On Friday 03rd November 2023, Tim Fisher and I are speaking at the GAPS national conference. I am tremendously excited to share the stage with Tim Fisher, who is one of the most inspiring and innovative social workers I have met. We are going to be talking about how to stay hopeful in a difficult job during difficult times. Tim and I have a shared commitment to pursuing ways of helping children and families, and finding solutions that keep us invigorated and hopeful. We look forward to sharing our experiences. Our intention is for practitioners who attend, either in person or online, to leave ..read more

On Friday 03rd November 2023, Tim Fisher and I are speaking at the GAPS national conference. I am tremendously excited to share the stage with Tim, who is one of the most inspiring, innovative and charismatic speakers I have met. We are going to be talking about how to stay hopeful in a difficult job during difficult times. Tim and I have a shared commitment to pursuing ways of helping children and families, and finding solutions that keep us invigorated and hopeful. We look forward to sharing our experiences. Our intention is for practitioners who attend, either in person or online, to leave ..read more

I am delighted to be running this series of masterclasses with BASW, and following the last one, which sold out, I will be convening the next one on working with conflict in child protection on Tuesday 16th May 2023. I would love for you to be there or I would be SUPER, duper grateful if you were to share this with anyone who you think would be interested. https://www.basw.co.uk/events/managing-conflict-child-protection The session will explore how social workers can effectively manage conflict. Conflict is an ever-present and unavoidable feature of child protection social work. Parents are o ..read more

By Richard Devine, Consultant Social Worker for Bath and North East Somerset Council As I was packing up at the end of a long day in the office on a dark, rainy evening, I received an e-mail from the hospital. A child subject to a child protection plan and for whom I was the allocated social worker was treated for a facial injury in an Accident and Emergency Unit. The report noted Joanne returned home and found her 3-year daughter, Jessica, covered in blood while in the care of her new partner, Paul. Joanne had told the nurse that Paul had told her that Jessica had fallen over and bumped her ..read more

By Richard Devine (25.02.23) This year, Tim Fisher and I are hosted a series of webinars. These are completely FREE and you can sign up here ..read more

By Richard Devine, Social Worker for Bath and North East Somerset Council NOTE: If you are receiving this via e-mail it may be cut short by your e-mail programme and/or the graphics may be distorted. You may wish to click the link and view it in full. Personal life In previous years, I have not written about my personal family life. I was worried about how much to share about my wife, Rebecca and two children, mainly due to preserving their confidentiality. However, this year I have changed my mind for two reasons.  Firstly, now that I have been writing blogs for a few years, I am not as ..read more

By Richard Devine, Social Worker for Bath and North East Somerset This is an article I wrote for, GAPS a UK based charity which promotes relationship-based approaches and psychodynamic and systemic thinking in social work. It is my most succinct and concentrated overview of key ideas and the approach I took in my role as a child protection social worker. I walked up the short garden path of the home I visited. I held an A4-sized envelope containing a letter that I anticipated would devastate the parents to whom I delivered the letter. As I approached, my heart raced. I was tense, and every fi ..read more

I have finally, after many years of researching, published my 1st podcast (yay!). I have spent endless amount of hours looking up various editing programmes, publishing sites and microphones over the past two-three years. The more I researched, the more confused I became. Eventually, I contacted Vicki from Social Work Sorted (who was incredibly kind, generous and encouraging) and used the editing software and publishing website she recommended. I jumped straight in and recorded and published my first episode with a few days of the recommendations. The most effective way of learning, often, is ..read more

By Richard Devine, Social Worker for Bath and North East Somerset Council NOTE: If you are receiving this via e-mail it may be cut short by your e-mail programme and/or the graphics may be distorted. You may wish to click the title and view it in full. Several years ago, I read a book that blew my mind.  It forever changed how I thought about how we, as social workers, evaluate risk and make decisions.  The book was called ‘Thinking, Fast and Slow’ by Daniel Kahneman (2011).  After a few years of practising social work, I believed I was a pretty good judge of character.  I ..read more

By Richard Devine, Social Worker for Bath and North East Somerset Council NOTE: If you are receiving this via e-mail it may be cut short by your e-mail programme and/or the graphics may be distorted. You may wish to click the title and view it in full. Recently, I had the privilege of connecting with Vicki from Social Work Sorted. On her podcast we discussed; social work education and ASYE programmes; ideas and principles for effective direct work with children and families; the difference between direct work and therapy; and, practical examples of using direct work with children and families ..read more