The Social World Podcast

This is another podcast from the highly successful BASPCAN Congress held at Edinburgh University. Professor Harry Ferguson on social work practice in families , how social workers engage with children and what the landscape of the profession is like today. Harry joined the university of Nottingham in November 2008 as Professor of Social Work. Prior to that he held posts at the University of the We...

Representing over 1 million social workers world wide, IFSW has NGO status at the UN and represents the different ways that the profession serves communities over all continents. Ruth Stark is the current President and talks to me in a wide ranging interview, touching on subjects that unite the family of social work as well as illustrating its diversity. After ‘trying out’ whether or not to be a S...

Following the general election I thought it interesting to hear about what’s happening in these two countries. Alan Baird. The Scottish Government’s Chief Social Work Adviser. Previously Director of Social Work, Dundee City Council for the previous 11 years and Past President of the Association of Directors of Social Work. In general, his role is to advise the Government on social work issues as t...

“Self Leadership in Social Work” , subtitled “reflections from practice”, a new book by Bill McKitterick that offers a fresh and innovative view on leadership for social workers and managers. It’s a call for confident, skilled and knowledgeable practice in social work. Published by Policy Press. Bill is a social worker now working in supervision and leadership. He has been a director of social ser...

The formal debate on mandatory reporting took place at the BASPCAN Congress in Edinburgh  where a packed theatre voted substantially against the proposal initially and , at the end, still voted against but with a much reduced majority. This debate, whoever wins the General Election, will continue to divide the professional community. Peter Garsden, the President of the UK Association of Child Abus...

John Devaney MBE, Director of Social Work Education at Queens University , Belfast who Chaired the Congress gives his thoughts on the success of the event. John was 20 years a social work practitioner and joined the University in 2006. He is also National Chair of the British Association for the Study of Child Abuse and Neglect.   Then, to follow, Sue Berelowitz, the Deputy Children’s Commissioner...

The practice of child trafficking and modern slavery in the 21st century at the level that it exists is one of the most appalling and shameful indictments of the worldwide human condition. Bharti Patel is CEO of ECPAT UK. Bharti has more than fifteen years’ experience working to address human rights abuses around the world, leading high-profile research, campaigning and advocacy organisations in t...

It certainly has been child protection week! With the Prime Minister announcing his ideas for professionals in child protection to be charged with ‘wilful neglect’– carrying a prison term of up to 5 years if they fail to report a child in danger. The fact that the Oxford cases that sparked this latest thinking specifically said that there was no evidence of wilful neglect and with all safeguarding...

With the announcement of the new Chair of the Historic Abuse Inquiry this is a story that should be referred to that inquiry as I think it typical of the unfinished business that this country is awash with and the hundreds, if not thousands, of survivors out there still living with the legacy of what was done to them. Usually I give interviews to the media on child protection, cases, policy or oth...

This episode has a conversation about a non profit company working with young adults with a learning disability and a bit from me about the comments of Simon Bailey, Chief Constable with a leading role in combatting child sex abuse. He advocates that some “non-contact” paedophiles who just download child porn should be referred to the Health service rather than the criminal justice system. I disag...

What’s the picture of social work in Scotland? After a monumentous year for the country, how is the profession shaping up in Scotland? Jane Devine is the Business Manager for Social Work Scotland, the successor organisation to the Association of Directors of Social Work. She talks of initiatives, political support, policy priorities and hopes for the future in a wide ranging interview. She also fo...

An excellent interview with Julie Taylor who Chairs the Congress Committee for the BASPCAN Congress 2015 at the University of Edinburgh. BASPC AN stands for the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. You can find it at www.baspcan.org.uk . Its Facebook address is its full name and the Twitter handle for the Congress is #9ed2015. This prestigious event takes pl...

Social work and Media Training. What is the image of social work in the media? How long will social workers be the targets for allowing children to be abused or the elderly to be dehumanised? Probably as long as we avoid looking too closely at ourselves and demand scapegoats. We do love to cultivate our blame culture. Given all this, how happy are social workers with the image of the profession po...

