Learn on the go: the Community Care podcast Community Care

Ethan’s in his early 30s now. He was in foster care from the age of five and then in children’s homes from the age of 11. In this conversation we speak about staying in touch with and seeing family members while in care. 

You'll hear the word ‘contact’ quite a bit - the word that was very much in use when Ethan was young. We hope this makes sense when you listen, while we know practitioners today increasingly recognise the importance of using language that suits the individual child, whether that’s 'family time' or something else. 

Ethan speaks about his experiences of different types of ‘contact’ – including visiting his parents in jail, supervised sessions with his grandparents and siblings, goodbye meetings with other siblings who were adopted, and unsupervised time with his parents as he got older.

He shares his thoughts on how professionals can support children and young people with the complexity of wanting and valuing connection with family, while dealing with what can be its extremely challenging emotional impact.

Community Care Inform subscribers can access additional resources and a written transcript of the podcast here: https://www.ccinform.co.uk/practice-guidance/podcast-transcript-the-emotional-impact-of-contact-ethans-experience/

You can watch the video interview Ethan did with Jenny Molloy spoke about his experience of being taken into care, and the social workers who made the biggest difference to his life here: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2023/10/26/choose-social-work-they-helped-me-escape-the-life-i-was-living-as-a-teenager/

Ethan believes strongly in the importance of sharing lived experience of different aspects of being a child in care with professionals to help improve practice with young people today. If you would like to get in touch with Ethan, please email ccinformhelpdesk@markallengroup.com and we can pass a message on.

Welcome to Learn On The Go, the podcast from Community Care Inform where we discuss research, theories and practice issues and look at what they mean for social care practitioners.

In this episode we talk to Jenny Molloy, motivational speaker, trainer, care leaver and bestselling author of three books with a fourth about to be published.

Her first book, Hackney Child, written under the pen name Hope Daniels, describes Jenny’s childhood and how at the age of nine she walked into Stoke Newington police station with her two younger brothers and asked that they be taken into care. Both their parents were addicted to alcohol, their mother was a sex worker, and they’d experienced neglect, malnourishment and poverty.

When she was 19, Jenny decided to read her social services files, where she discovered that both her parents had also been in care and had experienced traumatic childhoods. So it is testament to Jenny’s strength of character that she not only conquered her own alcohol addiction, but achieved her childhood dream for her future: that her children be raised in a safe, loving, family home and have a "normal life", breaking the cycle of children in care having their children go into care.

Ordinarily, Jenny talks and trains about life as a child in care, and issues around care leavers and childhood trauma. On this occasion, Jenny is talking about how childhood trauma can play out in adulthood, and how she relapsed and then recovered when it happened to her.

We do want to give a content warning: Jenny talks about her attempted suicide, being sectioned, and time in a psychiatric hospital. 

We know it can be difficult to hear about people’s trauma so we’d like to remind you to practise self-care and use supervision and peer support if this has brought up anything difficult for you.

And if you’ve been affected by this episode, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123.

During the interview, Jenny references the Lambeth Children's Homes Redress Scheme, which you can read about here. And she also mentions the National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS).

The questions were asked by Natalie Valios, senior content editor at Community Care Inform Adults. 

0:02:37.3 - The three triggers

0:10:10 - The psychiatric hospital

0:17:49.8 - Recovery

0:20:53.1 - Adult mental health services

0:27:36.9 - Healing

0:31:23.7 - Advice for social workers

0:33:41.4 - The future

0:37:05.8 - Hope

In this episode, Helen, a facilitator of The Freedom Programme which supports victms and survivors of domestic abuse, and two other mothers with lived experience spoke to Jenny Molloy, bestselling author, motivational speaker and care leaver about their experiences with children's services and what support is most helpful for people in abusive relationships. The conversation was recorded on location at Trevi, the charity that supports women and children.

As well as community support for women and children, Trevi runs Jasmine's Recovery Centre, a residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre exclusively for mothers and their children. We recorded a separate episode about mothers experiences of social work connected to substance use. You'll find the episode in the podcast feed.

Full transcripts of both episodes and supporting materials are available to Community Care Inform subscribers at ccinform.co.uk.

