In this episode, hear Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, Claire Barcham and Kayleigh Rose Evans respond to a question we received asking how an adults’ social worker can secure a role working with refugees or co-ordinating disaster relief.

This episode is hosted by Kirsty Ayakwah, senior careers editor at Community Care. If you have a question you’d like our experts to answer or if you felt their advice has helped you secure your next social work role, we want to hear from you.

Click here to read the transcript.

Listen to “#5 Ask The Experts: How do I secure a role working with refugees or co-ordinating disaster relief?” on Spreaker.

Send us an email at: careersadvice@markallengroup.com You can follow all the Ask The Experts questions and responses on: www.thesocialworkcommunity.com

Read past questions from social workers with a career question and read the responses here.

In this episode, hear Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, Claire Barcham and Kayleigh Rose Evans respond to a question we received asking what the pros and cons were of working in a local authority versus a trust?

This episode is hosted by Kirsty Ayakwah, senior careers editor at Community Care. If you have a question you’d like our experts to answer or if you felt the advice has helped you secure your next social work role, we want to hear from you.

Listen to “#4 Ask The Experts: What are the pros and cons of working in a local authority versus a trust?” on Spreaker.

Click here to read the transcript.

Send us an email at: careersadvice@markallengroup.com You can follow all the Ask The Experts questions and responses on: www.thesocialworkcommunity.com Read past questions from social workers with a career question and read the responses here.

In this episode of the Social Work Community Podcast, senior careers editor Kirsty Ayakwah speaks to two social workers who started their careers in a different profession altogether.

Monisola Osibogun and Pam Shodeinde are both social workers in children’s services who both began their working lives in law.

We find out why they made the move, what core skills they’ve been able to take from their former profession into social work and what keeps them in the sector.

Listen to “Career transitions: From law to social work – the experiences of two practitioners” on Spreaker.

Read the transcript of the interview here.

About the podcast

The Social Work Community Podcast explores the issues that matter to social work practitioners in their working lives.

Kirsty and fellow host, careers editor Sharmeen Ziauddin, interview experienced and inspiring guests, including frontline social workers who speak from the heart about their jobs, the sector and society.

The first season went down a storm and was nominated in the 2024 British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Social Work Journalism Awards.

We have since launched season two, during which we have covered whether we need more men in social work and interviewed a practitioner with 47 years’ experience about what keeps her in the profession.

Although the podcast is available on major podcast platforms, Social Work Community members will get special early access to each episode.

So sign up to the Social Work Community to be among the first to catch each episode and to connect with fellow practitioners in a safe space.

Otherwise, check out the Social Work Community Podcast on the following :

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Spreaker
• Audible (Amazon)

Click ‘follow’ or ‘subscribe’ on your podcast app so you know when a new episode is published.

And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram.

Aline is an assistant team manager in one of East Hampshire’s family help teams. She loves the countryside and had always wanted a home with a garden. But these were not viable options when she lived and worked in London.

“I grew up in the country and always wanted to eventually live somewhere where there was open space and a chance to be close to nature,” she says.

Aline lived in a London flat with her cat. Her job – then as a private maternity nurse – meant late-night hours travelling to support expectant mothers and their families, something that would be difficult to replicate in a rural setting, especially since she did not drive.

She had studied psychology for her degree and was interested in pursuing a career in psychotherapy or social work. She opted for social work and initially worked in London before exploring ways to fulfil her desire of working in a more rural setting.

“I soon realised that a move out of London would mean I would have to drive,” says Aline. So, she learnt how to drive and passed her test in 2022.

Greenery, traffic and office blocks in the centre of Basingstoke, Hampshire/ AdobeStock

From agency to perm

Aline joined Hampshire as a locum in January 2023 after a brief role at another local authority. She initially rented out her flat in London and rented a room in Hampshire.

Within three months of starting the role, Aline took up a permanent role and credits her community of peers and supportive working culture in Hampshire as reasons why she made the commitment to stay permanently.

“I was looking for a place to make roots,” she says. “Hampshire is such a great place to work. There is a good level of management, and decision making is very much in line with social work values, with all decisions focused on the children.”

