Helen Little, Training, Consultancy, and Events Manager, sat down with Marrianne Palin, Associate Trainer at CoramBAAF, to discuss effective ways to engage with children and truly understand their thoughts and feelings.

During the conversation, Marrianne shared various techniques for direct work with children, offering insights into what these approaches look like in practice, along with practical tools that can be implemented in everyday work with young people.

Marrianne Palin qualified as a social worker in 2002, and with a wealth of experience in child protection and family placement social work. She holds a degree in social work, along with a PGCE. Since 2016, she has been working as a trainer while simultaneously practicing in the field. Apart from her role at CoramBAAF, Marianne serves as an associate trainer for AFKA Cymru and works part-time in adoption. During her tenure with AFKA Cymru, she contributed to a number of National Adoption Service Wales' good practice guides. Marianne's primary areas of expertise encompass fostering, adoption, permanency planning, and life story work.

Helen Little joined CoramBAAF in 2023. Latterly, she was Learning and Development Manager for almost 8 years at Langley House Trust. The learning and development function she developed for Langley now offers an extensive programme for staff and managers whether that be face to face, virtual, e-learning or coaching. Reflecting on her career to date, she can see that this new role for CoramBAAF draws on the many parts of it from the beginning in the hospitality and conferences industry to running her own learning and development consultancy for over 18 years, designing and delivering a range of programmes for clients across many sectors.