This Christmas marks seven years of our charity Christmas appeal, Secret Santa.

The magic of Christmas begins in childhood. Carefully hanging stockings. Peeking at presents under the tree. But for many, Christmas is anything but magical.

For seven years, we've been asking people like you to support our charity Christmas appeal by becoming a Secret Santa and making a donation.

Every year, our supporters remind us of their incredible generosity. Thanks to you, we can continue to be there for vulnerable children and families across the UK.

To celebrate, we reflect on the Secret Santa milestones we've achieved over the years.

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Are you a Clinical Psychologist with a passion for working with children and young people in care, care leavers or those who have experienced trauma or attachment insecurity?  

Are you looking for an opportunity to join an enthusiastic, creative and innovative team, to shape service delivery, pursue specialist interests and influence system change.

This is an exciting opportunity to join our highly skilled team of Psychologists, Therapists, and Therapeutic Social Workers, commissioned by Derby City Council and Derby and Derbyshire ICB.    In this role you will join our clinical team, reporting to the Lead Psychologist, and contribute to the development and delivery of a specialist trauma and attachment service for Children in Care and Care Leavers through specialist assessment, formulation and intervention, clinical leadership and supervision. 
 
In addition, the role will involve supporting the development of therapeutic input to Action for Children residential homes, working alongside our Therapeutic Practitioners to provide assessment, formulation, training, whole team reflective practice and consultation to embed an approach to therapeutic care based on principles of PACE and trauma informed care. 

We are also developing our links with Adoption East Midlands, and there may be an opportunity to contribute to their multi-disciplinary team reflection group which brings together MDT colleagues together with Virtual School, and Educational Psychology services to discuss complex cases through a systemic lens, as well as the potential to offer consultations alongside their Occupational Therapist and/or Speech and Language Therapist and Therapeutic Social Workers. 

You will receive regular clinical supervision from a senior clinical psychologist and separate line management supervision from the clinical lead. You will have access to external training in models such as Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), Theraplay® and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and will be expected to keep abreast of the latest developments in the profession.

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Are you a strong communicator and creative thinker with a flair for innovation who is focused and passionate about changing the lives of children and their families? 

We have a unique opportunity for an Operational Director of Children's Services to provide leadership and management across Wales. This is an exciting and rewarding role with the opportunity to make a huge personal impact.  

Reporting to the National Director of Wales, you will lead, develop, and manage a dedicated team of managers who deliver a range of children's services across a specified area. You will work will commissioners and be responsive to legislation and policy change to identify areas for service development. You will be skilled in working across service areas to meet identified needs and develop new, sustainable services. 

Wales has ambitious plans to grow residential, criminal exploitation and mental health services whilst ensuring our existing service footprint remains strong and sustainable. 

A key part of this role involves undertaking the role of Responsible Individual for which you will need a ‘fit person’ interview with CIW. You will have responsibility for oversight of specific regulated services including holding responsibility for the quality and culture of the service. You will need a strong understanding of RISCA regulations as part of this role.

This is an exciting opportunity for an inspirational leader who wants to make a difference to the lives of children and young people as part of an enthusiastic and ambitious Wales team. 

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This winter, our Secret Santa TV advert is back on TV. Why? To ask for your help. We want to put the magic back into Christmas for vulnerable children.

The Action for Children Christmas TV ad will be running again this year, giving people around the country the chance to experience the magic of our Secret Santa Christmas appeal.

The story behind the Christmas ad
The advert features three of our campaign's characters – Nathan, Lucy and Tripti. Narrating the advert is Larry Lamb. He shares their individual stories as they come to life through Christmas cards displayed on a festive mantlepiece.

Nathan, Lucy and Tripti represent the 4.5 million children across the UK living in poverty. It’s easy to think that poverty happens elsewhere, but it’s affecting children in your community. For many, Christmas is just another day of empty cupboards, putting on an extra jumper to keep warm, and wondering why their friend got presents when they didn’t.

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We are looking for an outstanding Fostering Social Worker who can support carers from the Devon/Somerset borders to Cornwall - so flexibility to travel across this cluster as and when needed is imperative for this role. You will also have the opportunity to assess applicants to foster.

Participation in an out-of-hours telephone support service for carers is an expectation of this role.