Thatched cottage on the banks of the river Test at Chilbolton Cow Common in Hampshire/ AdobeStock

A love of Jane Austen!

Megan, who works in the same Hampshire district as Aline but in a different family help team, relocated from West London to Basingstoke. She wanted to get on the property ladder – something that was out of her and her husband’s reach in London.

Unlike Aline, Megan made the move to live in Hampshire almost three years before she started working there. She continued to work in London – commuting between London and Basingstoke – until she secured her role in October 2024, managing a team of about 14 family practitioners and social workers in the family help team.

“I think in a lot of ways, it meant that I could settle and get to know the area in my own way,” says Megan, who works in Alton, a market town in East Hampshire, near where author Jane Austen used to live. Megan is a self-confessed Jane Austen fan!

“I was able to move jobs with my eyes open in terms of knowing the area and the locality, but I’m still learning and that’s the beauty of social work – I feel like I learn every day in this job, and I find that there’s always somebody who can give me support.”

Jane Austen’s House Museum in Chawton, England/ AdobeStock

Having more time for hobbies

Since moving to Hampshire, Megan’s average commute has dropped from almost three hours a day, while working in London, to just 30 minutes.

“I wanted to re-shift that balance a little more by having a shorter commute so that, even if I was working late, I would still get home at a decent time and have some hours in the evening to enjoy myself,” she says.

“Living closer to home means that I can focus more time on my hobbies. I am in quite a few different social groups; I like reading and not commuting for two-and-a-half, sometimes three, hours of the day – it just gives me a little bit of time back.”

Finding community

Aline agrees. She now has two cats, who get to play in her garden, and she benefits from a community of support around her from her neighbours.

“We take care of each other,” she says. “It’s these little things – linked to community – that, in big cities like London, can get lost because everyone is so busy.”

“My life has really changed on a personal level because I’m closer to nature. Now I have a garden, I spend most of spring and summer sticking my hands in the dirt and building flower beds and I really enjoy country walks.”

Enjoying the region

Social work teams are also able to take advantage of this closer connection to their environment, as Megan explains.

“Some of the practitioners in my team had to organise some transport for a little person, and it was on the coast. There was a lot of driving for the team to do and it was a period where there were quite a few workers having to go.

Coastline in Hampshire/ Pexels

“Some of our team made a point almost every morning of stopping at the beach and watching the sunrise. They would take pictures and share them with the wider team. So there would be these moments where you’d receive a message of a beautiful setting, a rural spot or a seafront.”

Building local connections

Aline and Megan have also found that, while the size of the areas they cover is far larger, they are able to build much more local connections.

“In my previous role [in London], we occupied a much smaller space,” Megan says. “But in terms of population, it was a lot denser, so it was quite easy to get lost in the crowd, and there was a lot more diversity in language and culture.

“What I noticed when I lived in London was that, because house prices were so expensive, it often meant that people [social workers] were coming from far to work because they could not live locally, which meant you didn’t have that same community.

“But in Hampshire, people often live where they work or close by. As a result, you’re more likely to come across people that you’ve met, or know, so there’s more of a community feel.”

Strengthening community links

This community feel also impacts on how they work. Megan believes that social workers being more visible within communities helps to improve the wider public’s perceptions of the profession.

“There is more scope for us to get to know the schools, GPs and other partner agencies that we work with and have those real links within the communities. And I think that’s a positive thing because it means social workers are more visible in the community.

“So, for example, within my team, the family practitioners have a real working relationship with the local children’s centres, and with the local library that runs groups like wellbeing groups. And I’m very fortunate in that the area I manage is where our office is based, so there is this space that we can operate from that is in the centre of the community and that strengthens our accessibility and helps us to build those community links.”

Similarities between different settings

While it is clear there are differences between working in a rural or city environment, both practitioners believe that there is more that unites them.

Megan says: “I think there are nuances between working in the city and working in a more rural space, but the actual ‘bare bones’ of the job are very similar. I think it can only enhance practice to work in different areas and different landscapes and to be curious.”

Interested in a career at Hampshire County Council? Check out the authority’s employer profile, latest jobs and read more from social workers in the service here.

