few words, so that non academics could understand. I showed the final draft to Ollie who read it carefully (it only takes ten minutes) when he finished he turned to me and simply said: "That’s me isn't it?"

THE BIG PLAN After Adoption CEO, Lynn Charlton, explains why Timpson’s support is crucial to the SafeBase programme. parents who were really struggling to know how to meet their children’s emotional needs or how to deal with very challenging behavior. It was clear to us that adoptive parents were simply not equipped with the right tools to make their families a success. They needed help, some were in crisis and disruption of the adoptive placement was a real possibility, meaning that their children would return to public care. In response we developed the SafeBase programme.

The pledge of a £1 million pounds support over the next five years for SafeBase will definitely make sure that children who have had a difficult start in life benefit from the security of belonging to a ‘forever family’. Making placements work is central to adoption. Often people forget that the 2,500 children adopted from care each year are some of society’s most vulnerable children and they are children who have often suffered from inconsistent parenting in their early lives, or abuse and neglect. If they remained in care there would be a 40% chance they would face problems in later life such as youth offending, relationship difficulties, and mental health problems.

SafeBase SafeBase has three parts; a family assessment so the adoptive parents, and we, can understand the problems; a training course - putting parents in control and teaching practical skills and educating them about attachment, and then ongoing support.

Ÿ Family Assessment Ÿ Training Course ©After Adoption

The success of SafeBase programme for families has been overwhelming. We’ve prevented placement breakdowns but perhaps more importantly we have helped to build happy families where children can grow up and belong.

The majority of adoptive parents face a challenging time due to children with Attachment problems, and to make placements work we need to give adoptive parents the skills and knowledge to re-parent these children. SafeBase is a programme that does just that. It makes families work.

Background SafeBase was developed with the support of John Timpson and his family, who through their personal experience of adoption and fostering clearly understood why it was needed - I didn’t have to sell it to them. Without proper adoption support 1 in 5 adoption placements will fail to last into adulthood. After Adoption has a long history of providing support to adoptive families and children’s birth parents who can no longer parent them. A number of years ago we were getting requests for help from adoptive

Ÿ On-going Support

Last week one parent said to me: “SafeBase ended five years of isolation for us because we did not know where to turn to for help”.

Happy Families The success of SafeBase programme for families has been overwhelming. We have prevented placement breakdowns but perhaps more importantly we have helped to build happy families where children can grow up and belong.

Ambition So, how do we make this available to everyone? This was the question on which we sought John’s advice. He’d become a mentor to our team over a period of time and had helpfully written a ‘Guide to Attachment’, a 10 minute read to improve people’s understanding about Attachment, that we have widely distributed. The answer was to have the joint goal to make SafeBase available to everyone by 2016.

Lynn Charlton, CEO After Adoption “I’m going to have my head shaved.” A Timpson Branch Colleague in Devon

Strategy To overcome the obstacles to families getting the help they need John pledged his support to raise £1million and we agreed to:

Phase One SafeBase will be available to all families who adopt through After Adoption’s Families that Last service and we will encourage other agencies to do the same. We will be widely distributing the Guide to Attachment so that more people learn about it and we will develop partnerships with pilot local authorities with agreement to make SafeBase available in their areas.

©After Adoption

Phase Two In phase two we will be developing more partnerships, benefiting more children. We expect to be delivering over 200 programmes per year with a sustainable service to take us beyond 2016.

Effecting Change Together we will be measuring the success of placements and we want to know if more people want to adopt as a result of this available support. Local authorities spend £1.5billion on children's services every time they find a family for a child in care they save between £30,000 and £50,000 a year. The partnership funding provided by Timpson means that local authorities are getting great value for money. Together we are effecting change - making adoption work for children. After Adoption wishes to thank John and his family for their significant support – this is a fantastic example of how to make a real difference to people’s lives.

1 in 5 adoptive placements fail without support. children who stay in care have a 40% chance of having problems in adulthood. 25% of children who need adoptive families won’t find a family unless adoption support like SafeBase is available.

“SafeBase will be available to all families who adopt through After Adoption’s ‘Families that Last’ service and we will encourage other agencies to do the same.”

THE NATIONAL PICTURE Every year one in five adoptions fails, often because of Attachment difficulties between the parents and child. Combined with falling adoption rates in the UK (only 2,300 children were adopted last year) an increasing number of children are growing up in the care of local authorities (up 6% in a year). Many of these children are society’s most vulnerable, who may have suffered from abuse or neglect, and these experiences can impact on the success of adoption placements. The facts and costs associated with children in care are sobering – children who stay in care have a 40% chance of having problems such as mental health issues in adulthood; 26% of children who grow up in care are not in education, employment or training at 19 – compared to just 6% of the rest of the population; and local authorities spend over £1.5billion on maintaining children in care.

