Anastasia Koutsounia

NCTJ-trained with over three years experience in multimedia journalism, features, and editing.

My Portfolio

Get a taste of my portfolio and explore it further by clicking on the 'Articles' and 'Editing' pages.

Community Care •

DfE agency rules will have no impact on locum use, say social workers

The rules, which will start to take effect at the end of this month, aim “to reduce the overreliance on and costs of agency child and family social workers” for English councils, says the Department for Education (DfE).
They will require authorities to agree regional pay caps for locums’ hourly rates and refrain from hiring early career practitioners, or staff who have recently left permanent roles in the same region, as agency workers.
However, most social workers (78%) believe the rules will h...
Community Care •

AI could be time-saving for social workers but needs regulation, say sector bodies

Social work bodies have called for the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) to address the ethical implications, as more councils employ AI tools to save time on administration.
Currently, 28 councils in England are using or testing the AI tool Magic Notes in children’s and adults’ services, to produce case notes from visits and assessments.
Developed by AI company Beam alongside social workers, Magic Notes records meetings and emails the practitioner a transcript, summary and suggested ac...
Community Care •

‘A spokesperson for social work’: Ray Jones’s 50-year career in the sector

This article is part of a series of profiles of key figures who have shaped social work over the past five decades, to mark Community Care’s 50th anniversary. Previous interviewees include Brid Featherstone, David Howe, June Thoburn, Eileen Munro and Herbert Laming.
Few can boast a long career in social work these days.
Ray Jones, emeritus professor of social work at Kingston University, is one of the rare ones with more than 50 years of experience.
Since he qualified in 1972, he has seen the se...
Community Care •

‘We make mothers responsible, but don’t work with men’: Brid Featherstone on child protection

This article is part of a series of profiles of key figures who have shaped social work over the past five decades, to mark Community Care’s 50th anniversary. Previous interviewees include David Howe, June Thoburn, Eileen Munro and Herbert Laming.
Qualified since the 1980s, Brid Featherstone has been pivotal in advancing research that has shaped thinking in social work.
Her work on child protection has spanned three decades, including influential books and articles that have offered advice on wo...
Community Care •

‘When I started, we’d be involved with a family for years’: David Howe on four decades in social work

This article is part of a series of profiles of key figures who have shaped social work over the past five decades, to mark Community Care’s 50th anniversary. Previous interviewees include June Thoburn, Eileen Munro and Herbert Laming.
Since the 1970s, David Howe has been an influential figure in social work research, particularly in the areas of child abuse and neglect.
In 1995, his book Attachment theory in social work practice introduced the concept of attachment to a new audience of social w...
Community Care •

The virtual reality social work training programme enabling relationship-based practice

In a lilac-painted room, a social worker named Louisa sits on a couch opposite me as she explains the purpose of her visit to Fiona and John Harris.
The Harris family, which also includes a two-year-old, a nine-month-old and an 11-year-old girl from Fiona’s previous relationship, has been referred to social services due to domestic abuse witnessed by the children.
But while Fiona sits nervously next to Louisa, her leg bouncing, John paces around the room. Visibly agitated, he dominates the conve...
Community Care •

‘In memory of Pat, my social work mentor and inspiration’

For Community Care’s 50th anniversary, our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career.
Social worker Nicola Silk lost her mentor and friend of 16 years, Pat Curtis, just a couple of weeks ago.
In the following letter, addressed to Pat, Nicola remembers the years she spent beside her colleague and the lives that were touched by her.
Pat,
It was almost 16 years to the day I met you.
Me, a newly qualified social worker at a time without protect...
Community Care •

‘Social workers need to understand their power’: June Thoburn on her research career

Our interview with June Thoburn is part of a series of profiles of key figures who have shaped social work over the past five decades, to mark Community Care’s 50th anniversary. Previous interviewees include Eileen Munro and Herbert Laming.
It is difficult to choose one moment from Professor June Thoburn’s career to explore. There are simply too many.
Since qualifying in the 1960s and then moving into academia, she has carried out extensive research, in the UK and overseas, about child protectio...
Community Care •

Eileen Munro on the legacy of her child protection review

Our interview with Eileen Munro is part of a series of profiles of key figures who have shaped social work over the past five decades, to mark Community Care’s 50th anniversary.
One look at Professor Eileen Munro’s resume and it becomes clear that staying idle is not her strong suit.
A social worker who qualified in the 1970s and then became professor of social policy at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Munro’s research has informed the work of countless child protection s...
Community Care •

Free Loaves on Fridays: 100 care experienced children and adults tell their story

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 have, as...
Community Care •

Improving public perception of social work requires positive media exposure, say practitioners

Most social workers believe that improving public perception of social work requires enhanced media representation, a Community Care poll has found.
This follows the report of a recent survey by YouGov, for Social Work England, that revealed that just 44% of members of the public thought the profession was well-respected within society, far lower than was the case for doctors (90%) or nurses (86%).
In further qualitative research by YouGov, practitioners linked negative perceptions to a lack of...
Community Care •

The Victoria Climbié Inquiry chair reflects on social work, 21 years on

More than 20 years after delivering his report into the death of Victoria Climbié, there is still a quiet sadness about Lord Herbert Laming at the mention of her name.
In 2001, the government tasked the former chief inspector of social services with chairing a statutory inquiry into the murder of the eight-year-old Ivorian girl by her great aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and Kouao’s boyfriend, Carl Manning the previous year.
The extent of the abuse Victoria had suffered shocked the country. Lord Lam...
Community Care •

The anti-racism movement supporting black female staff using social work techniques