In this episode of our ‘Ask The Experts’ series, Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, Claire Barcham and Kayleigh Rose Evans respond to a question on how to secure a new job after receiving a negative reference.

This episode is hosted by Ruth Hardy-Mullings, head of content at Community Care. If you have a question you’d like our experts to answer, or if you felt the advice has helped you secure your next social work role, we want to hear from you.

Listen to “#3 Ask The Experts: How to secure a new job after receiving a negative reference” on Spreaker.

Click here to read the transcript.

Send us an email at: careersadvice@markallengroup.com

You can catch up on past episodes of ‘Ask The Experts’ on The Social Work Community.

One of the factors that attracted Lucy to North East Lincolnshire Council was being able to build long-lasting relationships with children and young people.

“At my previous local authority, my experience was predominately assessment, but I wanted to build on my professional development and case-holding and remain their [the children and family’s] social worker longer term,” she said.

This is something she is able to achieve at North East Lincolnshire Council as a social worker in the children and assessment service (CASS). Unlike her previous local authority, the social worker follows the child’s journey from assessment to the point that they go to the children in care team.

Following the child’s journey and being involved in court work, children in need, child protection, Public Law Outline and children in care work has definite benefits, says Lucy.

“We know that when a child’s social worker changes all the time, they are not going to be as open and trusting. Continuity of social worker is important because it helps to build those trusting relationships with the child.

“From my experience, the young people seem a lot less anxious, knowing that they are going to have the same social worker. And what I see here at North East Lincolnshire Council is that families quite like the fact that you are staying with them. They don’t have to retell their story, and the children have already built those relationships with you.”

Amplifying the child’s voice

Keeping children and young people’s needs is at the centre of the work North East Lincolnshire does

Lucy’s experience reflects North East Lincolnshire Council’s commitment to keep children and young people’s needs at the centre of the work the council does.

Ensuring that the needs of children and young people are acknowledged and addressed underpins the council’s commitments and is one of seven key areas that North East Lincolnshire Council is prioritising over the next five years.

The local authority’s report: ‘North East Lincolnshire Our Children, Our Future’ aims to ensure the area is a place children can grow up happy and healthy, safe in their homes and communities, with people that love them.

And North East Lincolnshire Council’s plan outlines efforts to enhance “the opportunities for children and families to share their views and experiences and to have a voice in order for them to shape and influence the local offer.” Through groups such as: ‘Our Voice Listen Up’, young people in care have the space to discuss issues that are important to them.

Ann-Marie Matson, the director of children’s services at North East Lincolnshire Council, and other senior leaders have met with many children in care personally to gather their views.

“I’ve directly met with children to understand how their voice can influence and shape practice, building the child’s voice and experience into induction, in training and recruitment programmes and in the recruitment of our foster carers,” she says.

“We’ve embedded a: ‘you said, we did’ approach, and we’ve introduced conversation cards, giving children and young people the opportunity to share their views and experiences about the questions on the cards, which are set by them. The aim is to identify children’s needs and act on them.  We’ve also introduced creative conversations which are focussed around a particular topic, and where corporate parents join children and young people to discuss issues that matter to them, in order to influence partnership action and to help improve their experiences and outcomes”

Building on the person-centred approach

North East Lincolnshire Council’s practice approach, which is focussed around being relational, strengths based and solutions-focused , ensures that social workers like Lucy remain person-centred in their approach to supporting children and their families.

“It’s about empowering the family to use the strengths that they have,” says Lucy. “And the voice of the child runs throughout all of our work and is pivotal to what we do.

“It is about being consistent for that person and doing what you say you will do. And if you don’t do what you say, it is about explaining the reasons why you haven’t followed through with something.”

Social workers work with children to understand their thoughts and feelings – their lived experience, how they see their lives, their behaviour and what their concerns are. Lucy has seen the benefits of doing just that.

“I’ve been working with a child for four months – supervising contact between him and his dad. A recent conversation was a turning point for me, as he was really chatty.

“He normally covers his eyes and is really shy. Typically, when I am trying to gather his wishes and feelings, he doesn’t answer, and I would have to tell through his behaviour. But when we spoke recently, he asked me about 20 questions.

“It felt good and made me appreciate how long it can take for a child to build those relationships and develop that trust,” says Lucy.