How you’ll create brighter futures

• Providing professional supervision and developmental support, including advice and guidance to fostering families and working with other professionals where appropriate.
• Completing complex assessments of applicants to foster, making appropriate recommendations, to ensure the best outcome for children, young people, and families.
• Ensuring the voices of young people are heard and shape our services;
• Striving to ensure our services are inclusive and celebrate diversity;
• Supporting fostering families to look after children and young people who have experienced trauma, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to enable them to undertake this complex task within a family home environment, undertaking fostering reviews, providing high quality, analytical reports and presenting to Panel where appropriate, ensuring that children are receiving the best service possible.
• Being accountable for ensuring statutory compliance and meet regulatory body requirements regarding registration.
• Enthusiasm for learning and self-development, for yourself as a reflective practitioner, and in support of our carer training.

Click here for full job details 

Are you a strong communicator and creative thinker with a flair for innovation who is focused and passionate about changing the lives of children and their families? 

We have a unique opportunity for an Operational Director of Children's Services to provide leadership and management across Wales. This is an exciting and rewarding role with the opportunity to make a huge personal impact. 

Reporting to the National Director of Wales, you'll lead, develop and manage a dedicated team of managers who deliver a range of children's services across a specified area. 

Wales has ambitious plans to grow residential, fostering, criminal exploitation and mental health services whilst ensuring our existing service footprint remains strong and sustainable.

This is an exciting opportunity for an inspirational leader who wants to make a difference to the lives of children and young people as part of a passionate and ambitious Wales team.

Click her for full job details

A Bit about the Service: 

Our three linked services, Fostering Southwest, Fostering Southwest Peninsula and Family Breaks Devon provide high quality foster families to vulnerable children and young people working closely with nearby Action for Children Services. 

We offer the highest standard of care-providing carers with excellent training, supervision, and support to achieve the best outcomes for the young people we look after.  We strive to provide a good quality of care, always ensuring the young people are the centre of our approach.

A bit about the role:

We are looking for an outstanding Fostering Social Worker who can support placements in the Southwest of England, You will have a small case load of 3-4 families.

How you'll help to create brighter futures. 

• Providing professional supervision and developmental support, including advice and guidance to fostering families and working with other professionals where appropriate.
• Completing complex assessments of applicants to foster, making appropriate recommendations, to ensure the best outcome for children, young people, and families.
• Supporting fostering families to look after children and young people who have experienced trauma, ensuring they have the skills and knowledge to enable them to undertake this complex task within a family home environment, undertaking fostering reviews, providing high quality, analytical reports and presenting to Panel where appropriate, ensuring that children are receiving the best service possible.
• Being accountable for ensuring statutory compliance and meet regulatory body requirements regarding registration.
• Enthusiasm for learning and self-development, for yourself as a reflective practitioner, and in support of our carer training.

Click here for full job details

What is a Spending Review?

The Spending Review is when the government sets out its plans for departmental budgets over the coming years. This covers all day-to-day spending by departments that can be planned in advance – around 40% of government spending (the rest, such as benefits, is demand-led and less predictable). It also confirms funding settlements for the devolved governments through the Barnett formula.

This blog outlines what the latest Spending Review, published on 11 June 2025, means for families, children and young people. Most of these headline announcements relate to England only, as they concern spending decisions that are devolved.

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​Reporting to the Managing Director of Children's Services, you will provide clear and visible leadership with a direct responsibility for Action for Children’s service portfolio across Wales.

Working across the full landscape of children's services in Wales will require you to have an understanding of the full range of statutory children’s services.

You will use your understanding of the policy landscape of the Welsh Government and strong business acumen to lead and grow a viable portfolio of services across Wales.

Our homes and services should be a place of comfort and our teams safe for all children. This requires cultural competency in our workforce and a clear plan to ensure that the diversity within our teams reflects that of the children and young people we support. This will be a key focus.

How you'll help to create brighter futures  

• Using energetic leadership to create engaging relationships in and outside of Action for Children.
• Creating an environment that supports and engages children, young people, and families.
• Connecting policy to today’s opportunities, anticipating future opportunities based on policy and the voice of children and young people.

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Derrick and Sue began fostering with Action for Children in 1999. Since then, they've fostered more than 30 children.

After their two daughters had grown up and left home, Sue and Derrick decided to open up their home and begin fostering. It was a decision that lasted over 20 years.

They spent most of their time as foster carers providing long term fostering to children in need. Now in their 70s, the couple have retired.

They say they miss it immensely, but are thrilled that most of their foster children keep in touch and are very proud of all their successes.

Click here to read their story