The room was packed with black, female social workers, practice educators and lecturers listening and conversing openly, unfiltered.
Within the safety of each other’s company, they spoke of missed promotions, enduring racist remarks from professionals, feeling alienated, their traumas and the barriers they met when creating black female-only spaces.
The occasion was the one-year anniversary of the anti-racist movement (ARM) for social workers, a black female-only group.
According to its founder,...
Community Care •

Breaking barriers: Meera Spillett’s path from disabled social worker to award-winning leader

Meera Spillett thought her career was over when she became disabled overnight in 2006.
Unable to walk, she was also living with multiple conditions, one of which prevented her from taking painkillers to soothe her flare-ups.
However, within four years she had achieved her dream of becoming a director of children’s services.
Then, when her health forced her to retire at 44, she launched the Black and Asian Leadership Initiative (BALI) with the Staff College, which has since helped countless black...
Community Care •

From refugee to social worker of the year: Omaid Badar’s story

At last year’s Social Worker of the Year Awards, Omaid Badar won both the children’s practitioner and overall winner’s prizes, with one judge describing him as “everything the profession is about when it’s at its best”.
The 29-year-old Kirklees Council social worker has overcome more than most on route to those accolades.
Omaid was born in Afghanistan, then ravaged by civil war, became a refugee and, aged 14, made a perilous journey to England, enduring extreme hardship in pursuit of a safe have...
Community Care •

Inside a social work strike: the staff fighting for a ‘safe service’

Before I even rounded the corner to Barnet Council’s offices, I could hear the chants.
Under the shadow of the council’s towering glass-fronted building, social workers from the borough’s approved mental health professional (AMHP) service and its north and south mental health teams were protesting.
Music echoed from a stereo on the floor, creating an almost celebratory atmosphere, but the surrounding chants and held-up signs of “safe service” and “no waiting lists” left no room for illusions.
It...
Community Care •

‘We never hear about the children social workers help’: a day in the life of a social work team

Showcasing the complex, emotional, rewarding work social workers do every day is one of the main reasons we launched our Choose Social Work campaign in June..
So, here it is: home visits, direct work, family therapy, unit meetings, genograms, small wins, difficult decisions, risk, trauma, public transport. And snacks – never forget the snacks.
By Sharmeen Ziauddin
Having never witnessed a home visit in action, I was excited that my day at Wandsworth started with shadowing a visit to Kelly, a par...
Community Care •

Life on a social work student’s income: ‘I’d never buy myself something unless it was a necessity’

At 19, Omar Mohamed was travelling four hours a day to study social work, working a part-time job and the sole carer of his nine-year-old sister.
He was also a recipient of a social work bursary. But, as for many others, it wasn’t enough to sustain him.
Living in Milton Keynes to be with his sister while studying in Birmingham, he would often arrive home at 7pm. So, on top of rent and utilities, he had to pay for after-school clubs and childcare.
And with no help from his family, these costs all...
Community Care •

Does the DfE’s care review response address the pressures behind social workers leaving their jobs?

In its long-awaited response to the care review, the Department for Education (DfE) highlighted the urgency of addressing social work’s increasing workforce challenges.
“[Evidence] points to a need to act now to attract higher numbers of people to join, rejoin and stay in the profession,” it wrote in Stable Homes, Built on Love, its proposed children’s social care strategy, issued for consultation earlier this month.
This is borne out by the data.
Almost one in five (19%) of council children’s s...
Community Care •

Explainer: What pay rises have social workers received in 2022-23?

I will bow to the judgement of Social Workers for they know their situation so much better than myself.
As many in social care or even social care in total does not have a good press and as such is not viewed as highly as it should be by many of the UK population, but follows the press and Government views and their total inaction in many instances.
When anything goes wrong, social workers are to the scapegoats and then the Local Authorities, (LAs) while the Government, current and all previous...
Community Care •

Growth in number of asylum-seeking children drives latest rise in care population, show DfE figures

The number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in care has grown by 34% over the past year, driving the latest increase in the care population.
Department for Education’s (DfE) statistics on looked-after children in England, released earlier this month, showed the number of unaccompanied children in care grew by 1,430 in the year to March 2022, surpassing the overall increase of 1,390 in the care population. The latter rose for the 14th consecutive year, by 2%, to 82,170.
The number of asyl...
Community Care •

One in eight fostering households quit last year, finds Ofsted

Foster carer shortages are deepening in England with one in eight fostering households having quit, and more leaving than joining, over the past year.
Ofsted’s latest fostering statistics, released earlier this month, showed that in 2021-22, 5,435 mainstream fostering households deregistered compared to 4,035 that were approved to care and still active as of 31 March 2022. Those deregistering represented 13% of all those who had been approved during 2021-22.
This was combined with 2021-22 seeing...
Community Care •

DfE working on plan to restrict use of agency social workers, says ADCS president

The Department for Education (DfE) is drawing up a plan to address the use of agency social workers in England, according to a leading director.
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) president, Steve Crocker, told Community Care that he had done “constructive work” with the DfE on proposals for restricting agency staff use.
Crocker, who in July called for social work agencies to be regulated or banned outright, said that he “can’t announce what that is, but there’ll be somet...
Community Care •

Specialist placements needed to reform a care system not working for teenagers, finds review

The government must invest in specialist placements to reform a care system not working for vulnerable teenagers and protect them from exploitation.
That was a key message from a 14-month review into preventing vulnerable young people from being drawn into gangs and violence, led by former Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield.
In its final report, published last week, the Commission on Young Lives found young people at risk were identified late and placed in unsuitable residential...
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