North East Lincolnshire Council encourages collaborative working between professionals as a way to ensure consistency in the relationship and build trust. Lucy was able to demonstrate the value of collaborative working when supporting a young person who was at risk of child exploitation.

“Working alongside a student social worker and a family support worker, we collectively built up trust and were really consistent, open and honest with her.”

“We explained what our concerns were. It took a few months but being there regardless of what was happening, supporting her was an intense process. But I think being consistent and everybody sharing the same message, to capture her views, helped. We got her home.”

“She had embedded that work that we had done with her, and what really worked is we were able to do the work with the parents too.”

Listening to young people

Working to gather the views of children

A key goal in North East Lincolnshire Council is ensuring that children remain in the area and stay with their families wherever possible too.

Julie Poole, assistant director, Children’s Assurance Evaluation and Partnerships, says: “We have high numbers of children in our care” but through working together, and with a focus on our children and young people, we are successfully reducing the numbers of children that need to be in our care, enabling them to live with their families and in their communities, which is our ultimate overarching ambition.”

Where that is not possible, Lucy has seen, firsthand, the effort involved in ensuring that the needs and wishes of the child are considered in decisions about where they live and how they are cared for.

In one particular highly complex situation, Lucy worked intensively with the child to gather her views, and then worked with the family support service and the adoptive parents to find a solution.

“I did some creative direct work – listening to spa music to calm her down and went for a drive. She likes to write down her thoughts, so, we unpicked them to gather what her triggers were, and how she feels. She would communicate with me through written notes – that is how she would share her views.

“She had a period in foster care but wanted to go into supported living. We had regular meetings – legal tracking meetings and panel meetings, to listen to her views and understand what she wanted and ensure that all options had been explored. We also did some assessments with her to go into supported living – and that’s what happened in the end.”

Lucy cites other examples where a child needed a foster home and through collaborative work with other members of the service and wider colleagues, regular meetings and planning sessions, she was able to find a foster carer within North East Lincolnshire Council.

“Just the passion that workers have for our children and young people – it is phenomenal. Everybody is working together for them,” says Lucy.

Hampshire County Council is working to ensure that older adults avoid unnecessary trips to hospital thanks to a collaboration with the South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS).

Through the collaboration, the Social Work Line was created – a dedicated phone number that ambulance crew can use to contact a social worker directly.

In this episode, you will hear from Matt Hutchinson, head of service for South Hampshire older adults’ team, and senior social worker Maria Kneller, who talk about how this service is helping to give older adults greater independence within their homes if a trip to hospital is not essential.

Listen to “Workforce Insights: Helping older adults avoid unnecessary journeys to the hospital” on Spreaker.

You can listen to the podcast using the player above, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Spreaker or wherever you normally listen to podcasts.

Here is the transcript.

Did you know podcasts can count towards your CPD?

Learn more about Hampshire County Council and see what opportunities are available.

Other articles and learning from Hampshire

Podcast: using new approaches to promote ‘old school’ social work for older adults

Community social work: supporting vulnerable adults to reconnect with their communities

Joint working and learning new things: social work in a transition team

From busking to horse-riding: using strengths-based practice to transform lives

Patricia has been working as a practice educator in a secondment role in a safeguarding team in South Gloucestershire Council’s children’s services since July 2023. This is her fourth promotion since starting her social work career at the council in 2016.

“I like the sense of belonging that I get in South Gloucestershire,” she says. “The work environment is very friendly, open, you feel like you can be yourself – and there is always someone you can talk to.”

In June, South Gloucestershire was rated good overall by Ofsted with the report saying: ‘Staff share a culture of high support balanced with an appropriate degree of challenge and a strong sense of being cared for by managers and leaders alike.’

Feeling safe, supported and part of a ‘family’ are some of the reasons why Patricia enjoys working for South Gloucestershire Council. Another key reason is how managers have helped her to develop in her career.

Having worked across a variety of teams, including access and response, disability  and, most recently, on secondment in a safeguarding team, her confidence has grown – thanks to supportive managers.

“I had a very ambitious manager who would encourage us to learn as much as possible – and I have embraced that,” she says.