In this episode, Helen, Vicky and Hannah, spoke to Jenny Molloy, bestselling author, motivational speaker and care leaver about their experiences of children's services as mothers using, and in recovery from, drugs and alcohol. They share what did and didn't help them, and what they would like social workers to understans.

The conversation was recorded on location at Jasmine Mother's Recovery Centre, part of Trevi, the charity that supports women and children.

Find out more about the centre and Trevi's work here: https://trevi.org.uk/services/jasmine-mothers-recovery/

Some of the women touch on the fact that many women who have experienced trauma and drug and acohol addiction have been in abusive relationships. We recorded a separate episode about mothers experiences of social work connected to domestic abuse. You'll find the episode in the podcast feed.

Full transcripts of both episodes and supporting materials are available to Community Care Inform subscribers at ccinform.co.uk.

Content warnings. While these are stories with positive outcomes, there are brief mentions of attempted suicide, domestic abuse, difficult childbirth, and women also speak about their older children being removed.

We’d encourage you to use supervision and peer support if this episode brings up anything difficult for you, and generally to look after yourself while listening.

In this episode, two expert guests discuss media coverage, blame and shame of social workers.

The guests are Dr Liz Frost, associate professor of social work at the University of the West of England, and Dr Maria Leedham, senior lecturer in applied linguistics at the Open University.

They discuss Maria’s research into mentions of social workers in UK newspapers and TV dramas, why media coverage almost entirely focuses on child protection, and whether there are signs that this negative bias might be changing.

The questions were asked by Ruth Hardy-Mullings, head of content at Community Care.

Links
Community Care story, including podcast transcript:How negative perceptions of social work are reinforced in the media: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2023/10/12/how-negative-perceptions-of-social-workers-are-reinforced-in-the-media/ Sharon Shoesmith interview: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2023/07/05/sharon-shoesmith-how-social-workers-can-get-their-professional-pride-back/'You can literally change a young person's life': podcast episode with Dan, an 18-year-old with care experience: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2023/08/08/you-can-literally-change-a-young-persons-life-an-18-year-olds-message-for-social-workers/

In this episode, we discuss the social work role in working with girls and women affected by female genital mutilation (FGM) and safeguarding children at risk. Our two guests bring their perspectives from both practice and research to try and help increase practitioners’ knowledge and confidence.

You’ll hear about ways to keep anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice, personal reflection and supervision central to your work – both to avoid stigmatising and causing further harm to affectees, and to build trust and relationships with individuals and communities to reduce risk.

The guests are: Maureen Mguni, a senior lecturer and researcher in social work at the University of West London (UWL) who has worked with women and girls affected by gender-based violence for most of her practice and research career, currently researching the experiences of people affected by FGM and their engagement with social workers in the UK; and Zelia Camelo. During one of her placements while studying social work at UWL, Zelia worked with a young person who had experienced FGM and she discusses what she did and what she learned.

The questions were asked by Joanna Silman, senior content editor at Community Care Inform Children.

Areas covered:
02.03: Addressing common misconceptions and myths about FGM

06.31: Use of language with affectees and children at risk and their families – examples of anti-oppressive questions to ask instead

12.50: Zelia’s experience working with a 16-year-old Somalian female during her placement, and the direct work she carried out. The girl had undergone FGM at a young age. The law and interactions with health services are also discussed

24:37: Why social workers need to reflect on FGM as a political issue – the role of racism, understanding the mandatory reporting duty, working with male expectations in communities as well as with women

31:15: Concluding messages for practice

Links
Community Care Inform practice guide: https://www.ccinform.co.uk/guides/guide-to-female-genital-mutilation-for-social-work-professionals/Maureen’s PhD research that she discusses in the episode is not yet published. You can find her published works and a fuller biography here: https://www.uwl.ac.uk/staff/maureen-mguniMaureen’s 2022 webinar as part of Siobhan MacLean’s Student Connect series is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIzOlmLG8A4&t=3286sBritish Association of Social Workers (BASW) FGM direct work toolkit: https://www.basw.co.uk/resources/fgm-direct-work-toolkit (BASW membership required to access)United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-textUnited Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights: https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights