Transforming Care Jake Lake

For this episode we have two guests. First is Alex Bax, CEO of Pathway, a charity working with homeless people who present at hospital. We discuss what a public health approach would look like when working with the most vulnerable and excluded communities in our society, the ways in which working with homelessness intersects with working with young people in care, shared challenges and the shared potential for solutions.

We then interview economist Grace Blakeley, author of ‘Stolen: How To Save The World From Financialisation’. Grace gives us an insight into how privatisation and financialisation has corrupted the care system and our wider public services. Grace gives us a unique insight into the way government and private companies have played with the lives of those who most need our support.

These are vital interviews to help us understand the wider context of the care system and the lasting impact it can have on individuals and on society as a whole.

How do workers relate to young people in care? 

Should they bring their whole selves to work? How open and supportive are they?

When you work in care – or any service where you support others – you’ve got to “put your own gas mask on first”, and make sure you’re OK yourself to be there for others. Tune in to the latest episode of the Transforming Care podcast – featuring Peer Power's Anne-Marie – for lots of insightful discussion around leading with love and empathy.

In this episode we talk to Anne-Marie, CEO of the charity Peer Power. We discuss the role of empathy in the care system, thinking about what it means to truly care about people and how power works to exclude people. We think together about a wide range of cultural and political ideas, how we can change for the better and how we can support excluded young people in the care system and in wider society. Anne-Marie is extremely articulate and compassionate and it was a pleasure to discuss these things with her!

In this episode we talk to Dr Kate Morris, professor of social work at Sheffield University. With over 30 years in and around social work, Kate gives us an in depth understanding of how the profession has changed and we talk about how to change it for the better.

We discuss how the care system became a for profit industry, and how to ensure we can support young people and families before they reach crisis point, looking at the structural issues around why young people are going into care in the first place.

This is an extremely interesting and enlightening conversation, getting to the heart of why the care system is in the state it’s in and how we can move towards something that works in the interest of young people and families.

In this episode we interview Siobahn, a young woman who tells us of her journey through the care system. It was a privilege to talk with her about her life in care and beyond. This is an  extremely emotive and thought provoking story of the challenges she has faced, how she has overcome, and ideas for what young people in the care system need. So often we hear from people in positions of power about ’what needs to be done’ for young people, but rarely do we hear from people who have actually been there themselves. This is one story of so many. 

Introducing the hosts of Transforming Care, Jake Lake and Joy Millani. Jake has worked with the care experienced community since 2013, and Joy is care experienced. In this episode we discuss how and why we chose to embark on this project, and some of the challenges we faced in our interactions with the care system. We recorded this episode in late 2019, and it was the start of an incredible journey that challenged us, helped us understand the context of how and why the care system operates in the way it does, and helped us think about radical solutions. 

In this episode Joy discusses her care experience, and takes you through some of the challenges she has faced while in care, and we discuss what we see to be some of the systemic problems as well as exploring our personal context, for why we wanted to take on this project. We hope you enjoy the first episode of Transforming Care!

This episode is a small insight into the journey Joy and I have been on during the process of creating our podcast. We discuss the things we've learnt, give you a small insight into what is to come and think about where we are now as a society, and what that means for young people in care and the care system. This was meant to be our final episode but we decided that it felt right to give you this episode first because it puts the rest of the series in the context of current events and addresses the issues of COVID-19 and the recent uprisings fighting for racial justice. This is a teaser into what is to come, so enjoy!