“I would go to supervision after having a bad day and would finish feeling like I can change the world.

Patricia adds that when she didn’t feel confident taking on a promotion or felt frustrated about a situation with a family, her manager would listen, she would empathise and she would even be open about times she’d made mistakes or felt scared, which helped to make her relatable to Patricia and build trust.

When Patricia was supporting a child who had particularly complex physical and cognitive needs, her manager supported her to be able to separate her emotions about the child from the work she needed to do to help the child and family.

Being reminded that she was capable and had “management material” were boosts to her confidence that she now passes on to the five students she is supporting through their placements.

“I would not be able to do what I am doing now if I hadn’t had those managers,” she says.

Nurturing manager

Chloe agrees.  Working in the central locality team with a nurturing manager has allowed her to progress from social work assistant to a senior social worker in five years.

“I’ve had a stable one-to-one leadership experience, which means I feel more comfortable to share how I feel about a situation and there’s a lot of individual trust between me and my manager,” she says.

“I really like the nature of the work we do in locality. I love building long-term relationships with families, I like going into family’s homes, I love being able to see the change from the beginning when we worked with a family to the end to when the family has made the changes. I feel happy and proud to be a part of that. It is super rewarding.”

So, when opportunities for Chloe to progress came along, she felt prepared to take them because she had been taking on more and more responsibilities already in the course of her career.

She has supported students on their 100-day placements, trained under a leadership programme and worked on a Department for Education practice working group designed to improve the experiences of children and social workers within the council.

She has also grown professionally by supporting children and families in more complex cases.

“I’ve had lots of instances where I’ve felt: ‘I’m going to lose a parent because we are going through care proceedings – and I’m finding this difficult, [so] I can’t imagine how difficult they are finding this.’

“And I think the satisfaction in being able to hold these parents through that and still have a relationship with them afterwards – that is probably one of the most motivating things in staying in this role.”

Supporting the next generation

She has been able to pass on these skills in developing confidence, trust and self-assurance to the students and social workers in their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) year whom she is supporting and is keen for them to understand that they are supported.

“I work with social workers that are really passionate and dedicated to the young people they are working with,” she adds. “We’ve all got the same vision and value of what we want to achieve for the families. If we had worries, needed advice, needed a pick me up – there’s always someone there to support you if you were on a visit or to unpick a dilemma that you had with a family.”

South Gloucestershire Council’s 0-25 service receiving a VIP (Values in Practice) Award

Young ambassadors

Shaping how social workers support children and families through the input of care experienced individuals is a key commitment South Gloucestershire Council has embraced.

Ofsted’s inspection in June found that the recruitment of three young ambassadors, and a proactive youth board, are “helping lay the foundations for children and young people to play an increased role in the coproduction and shaping of services.”

David is one of these young ambassadors. Inspired by his own challenging journey through the care system, he is passionate about making the experience the best it can be for others.

Ensuring that the voice of the child is recorded in the best possible way is how David is helping to share practice.

He believes that being able to listen to young people and capture thoughts are key attributes of being a good social worker.

“It proves that you’ve listened to that young person and understood them,” he says.

These records are written by social workers from the young person’s perspective. They are informative and detailed and can include direct quotes from the young person, which David says are vital for giving young people an insight into their journey in care.

What he hopes his work will do is ensure that these examples of good practice, which include adding more context to information shared, are the benchmark for all written records produced by social workers.

Although only six months into his ambassadorial role, David has had years of experience being a member the South Gloucestershire’s Teen Care Council (TCC) and Experienced Panel in Care (EPIC). He has been involved in recruiting social workers and has been able to channel concerns from young people to senior managers. One of those was minimising the impact that an abrupt departure of a social worker has on a young person.

“They feel upset when someone has to leave and they have to re explain their story to the new social worker all over again,” he says.

South Gloucestershire has listened. Now, if a social worker has to leave abruptly, the young person is informed in person within 24 hours by either the manager or someone else on the team whom they already know.

David adds: “I am where I am because of those things that have happened to me, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. Now I’m having a direct impact on how social workers do their jobs and this is incredible.”