Tessa Munt serves as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rt Hon Vince Cable MP, Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills. Tessa  was inspired to pursue a career in politics by her grandfather who took up politics in his adopted country, Kenya, serving as Minister for Finance & Development through the 1950s. Elected the MP for Wells Constituency in May 2010. A strong supporter of so...

JSWEConference Part 6. Thoughts of newly qualified workers and social media in social work education. A final roundup of interviews from the conference. Firstly an interesting discussion with three newly qualified social workers from the University of Dundee, Leanne , Nicola and Will. The next interview is with six authors launching their new book at the conference “Social Media in Social Work Edu...

An interview with Guy Shennan, the recently elected Chair of the British Association of Social Workers. Then, a short interview I gave on the situation in Birmingham concerning stress in social work and its impact on morale and service delivery. Guy Shennan qualified as a social worker in 1989, having trained at the University of Sheffield. He worked in Derbyshire for nine years, mainly in childre...

Three more great interviews from this year’s JSWEConference. Such a rich vein of content. I hope you enjoy them. Today’s interviews  include Juliet Koprowska , Senior Lecturer in Social Work at York University talking about exploring the use of self, revealed through examination of real social work encounters. Sam Baeza, from the University of Chichester whose session “swimming with sharks” examin...

RUTH SMITH is Editor and Content Director of Community Care, the multi-award winning information service for social workers. She is responsible for all content and digital products across Community Care, from the news website communitycare.co.uk to the paid for information service Community Care Inform Children and Inform Adults. Her expertise includes how to make information accessible to busy pr...

An interview with Alan Wood, President of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services. Currently DCS for Hackney and previously Chief Executive of the Learning Trust credited for taking education in Hackney from the worst in the country to a position of excellence in 10 years. He also caused a storm with quoted comments in a Guardian article calling in to question some newly qualified soci...

Three more interviews from the Joint Social Work Education Conference. Firstly Clare Parkinson,Lucille Allain and Helen Hingley-Jones exploring contemporary uses of baby and young child observation. Secondly, David McKendrick talking of a mixed method evaluation of Twitter chat designed to encourage connectivity and professional identity in new social work students. Finally, John Dow, a service us...

Three more excellent interviews from the Joint Social Work Education Conference at Royal Holloway, University of London. Firstly, Tim Kelly , Dean of Social Work and Community Education who Chaired the whole event, talks of his vision of social work. Then Amanda Taylor discusses the value she has found in social work book groups and all the possibilities that stem from it. Lastly Pam Trevithick ,...

This episode has two interviews I gave on topical child care subjects.  The first talks about the influence of Peter Righton , a convicted abuser who was influential in changing systems of care for looked after children in the 1980s and 1990s. There still could be much to discover about not only his behaviour but networks and contacts he had at all levels of influence and seniority. The second is...

The second of this series features John Devaney, Director of Social Work Education at Queens University , Belfast and his co-presenter John Carpenter, Professor of Social Work  from the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. John Devaney was 20 years a social work practitioner and joined the University in 2006. He is also National Chair of the British Association for the Study of...

The 16th UK Joint  Social  Work  Education Conference and 8th UK Social Work Research Conference took place at Royal Holloway, University of London 23rd–25th July 2014. The Social World Podcast was there for its entirety and made hours of recordings for you. To be honest, such was the quality of presenters,  workshops and attendees generally, that it was really exiting but almost too much to choos...

Jane Evans, trauma parenting specialist, discusses the important issue of child to parent abuse ahead of Mirror or Mirage?: Is Adolescent to Parent Abuse a mirror image of Domestic Abuse, or is this simply a mirage? Are there cross-overs or contrasts between Parent Abuse and Domestic Abuse? An exciting conference being held in Bristol on 25th September 2014 Keynote Speech by Dr Amanda Holt: Dr Ama...