Social Work Successes

How can we reduce incidences of serious youth violence…?  If you want the answers Clair Graham is your lady. Her passion and devotion for the young people she works with shines through in this episode She tells the story of how her team helped save a 12 year old boy who was caught up with drugs, gangs and possession of knives.  If you want a better understanding of what contextual safeguarding rea...

It was an honour and a privilege to be joined by Laura for Episode 12 of the podcast.  Laura shares her experience and insight on what worked well in her relationship with her children’s social worker and what didn’t, and why.  There are many different factors that influence the outcomes for families, but this episode is another powerful reminder of why relationship-based practice is so important....

Episode 11 features Warren Ryans inspirational success story of his time in the care system, the impact his childhood experiences had on him, and his journey to overcoming depression and healing.  We get into several issues facing the care sector: 1.        A lack of therapeutic support for children in care. 2.        Why fostering should not be seen as a ‘job’.  3.        Why fostering needs to b...

Joe Ottman shares his success story of building a relationship over two years with an adolescent boy, who had a challenging relationship with his mum, and struggled with his own mental health difficulties.  Joe has been able to build a very positive relationship with him, and he attributes this to working, 'therapeutically' and using a systemic approach to practice. 

What an absolute pleasure it was to be joined by the infamous Nanna Yabbey-Hagan for Episode 9. Nanna is Team Manager making waves in the social work world and is determined to help promote the necessary changes to the system.  Part of this determination led him to parliament last year, where he made sure the realities of being a children’s social worker were spoken into the room.  During this epi...

I was lucky enough to be joined by Faye Edwards, who is a barrister in the family courts.  We got into lots of key issues with the current ‘system’, and the 26 week timescales for proceedings, I know this episode will benefit so many practitioners. Faye shares a success story where the social workers assessment and support led to the reunification of a young baby with her mother.  Faye also shares...

For this episode I was joined by Vicki Shevlin from Social Work Sorted. She shares a story from her time in practice when she needed to recommend removal of a child. As proceedings were paused she had to continue to carry out her statutory visits and maintain a relationship with the parents. She discusses the things she felt helped to make this possible. 

Tom Green, senior social worker, shares a success story from his time in the 'Edge of Care' team. He discusses the mentalization based approach he used, and how this really helped to improve the relationship between a mother and her son and prevented him going into care. 

For this episode I was privileged to be joined by two parent experts who share their stories of their involvement with children’s services. They are part of ‘The Dandelions’, and work alongside practitioners to improve service delivery. 

I am joined by some of the practitioners who have set up a working group with 'Parent Experts' who have previously had involvement with Children's Services.     The group have called themselves 'The Dandelions' and have been making wonderful contributions to improving services. Some of these have included making a video to help parents know what to expect at Child Protecti...

Iain Smith, who is criminal defence lawyer, shares his ‘success story’ of a young adult he was representing in the criminal court. This man had a significant attachment-based trauma history and was battling an addiction to drugs. Iain encouraged the Judge to view him through a ‘trauma lens’ and suggested that she should in fact be ‘praising him’ for his efforts to try to make improvements in his l...

Jo Norris shares a 'success story' from the mother and baby assessment unit she works in.  Parents are referred to their service, by the local authority, often for a 12 week assessment and at the end of this time they make a recommendation whether the parent can return to the community with their baby or for the baby to be removed from their care.  The mum that Jo was working with had si...

Natelie Robertson shares a 'success story' from her time spent working in The Youth Offending team.  Natelie is a social worker who is championing social workers wellbeing. She discusses how  social workers are good at saving, fixing and supporting others, but not always so good at doing that for themselves.  Check out her brilliant resources on Instagram: thesocialife_ 

Episode 1 coming on the 19th of March!