Zafer Yilkan, interim service director for children’s social care and preventative services, said: “Here in South Gloucestershire Council we are committed to creating supportive and nurturing work culture for our social workers to grow and develop their career progression.  Our inclusive and collaborative leadership style is at the heart of supporting our social workers to use high degree of autonomy and trust in their professional decision making with support and guidance from their line managers.”

Hampshire County Council’s two refugee teams were launched in February 2023 to meet the needs of an increasing number of unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

While the local authority supported 106 unaccompanied children and young people in March 2022, as of November 2024, it supports 293 unaccompanied children and 306 unaccompanied care leavers.

This has created increased need for foster carers, and also more opportunities for social workers to specialise.

This is what drew Harriet, a social worker in one of Hampshire’s refugee teams, to the outstanding-rated authority.

“I wanted to come and work in Hampshire because it enabled me to work in a specialist team, whereas other places I have worked in before didn’t offer that specialism,” says Harriet, who has also worked with adult refugees in Uganda.

The benefits of specialist teams

The advantages of having a dedicated team for unaccompanied children seeking asylum and care leavers are clear for Harriet. Children and young people benefit from having a team of practitioners focused on their care, with knowledge of the asylum process and legislative changes.

“What also helps is that within the teams, social workers work alongside family practitioners and personal advisers and this mix means there are opportunities to share ideas and ways of working,” says Harriet.

Debbie Dunne, who manages one of the two teams, agrees.

“We have practitioners who have the specialist knowledge base and understanding around culture, communication and languages,” she says.

The two teams each have around six social workers, two family practitioners and six care leaver personal advisers (PAs).

When children are assigned a PA, before they turn 18 and leave care, that practitioner follows them through the rest of their social care journey, promoting continuity of support and helping them feel safe and supported.

Practitioners aim to provide continuity and support to children and young people. Photo: Studio Romantic/AdobeStock

Wide range of skills

Within the teams, there is a mix of experience, with some members having language skills, one having completed a master’s degree in international development, others having skills teaching English as a foreign language and some having lived overseas.

There are also two trained foster carers in the team – one who is training to become a social worker and the other a PA.

“It seems that the teams attract people that want to do something different,” says Debbie.

Hampshire also gives its workforce five continuing professional development (CPD) days a year, which allows practitioners in other teams to come and see first-hand how the refugee teams work.

Debbie adds: “I’ve had one colleague from one of the frontline court holding teams (safeguarding), who heard about the team, spent a day with Harriet and met some of the children. She is now moving ahead with her application [to join the team].”

Understanding young people’s experiences

Young people who arrive in the UK are normally referred to the National Transfer Scheme, which is designed to ensure that responsibility for children and young people is shared between local authorities.

The young people supported by the teams range in age from about 12 to 25 years old, although younger children have been supported by them too, says Sarah Marston, area director for Hampshire south east.

Children are supported right from the point of referral, with practitioners conducting a detailed assessment that looks for indicators of trafficking and checks their health and welfare. The teams use strengths-based tools, including motivational interviewing, and trauma-informed strategies to promote communication.

“The aim is to focus on understanding the young person’s experiences and risks and establish whether they’ve got any contact with their family,” says Debbie.

Children are supported right from the point of referral. Photo: Africa Studio/ AdobeStock

Trauma-informed practice

Children are likely to have experienced some form of trauma along the journey to the UK and, over the first six weeks, practitioners are tasked with supporting the children to manage that.

“We recognise that the children have been working on adrenaline for a very long time in very difficult circumstances that they have lived through, in terms of street homelessness, [lack of] access to basic food and shelter – all those very critical things,” says Debbie. “So, it is a huge shock for them to come into the home of the foster family.

“Part of what we do is ask our children about sleep – if they are having nightmares or flashbacks. We offer them sleep packs, lavender, a night light and squidgy balls and we talk about getting into a good sleep routine because we know that at night when you’re still, that’s when everything catches up with you,” she adds.

Tools such as the trauma triangle, tree of life work and the distress screening tool are part of the range of approaches that practitioners use to support the young person to feel safe. They also help to build up trust between the practitioner and the young person, according to Harriet.

The tree of life work helps the young people to connect with their home country and is a way for social workers to learn more about their families in a way that limits secondary trauma.