However, for every child that is successfully placed in a loving home, the local authority saves £30,000 - £50,000 a year in care costs until the child is 18, while the longterm cost savings can be significantly more in terms of health care, benefits and social support. Charities like After Adoption seek to recruit adoptive families for children with very complex backgrounds. It is very important that adoptive parents are adequately prepared for this and that they receive the support they need to make their families work. After Adoption’s SafeBase programme is already making a positive difference in regions including Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside and Wales, with over 120 families and more than 200 children helped to build long lasting attachments. This will grow significantly by 2016.

“We’re running loads of fundays in-store.” A Timpson Branch Manager in Yorkshire

Some of the individuals and families who have benefited from the After Adoption SafeBase programme share their stories and reveal what a difference it has made to their lives...

MAKING A Difference

Our Story

My Story

The Campbell Family

Adam

Our little girl was nearly three when she came to live with us. Having raised our birth son, aged eleven, we already had parenting experience and had also looked after children with complex needs. Although we recognised that our daughter had had a very difficult start in life, we thought that we could turn it around quite quickly.

We have two adopted children who share the same birth mother. Our son Harry was 18 months old when we were able to adopt him. His half sister arrived about a year later aged 12 months. Harry was always a lively little boy, forever fidgeting and barely able to keep still. He enjoyed his time in the infant’s school, but when he was about 7 years old and moved up into the juniors we noticed a change in his behaviour. Harry struggled with the more formal classroom environment and playground peer pressures. He was okay in class but would often let his frustrations rip at home. Whilst he wasn’t behaving terribly, we and friends noticed his behaviour was at more extreme end of the spectrum.

However, it proved to be a difficult journey. We kept thinking there was something wrong, all of our normal parenting techniques and instincts weren’t able to manage our daughter’s difficult behaviour and we began to feel very isolated. When we shared our concerns with a social worker, she told us about SafeBase. The programme marked a turning point in that it created an environment in which we could share our concerns with others, bringing us the support and understanding that we needed to continue on our journey. We gained specialist knowledge about our daughter’s attachment difficulties, allowing us to understand the origins of our child’s behaviour and enabling us to separate the behaviour from the child. We stopped blaming ourselves and no longer felt as isolated. Life is continuing to improve for our family. We use what we learned on the SafeBase programme and our daughter’s behaviour, both at school and at home, has greatly improved. SafeBase has been extremely positive for our family. Without it, we don’t know where we would be now.

Adam had such a positive experience with After Adoption he wanted to give something back so he became a Trustee of the charity and also acts as a SafeBase Ambassador, championing the programme to others.

We made contact with After Adoption who at that time was piloting the SafeBase project. My wife and I took part in two 2 day sessions. We’d always shied away from support group stuff but part of the value of the course was seeing where we as a family sat on the spectrum with other families with similar issues.

That was really valuable. We learned about very early childhood experiences, even in the womb, and went through some of the theory of brain development. We explored theraplay – play sessions where we could model some of the soothing behaviours to help settle Harry down and even learned how to have a conversation with him in a way that would help him feel less pressured. SafeBase also assisted us in helping the school understand why some adopted children have behavioural problems and we were able to figure out how we could all work together – parent, child and school. The whole SafeBase programme was so valuable. We realised we weren’t alone and that it wasn’t our fault, or Harry’s. It was an incredibly positive experience and a great course that would benefit any parent.

My Story Sheila My name is Sheila Quinn and I am very proud and excited to be The National Coordinator for After Adoption’s SafeBase Team. On a professional and also a personal level, being an adoptive mother of a sibling group of three girls, I cannot speak highly enough about the SafeBase programme and the positive results and impact it achieves for adoptive families. Research shows that children have poorer life chances if they grow up in care, adoption gives a child the opportunity to grow up with a forever family. Some adoptive placements do however break down. Families have testified that using the strategies and techniques learnt on the SafeBase programme, has enhanced their family life, reducing the risk of placement breakdown.

“We’re doing a team car boot sale this year.” Some names have been changed in this feature for the purpose of confidentiality.

Some names have been changed in this feature for the purpose of confidentiality.

A Max Spielmann Branch in Lancashire

The SafeBase programme draws critical acclaim from leading figures in children’s care services.

WORKING In Partnership Colin Pettigrew, Sefton Borough Council’s Director of Young People and Families, applauds the SafeBase partnership.

