Talking Research in Children’s Social Care Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this podcast, Head of Practice Development, Nimal Jude, looks at our report into understanding residential care. With Eve Smyth, Quantitative Research Associate, she discusses what the findings tell us about who the children are living in these placements, as well as their journeys before and after entering the system.  

She also talks to Lisa Pascoe, Deputy Director of Regulation and Social Care Policy at Ofsted, to discuss the findings further, Ofsted’s role in residential care and what our findings could mean for the sector. 

Understanding residential care for children in care in England is part of a series of research we contributed to the recent Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

Contributors:

Presenter: Nimal Jude, Head of Practice Development

Interview with: 

Eve Smyth, Quantitative Research Associate at What Works for Children’s Social Care

Lisa Pascoe, Deputy Director, Regulation and Social Care Policy at Ofsted

Contact:

If you’d like to find out more about the latest research into children’s social care, sign up for our newsletter or have an idea for a future podcast, please get in touch:

info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

www.whatworks-csc.org.uk

Twitter: @whatworksCSC

The full and summary report are available here: whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/understanding-residential-care-for-children-in-care-in-england/

In this episode of this series, Head of Practice Development, Nimal Jude, looks in more detail at our report into the commissioning of secure children’s home placements in England. She is joined by Eleanor Briggs, Director of Research, who helps explain the widely reported discrepancies between bed occupancies in secure children’s homes and demand, as well as the challenges faced in allocating suitable places.

Nimal also talks to Alice Roe, a lead researcher at Nuffield Family Justice Observatory  (NFJO) to find out what the findings from our report into secure children’s homes means for the sector, how it fits with NFJO’s own research and the next steps.

"Understanding residential care for children in care in England" is part of a series of research we contributed to the recent Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

Contributors:

Presenter: Nimal Jude, Head of Practice Development at What Works for Children's Social Care

Interviews with: 

Eleanor Briggs, Director of Policy at What Works for Children’s Social Care

Alice Roe, researcher at Nuffield Family Justice Observatory

Contact:

If you’d like to find out more about the latest research into children’s social care, sign up for our newsletter or have an idea for a future podcast, please get in touch:

info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

www.whatworks-csc.org.uk

Twitter: @whatworksCSC

The full and summary report are available here: whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/commissioning-secure-childrens-home-placements-in-england/

Thank you for listening to the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast - COVID-19 special.

In this episode, Michael Sanders, Chief Executive of What Works for Children’s Social Care, talks to Jenny Turnross, Director Of Practice at Birmingham Children’s Trust.

In her conversation with Michael, Jenny discusses how forming a partnership operation group with all departments working with children and families allowed Birmingham Children’s Trust to cut through bureaucracy and achieve a commitment that all partners would continue to offer the same level of service to children and families.

Jenny shares how the Trust is planning on turning the resource hub which offered food parcels and supermarket vouchers to support children, families and care-leavers who were struggling during COVID-19 into a long term resource for the community.

Jenny discusses the balance of providing a mix of virtual and in-person support that responds to both the constraints of containing future infection spikes, and the needs of the people of Birmingham.

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Birmingham on Twitter - @Bhamchildtrust

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC

Thank you for listening to the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast - COVID-19 special.

In this episode, Michael Sanders, Chief Executive of What Works for Children’s Social Care, talks to Julia Hassall, the Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care in Rochdale.

Julia discusses how Rochdale’s relational approach to practice guided their response to COVID-19, how they embraced creative solutions - such as recordings of lullabies, direct work through windows, Easter egg deliveries to see difficult to reach families, and weekly Skype discos.

Julia also talks about the importance of ensuring practitioners feel cared for by the organisation they work for, so they in turn can continue to care for the families and children they are working with in a creative and supportive way, and how Rochdale have helped colleagues maintain resilience through coaching sessions.

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Rochdale on Twitter - @RochdaleCouncil

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC

Thank you for listening to the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast - COVID-19 special.