“We get the young person to draw a tree trunk and work with them to reflect on the skills and interests they have, where they got them from, or who gave them the skills,” says Harriet. “The branches represent hopes and wishes, the leaves the important people in their life and the fruits represent the gifts that these people have given to them.”

Opportunities to deepen relationships

Hannah Leat, peripatetic district manager at Hampshire, suggests that engaging young people in conversations about their favourite foods from home and assisting them in preparing these dishes can be a valuable method for practitioners to help them process trauma.

She explains: “Engaging children’s senses can be a useful tool in trauma-informed practice. Not just preparing food, but any activity that supports children to revisit sensory experiences in a positive, support environment can help them process some of their trauma, while engaging with their social worker in something fun and enjoyable.”

Along with social activities, such as bowling, or things as simple as going for a drive, it also helps social workers forge relationships with young people.

There are also opportunities for young people to socialise with each other through organised events, such as football coaching sessions. These provide the opportunity for young people who were trafficked together, and then separated during the placement process, to reconnect.

Involving parents in care planning

Working with the young people’s families, if possible, is useful in improving outcomes for the child. “We want to have contact with parents, which helps us to have a better understanding of the children’s formative years and any history and information,” says Debbie.

Even in situations where the parents cannot be with their children, the team makes every effort to include them in their child’s progress, such as how they are developing in their education.

Hampshire has been able to achieve some family reunifications, with Harriet involved in one in which three children were reunited with their father and three other siblings.

Children seeking asylum are children first. Photo: Africa Studio/ AdobeStock

Children seeking asylum are children first

Such moments where children and parents, or children trafficked with friends, can be reunited are an important reminder that children seeking asylum are children first.

“The trauma they have experienced is similar in some respects to the trauma that the mainstream UK cohort of Hampshire children have experienced,” says Sarah.

“They have experienced sexual abuse, and violence, they are separated from their carers or family. I think sometimes the labels take us away from that – the fact that these are children that have been traumatised and have had adverse experiences.”

To learn more about the Hampshire Approach and how motivational interviewing is implemented at the authority, take a look at the following articles:

Celebrating a mindset, not a model of social work

Motivational interviewing: what is it and how can you use it in social work

And to find out more about working in Hampshire County Council, check out the authority’s Employer Profile.

What are the pros and cons of working as a locum versus being a permanent social worker?

In this episode of the Social Work Community Podcast, senior careers editor Kirsty Ayakwah asks two social workers from either side of the divide about what has driven their career choices.

Kayleigh Rose Evans has spent her career working in permanent roles, while Le’Siran Edwards has largely worked in agency roles.

Alongside her social work practice, Kayleigh works as an independent trainer and also shares reflections on social work through her YouTube channel, @KayleighRoseEvans.

And Le’Siran has 25 years’ experience working with children and families, and over a decade in children’s social work. She has spent the past 10 years building up her coaching service, Social Work Coaching Hub, and stepped away from locum work last year to focus on it full time. She also runs her own podcast, Dear Social Worker Pod.

Since this podcast was produced, there have been changes to rules curbing English councils’ use of agency social workers in children’s services. You can read more about the changes here.

Listen to “Locum v Perm – what works for you?” on Spreaker.

Locum v perm

Read the transcript here

About the podcast

The Social Work Community Podcast explores the issues that matter to social work practitioners in their working lives.

Kirsty and fellow host, careers editor Sharmeen Ziauddin, interview experienced and inspiring guests, including frontline social workers who speak from the heart about their jobs, the sector and society.

Our first season went down a storm and was nominated in this year’s British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Social Work Journalism Awards.

We recently launched season two and have so far covered whether we need more men in social work and interviewed a practitioner with 47 years’ experience about what keeps her in the profession.

Although the podcast is available on major podcast platforms, Social Work Community members will get special early access to each episode.

So sign up to the Social Work Community to be among the first to catch each episode and to connect with fellow practitioners in a safe space.

Otherwise, check out the Social Work Community Podcast on the following :

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Spreaker
• Audible (Amazon)

Click ‘follow’ or ‘subscribe’ on your podcast app so you know when a new episode is published.

And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram.