By Sharmeen Ziauddin and Ruth Hardy-Mullings Social workers across the UK have been deeply affected by the Israel-Gaza war, which began in October 2023. Community Care spoke to three social workers to understand how the conflict has affected them, how they are supporting service users and what more organisations can do to support their staff. We also interviewed a Palestinian social worker working in the West Bank, who told us about the direct impact of the conflict on him and the children he works with. The toll of the Israel-Gaza war On 7 October 2023, attacks led by Hamas in Israel caused ..read more

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Free Loaves on Fridays, a new anthology containing letters, stories and poems by 100 care experienced children and adults, was launched last week. The book, edited by Rebekah Pierre, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), features contributions from people aged 13 to 68, from renowned poet and author Lemn Sissay to first-time writers. “The book holds up a mirror to the system, exposing both the wonderful potential that good, well-funded social work can ..read more

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. By Robin Miller and Sarah McLaughlin, IMPACT There are many potential benefits of asset-based approaches, in which professionals start with what matters to the person and their family, take time to build a trusting relationship and complement informal and community resources. These include better outcomes for individuals and their families, a strengthened voluntary and community sector, reduced demands on formal social care services and improved job satisfaction for professionals. Case s ..read more

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. The Home Office has more than doubled the number of social workers it employs in its asylum age assessment service in the past year, a minister has revealed. Victims and safeguarding minister Laura Farris told the House of Commons last week that “42 expert social workers” were now employed by the National Age Assessment Board (NAAB). This is up from 16 as of April 2023, just after the board launched, when the Home Office was struggling to recruit social workers to the service. What is t ..read more

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 is a critical piece of legislation, employed every day by social care practitioners to help people aged 16 and over make decisions about their lives or, where they cannot, ensure decisions made about them are in their best interests. But with case law and practice contexts continuing to evolve, staying up to date with the MCA is vital to ensuring legal literacy in social work and occupational therapy. Following a highly successful event in Manchester, Community Care is bringing its Mental Capacity Masterclass to London, on 10 July 2024, so that more professionals ..read more

In this episode of the Workforce Insights podcast, we speak to social workers from Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, who share their experience of working in a large rural county. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many families became isolated and levels of need, for example in relation to domestic abuse, went up. The long-lasting effects of the pandemic on service users are still being seen by practitioners at NCT. Guests Brian Browne and Mason Poore, both of whom work in one of NCT’s support and safeguarding teams, discuss the challenges families and young people face. They also talk about ho ..read more

https://jobs.communitycare.co.uk/job/1401756682/children-s-independent-reviewing-officer ..read more

Approved mental health professionals will strike continuously for two weeks as part of a dispute over their job grading. The AMHPs, who work in Cumberland Council’s out-of-hours urgent care team, have been calling for their jobs to be re-evaluated since July 2022, claiming that their current level does not reflect their responsibilities. As well as responding to mental health crises and carrying out Mental Health Act 1983 assessments, along with other social care emergencies out of hours, these include responding to major incidents across Cumbria. The AMHPs, who have already staged two strik ..read more

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. by Anna Bedford I was sat at my desk, feeling like a failure. I was about six months into being qualified and a child I thought I had been keeping safe had just run away. I was tired, emotional and overwhelmed – and the one thing that got me through was friendship. That day, it was the friends I had made at work who let me cry and helped me with practical tasks. These friendships have supported me in building the resilience I’ve needed to carry on working in social work for the subsequen ..read more

One in ten children known to social care missed at least half of school time during 2022-23, show Department for Education statistics released today. The 10.1% severe absence rate for children in need in England was almost five times that for pupils in general (2.2%), according to the annual figures on educational outcomes for children in the social care system. And while the rate for all pupils grew by one percentage point from 2020-21 to 2022-23, it rose by 4.5 percentage points for children in need, a category that includes children on child protection plans and those who are looked after ..read more