“This is an exciting new venture... for Sefton to offer a quality service to adopted children and adoptive families”

Their Story How SafeBase Helps “We’ve us o foc learnt t over t and no . ” a re ct

“The y really therapla , helped y the especiall trol con touch & ts.” elemen

©iainmoore

Sefton Borough SafeBase’ was developed by After Adoption Council Adoption circa 2004 and has received critical acclaim Service has, for and produced positive outcomes. some years now, acknowledged the importance of working in partnership with organisations like It assists adoptive parents to understand and After Adoption. This partnership has proved progress the formation of attachments via invaluable in improving the life chances of individual assessment and group participation. children separated from their birth families, to ‘SafeBase’ addresses the fundamental base assist birth families to come to terms with the to the security of placement and therefore the loss of their children, and to enable adoptive needs of children separated from their birth parents to understand and meet the needs of families in terms of lifelong emotional security. their adopted child. This has been achieved for This is an exciting new venture and a further birth families and adopted adults, and the opportunity for Sefton to ensure it continues to provision of counselling for birth families and offer a quality service to adopted children and related support groups. adoptive families. In Sefton’s usual forward thinking on provision of services a further exciting opportunity has arisen to expand the partnership with After Adoption by providing the course SafeBase to all Sefton adoptive parents.

“We’ve had great support from other adopters and no longer feel Isolated.”

“We’ve been rem of the goo inded d th The reaso ings... “We l ns e “SafeBase adopting for to kee arned an pd These are just some of the comments from adoptive saved our why we did d the st oing it.” parents who took part in the SafeBase support group u f f adoption.” that w orks.” in Chorley, Lancashire in September 2010. Thanks “ It h a s to the support of Timpson very many more adopted “Now given me .... I realise I children and their families will receive the help and nding a understa reciate understanding they need to become a happy and not on my m pp A problem own! successful family unit. For more information on the I try to a y child shared is hat m w work of After Adoption or to make a donation please a problem is going visit www.afteradoption.org.uk or call 0161 839 4932. .” halved.” through

“The e programm r u saved o marriage.”

“I’ll be doing a sponsored triathlon.” A Timpson Locksmith in Manchester

Steven Small Director, St. Andrew’s Children’s Society We are now about to run our second SafeBase course since we took on the licence to run the After Adoption programme in Scotland last year. I’m struck already by what an overwhelmingly positive experience it has been for the families involved and the remarkable progress they have made with their adopted children. Witnessing how adoptive families have responded so positively to the programme and how well they have managed to improve their everyday interactions with their children has been a very powerful experience for me and for the staff running the courses. I have been closely involved with one particular family who told me how participating in the SafeBase programme really opened their eyes and gave them a whole new perspective on understanding their child’s challenging behaviour. One counsellor for a CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) team based in East Central Scotland, has also commented enthusiastically about SafeBase and its positive effect on one child and his family; ‘It sounds as if the SafeBase Course has been very useful not only in terms of thinking about your child but gaining insight into yourselves and your parenting styles. It sounds as if you have made some significant changes in how you manage things with your child’. We can spend as much time as we like ‘talking’ about why traumatised children behave the way they do but unless we furnish parents with good, practical, easy to apply ideas on how to engage, play and connect emotionally with their children then their negative behaviour patterns are unlikely to be resolved. The SafeBase programme does just that. It has helped the families we support make huge progress.

“I’m already struck by what an overwhelmingly positive experience it has been for the families involved.”

HOW WE PLAN TO RAISE £1M

£1m

“I know from our experience of supporting ChildLine in the past that most money put into our collecting tins on the counter comes from customers appreciating the great customer service they have received in our shops. Our people are happy to do a little job for free in return for a small donation of £1 into the After Adoption tin. We hope to raise £1m this way. Feel free to ask our people to do a small job for you - like a quick glue or stitch in return for that £1!”

A GUIDE TO ATTACHMENT! “My 35 years experience as a foster carer and adoptive parent has given me an insight into the often challenging behaviour of some children who have gone through the care system. I’ve written a little book, which I hope will help explain why some children and young people behave in the way they do. It’s available in all our shops. ”

Paul raise d£

When it comes to our people’s passion for raising money for our favourite causes... the sky’s the limit - literally! Emma and Michelle actually threw themselves out of an airplane! Paul cycled from the East to the West coast of Scotland - and we have plenty of colleagues happy to monkey around on fundraising fundays to help us get to £1m for After Adoption. Emma & Michelle raised £2k too!

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