In this episode, Michael Sanders, Chief Executive of What Works for Children’s Social Care, talks to Richard Devine, a Social Worker for Bath and North East Somerset (@RichardDevineSW).

Richard discusses the impact of remote working, the cumulative effect of ‘mildly difficult’ situations and missing the moments of reflection and decompression while driving between appointments. Richard and Michael also explore how new working arrangements, such as switching to phone conversations, have changed relationship dynamics between families and social workers.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC

In this special episode of the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast, Michael Sanders, Chief Executive of What Works for Children’s Social Care,  is talking with Dr Peter Sidebotham, who led the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel review of sudden unexpected death in infancy in families where children are considered at risk of significant harm, which was published this week.

Despite the huge reduction in the incidence over the last 20-30 years, sudden unexpected death in infancy is still the biggest cause of death for infants, outside the neonatal period, with a high proportion of incidents occurring in families with identified vulnerabilities - such as over-crowding, parental drug and alcohol misuse and mental health issues.

Michael and Peter discuss the findings of the report, next steps and the  importance of good, relationship-based social work in reducing the risk of sudden unexpected death in infants.

Find out more about the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/child-safeguarding-practice-review-panel

Read the report:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safeguarding-children-at-risk-from-sudden-unexpected-infant-death

Follow the Children Safeguarding Practice Review Panel on Twitter

@CSPR_Panel

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC

In this episode of the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast, Michael Sanders, Chief Executive of What Works for Children’s Social Care, is talking with Martin Kelly, OBE, Assistant Director for Children and Families at North Yorkshire County Council.

Martin discusses participating in a virtual inspection of their youth justice service, ensuring their strengths-based, relational approach to practice was maintained, even when face-to-face contact was more difficult, and what the future may hold - a blended approach of in-person and virtual (a pragmatic response in a local authority the size of Luxembourg!).

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC

Thank you for listening to the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast - COVID-19 special.

In this episode Michael Sanders, Chief Executive of What Works for Children’s Social Care talks to Jo Silver, Director of Quality and Innovation at SafeLives, the UK-wide charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for everyone and for good.

Michael and Jo discuss how SafeLives utilised their networks to ensure the voices of victims and survivors of domestic abuse were heard and that their needs were understood; creative ways domestic abuse organisations have been keeping children and families safe; and the difficulties of supporting children and young people who are experiencing domestic abuse.

You can find out more about SafeLives here:

https://safelives.org.uk/

@safelives_

Virtual support for professionals is available via the SafeLives Community Platform

https://community.safelives.org.uk/default.aspx

SafeLives’ COVID-19 resources can be accessed here

Participate in the victim/survivor survey here:

https://wh1.snapsurveys.com/s.asp?k=158461680526

Participate in the frontline domestic abuse service survey here:

https://wh1.snapsurveys.com/s.asp?k=158472140117

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC

Thank you for listening to the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast - COVID-19 special.

In this episode, Michael Sanders, Chief Executive of What Works for Children’s Social Care, is talking with Chris McLoughlin, Director of Children’s Services at Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (@chrismcDCS). They discuss how Stockport has reacted to the challenges posed by COVID-19, creating an effective multi-agency response, taking stock of physical and emotional wellbeing, and what it’s like to be a PIP during lockdown.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC

Thank you for listening to the What Works for Children’s Social Care podcast.

You can read our report on Care-experienced Young People and Higher Education:

https://whatworks-csc.org.uk/research-report/care-experienced-young-people-and-higher-education/

Find out more about our joint call, in partnership with Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) for evidence and practice on programmes which aim to increase the progression to, and success in, higher education, of young people who are, or have been, in care:

https://taso.org.uk/get-involved/call-for-evidence/

Find out more about TASO and their work:

https://taso.org.uk/

Find out more about Become and their work:

https://www.becomecharity.org.uk/

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for upcoming topics, please get in touch by emailing info@whatworks-csc.org.uk

You can also follow us on Twitter @whatworksCSC