Safeguarding Refugee, Asylum Seeking and Trafficked Children in the UK – An Interview with Emma Kelly and Farhat Bokhari

“Given the range of experiences that separated children are likely to have had before they arrive in the UK, it seems extraordinary that many will receive a lesser service from statutory services than citizen children. But, as our book shows, those working with separated children have long noted institutional discrimination. Much of this stems from the tensions that exist between immigration control and child welfare and safeguarding. Despite clear domestic policy and procedures, as well as international obligations, many separated children continue to find that their status as subject to immigration control takes precedence over their needs and rights as children.”

How professionals can help empower parents of a newly diagnosed child with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“Professionals need to feel comfortable as facilitators of parents’ learning and engagement with their child at home, rather than seeing themselves as therapist experts who work one-on-one with children. While the latter is sometimes necessary, the former is where we can have the biggest long-term impact on helping parents realise their full potential and assisting them to maximise their daily interactions with their child so that they become more responsive to their child’s needs and communicative attempts. This builds positive parent-child relationships.”

Using solution focused approaches to connect with young service users with behavioural difficulties

“When we begin our work with children, young people and their families we work towards establishing what their goals for the work would be by asking such a question as: ‘How will you know that the work of The Junction has been helpful?’ Inevitably there are times when a young person will make reference to no longer needing to come to the service. Whilst this could be construed as a negative comment it is clearly understandable. Furthermore, it enables us to ask questions that appropriately place responsibility on the young person: What needs to happen? What do you need to do differently? What do you need to demonstrate to others for them (professionals) to be confident that you no longer need to come?”

An Interview with Steve Goodman and Isabelle Trowler, co-founders of the pioneering Reclaiming Social Work (RSW) model

“Essentially, RSW frees up social workers to work alongside families to help them change, taking much of the bureaucracy away from social workers. It also acknowledges what a difficult job child and family social work is, particularly in local authority child protection contexts. The Social Work Unit, led by a Consultant Social Worker, brings together a small group of staff to work with families, bringing a range of perspectives and skills to bear on the complex work that needs to be done. It ensures faster work that is more reflective, evidence-based and expert, which achieves good outcomes for children.”

Transformative Supervision for the Helping Professions – An Interview with Nicki Weld

“As I talk about in the book, my best transformative moments in supervision both as a supervisor and supervisee have come from boldness and braveness. They’ve also come from courage and creativity, where the supervisor has brought their knowledge and understanding of a person into the room and made a connection, or asked a question that takes the supervisee on a new direction. It’s also when a supervisee has said, “I want to go further, I want to look deeper, not just ‘debrief'”.

A different way of thinking about foster care – An Interview with Dr Annabel Goodyer

“I would like to think that fostering will become less regulated, less “professional” and more like normal parenting. We need to select foster carers who can be “Good Enough” stable parents to children and young people who can sometimes be difficult and demanding. We need to trust them to get on with the task and offer support, back-up and additional services when and if they are needed”

Social Work Under Pressure – Fighting Monsters Blogger interviews JKP author Kate van Heugten

“It is possible that social workers may be somewhat more prone to stress and burnout because their relationship with clients is so central to their work. Their work efforts revolve around empathy and understanding of service users’ situations and this can be draining. They may not have been assisted to know how to handle this inherent stress in their training, and they may not be aware that setting boundaries is critical to self-care.”