Workforce Insights by Community Care

A narration of Neurodivergence as a social worker: ‘it’s not just supported and accepted, it’s celebrated’ .
Two social workers talk about how Cafcass has supported them in their social work careers.


You can see all of the vacancies at Cafcass here.

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The legacy of Covid, the cost of living crisis and copious new policy are all shaping social work in 2022. In this episode, Essex County Council managers Michelle Hayden-Pepper (children's services) and Alison Ansell (adult social care) discuss how the authority is responding to the challenges, including by supporting social workers' wellbeing, investing in learning and development and championing practice quality and innovation. We also look ahead to the 25th anniversary of Community Care Live in October 2022.

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Every social worker remembers those key people in their teams that were pivotal in helping them learn and develop practice in the early stages of their careers and how important that input was. The London Borough of Newham does too and has introduced a new role – practice development social worker (PDSW) - that allows experienced social workers with a passion for supporting education and learning to progress their careers.
Principal social worker in children’s and families Beverley Halligan, who also heads up Newham’s social care academy, tells us more about this new training and development offer and we hear from two social workers Jane and Jessica who will be two of five PDSWs at Newham.

Thank for listening to this Community Care Employer Insights podcast. To listen to more podcasts like this, visit www.communitycare.co.uk.

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Welcome to Employer Zone Insights, a podcast from Community Care showcasing social work practice and leadership from around the country. In this edition is brought to you in partnership with Birmingham Children’s Trust.

In this episode, host Kirsty Ayakwah speaks to Jenny Turnross, director of practice at the Trust and Lizzie Simpson, who is a senior social worker in one of the safeguarding teams.

Both talk about how, over the last 18 months, the Trust has been developing a framework to ensure social workers have the right tools to support children and their families – known as the ‘Stronger Families Model’.

Community Care readers can access additional resources and a written transcript on the Community Care website: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/

#childrensservices, #familysafeguarding #socialcare, #socialworkers, #birminghamchildrenstrust

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How do you help a child who cannot speak or one with complex health and educational needs? Host Judy Cooper is joined by four expert panellists from Surrey’s children with disabilities team – Steve Howe, a team manager, Corrie Haxton and Marie Green, who are both advanced social workers, and Aimee Gillett a newly qualified social worker.
This episode, sponsored by Surrey County Council, explores and debates the skills required to work with children who are often non-verbal, the issues of best interests and deprivation of liberty as well as some of the higlights of the work.

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Welcome to Employer Zone Insights, a podcast from Community Care showcasing social work practice and leadership from around the country. This edition is brought to you in partnership with West Sussex County Council.

In this episode, we speak to Darlington Ihenacho, principal social worker in West Sussex County Council’s children's services about the improvement journey the council is on.

West Sussex County Council’s children services is showing positive signs of progress on its improvement journey which have been galvanised by the appointment of several members of senior leadership. Improvements have included how the council is supporting vulnerable children, their families and communities through its Children First Service Improvement Programme in a restorative and strength-based way.

Darlington talks about why the appointment of Lucy Butler, the executive director of children, young people and learning, was a strong draw for him to join the council. He also talks to us about how he is helping to put the social work voice and experience at the heart of the organisation and leadership of children’s services.

The episode covers:
- Insights into some of the drivers that attracted Darlington to the PSW role
- How his role is helping social workers amplify their voices
- An overview of West Sussex’s improvement journey progress.

Community Care readers can access additional resources and a written transcript on the Community Care website: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/

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What is innovation when it comes to frontline social work? What does it mean in day-to-day practice and how can managers support and encourage it? In this episode we talk to Katy Burch, assistant director at the Institute of Public Care at Oxford Brookes University, Emily Hassan, a team manager, and Mhairi MacDonald, a social worker, both at Hampshire County Council.

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Welcome to Employer Zone Insights, a podcast from Community Care showcasing social work practice and leadership from around the country. This edition is brought to you in partnership with
The London Borough of Newham.

The London Borough of Newham’s children and young people’s services is on an improvement journey to Newham’s children’s services were inspected by Ofsted in February 2019. The inspection resulted in an “inadequate” rating for services. And since then, there have been subsequent monitoring visits showing positive signs of improvement and that the service has delivered a well-coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In this episode, we speak to Tim Aldridge, corporate director of children's services at the London Borough of Newham and Joyce, a social worker in the children and young people’s service, as the council continues on its improvement journey.

The episode covers:
- An overview of Newham’s improvement journey progress.
- Newham’s ambition to become a centre of excellence for social work practice and how a reshaping of its practice model is helping to achieve that.
- A perspective from social worker Joyce on how Newham’s improvement journey is enhancing her work-life balance.

Community Care readers can access additional resources and a written transcript on the Community Care website: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.