The Social Work Community Podcast

Two practitioners discuss cases that led to them facing intimidation and verbal abuse, undermining their mental health and ultimately causing them to leave their previous roles Separately, Anne, who was a frontline children’s social worker, decided to leave the profession because she felt unprotected after dealing with a safeguarding case where she experienced verbal abuse, intimidation from...

How do you measure contentment? This is one of the many questions practitioners from Gloucester County Council's (GCC) adult social care team sought to answer in part two of the podcast episode Adult social care - the difference that matters. The conversation continues after the first episode, where Jo Sutherland, the principal social worker, Merryn Tate, assistant director and strategic lead for...

This episode discusses the challenges faced by adult social care in Gloucestershire County Council (GCC), including increasing demand, complex needs, and pressure on health and social care services. In response to these challenges, the team at GCC have developed a new strategy called the Target Operating Model (TOM). You will hear Jo Sutherland, the principal social worker, Merryn Tate, assistant...

In the final in a three-part series from North East Lincolnshire Council,  social workers from children's services explore some of the changes that contributed to a significant improvement in the authority's Ofsted rating. In this episode Emily, who recently turned 18, explains how she has been supported and equipped to make the transition into adulthood. And Ben highlights how through North...

Moving from agency to permanent was not initially part of the not initially part of the plan for three social workers at South Gloucestershire, when rules limiting English councils’ use of locums came into force. But when the rules were implemented in October 2025 , the option to go permanent revealed a range of opportunities that they may not otherwise have known existed. Tom, Jariatu and C...

In collaboration with Wokingham Borough Council adult social care, social workers from the hospital discharge team team tell us why they love working there. Josh, Noku and principal social worker Vicky describe what it is like working in this market town west of London. Hospital discharge teams aren't often spoken about but the work social workers do is of immense importance to adults who require...

In the final instalment of the Neurodiversity belongs in social work campaign podcast miniseries, Sharmeen speaks to 26-year-old Elizabeth Glandfield about being dyslexic.  Elizabeth, diagnosed in primary school, talks about growing up with dyslexia and how she navigated the world around her.  Having been told by a teacher at school that social work may not be the best career for her, sh...

In this episode of the Social Work Community Podcast, part of the Neurodiversity belongs in social work campaign miniseries, Sharmeen speaks to 'Stacey' (not her real name) talking about her experience of being diagnosed with autism and ADHD (AuADHD) in her forties.  Stacey, a social worker, has not yet disclosed her diagnosis to her colleagues. She explains why she feels unsafe to do this in...

In this special miniseries tied to Community Care's 'Neurodiversity belongs in social work' campaign, Sharmeen Ziauddin interviews Dr Arlene Weekes, social work professor and academic. Dr Weekes has over 35 years experience in the sector and was diagnosed with dyslexia later on in life, while writing her PhD. She has recently completed research which will form part of a new book coming out this ye...

Welcome to the first episode of Season five of the Social Work Community Podcast! This podcast episode, especially recorded for World Social Work month/week/day, features an interview with Nadine KL Boyne, an experienced social worker and author of the book Social Work is Not Self-Harm .  Trigger warning: in this episode there are references to self-harm when discussing Nadine’s book &l...

The foundations of trauma awareness are rooted in kindness and compassion and over the last two years, adult social care practitioners at Essex County Council have been on a journey to embed values like these into their direct work, supervision and in shaping Essex’s practice model. Listen as practitioners Danni, Melanie Noel, Kayleigh Johnson and Claire McDermid, explain how trauma awarenes...

At the end of 2025, Hampshire County Council’s children’s services introduced a new pathway plan designed to safely support the process of children safely going home to their parents. The Going Home Pathway uses pre-screening tools that are child centred, family focussed and  backed by evidence to guide the journey in getting children back home to their families. In this episode,...

Introduced initially as a pilot in January 2025, the Council’s Integrated Front Door team tracks contacts and referrals using digital whiteboards that share live data. The new technology means an end to time-consuming manual recording, freeing up more hours for practitioners to focus on their work and greater opportunities for the service to invest in the workforce. In this episode, Laura Snell, s...

North Lincolnshire Council's children and families service is committed to working collaboratively with families through its One Family Approach practice model - an approach that uses co-production to shape support for families and practitioners. In the final segment of this three-part mini-series in collaboration with North Lincolnshire Council, practitioners Steve and Shabnam explore the Council...

In the first in a three-part series from North East Lincolnshire Council,  social workers from children's services explore some of the changes that contributed to a significant improvement in the authority's Ofsted rating. Earlier this year, the council, previously graded inadequate , was rated good overall and outstanding for leadership by inspectors, who found its children's services were "large...

Ensuring that practitioners have access to wellbeing support, flexible working arrangements and the chance to network with peers are all areas that North Lincolnshire Council is committed to. In this the second instalment of our three-part miniseries with North Lincolnshire's children and families service, we speak to Heidi Blakey, senior workforce, engagement and development officer in children’s...

Hampshire Hive is a support network funded by Hampshire County Council, that assists fostering families across the county. In this podcast episode Hampshire Hive foster carers Andrea, and Johnny and Hampshire Hive manager Amy discuss the transferable skills that foster carers can bring from previous professions into supporting children and young people. Johnny used to do youth work, while Andrea u...

Improving services for children and young people in a large rural county is no easy feat. In the summer of 2025, Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) children's services received a 'good' from Ofsted in three areas and 'outstanding' in two areas. Read the report here. With a strong relational approach senior leaders have led the children social care workforce with strong and empathetic leadership....

This episode is part two of Oxfordshire County Council’s children’s service’s podcast talking about the benefits of having an in-house clinical team. Clinical pyschologist Dr Emmanuella Vernon is back, talking with Anthony Sayles and Beccy Hawes who are both part of children and families first teams within Oxfordshire. Anthony and Beccy talk about how they lean on the clinical team for advice on d...

In this special two-part podcast you can listen to ‘Carrie’ (not her real name) explain how practitioners at Oxfordshire County Council children’s services have helped her move from crisis-point to the point of stability and safety. Carrie experienced physical abuse from her 10-year-old son. As a result she was invited to take part in a special ‘Non Violent Resistance’ course aimed at parents who...

In this episode Sharmeen Ziauddin, senior commercial editor, speaks to Nikki Murphy and Lynn Roberts all the way in the Falkland Islands - that's 8,000 miles away. As a British Overseas Territory (BOT), the Falklands' social services is considerably different to local authorities in the UK. Nikki being the head of social services explains the kind of issues that are prevalent in the Falklands and...

This new three-part series, is created in collaboration with North Lincolnshire’s Children and Families Service and explores career progression, well-being and social work practice.  In its most recent 2022 Ofsted inspection, North Lincolnshire Council's Children and Families was rated outstanding in all areas by Ofsted, with inspectors citing an “exemplary” commitment to children as one of its st...

Hampshire Hive is a support network funded by Hampshire County Council, that assists fostering families across the county. In this podcast episode Hampshire Hive foster carers Andrea and Johnny, explore some of the myths often associated with choosing fostering as a career. Andrea highlights the flexibility fostering offers and talks about how she initially combined her career as a mental health n...

As part of the  ‘ Social work around the world’ series, this episode features two social workers who have practised in Ghana and England. Although social work practice in Ghana mirrors much of what is taught in the UK, a lack of government funding and an emphasis on cultural values that promote community mean that social work in practice is quite different in both countries. It is commonplace for...

This is a special episode of our live webinar which was recorded in June 2025. Guests include Curtis Powell, podcaster and deputy team leader and two newly qualified social workers, Kai Tutton (adults) and Lashonte Royal (childrens) and was chaired by Sharmeen Ziauddin, an editor at Community Care. They talk about their respective jobs on the ASYE programme, how they prepared for their roles and h...