Anastasia Koutsounia

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

Profile interviews

This section presents the profile interviews I have conducted with leading and/or historic figures in the social work sector.

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 •

BASW chief Ruth Allen on the state of mental health social work

Our interview with Ruth Allen 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, Herbert Laming, and June Thoburn.
Ruth Allen has spent the past eight years as chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), providing leadership and representation to members from all parts of the profession.
But before that, her focus was squarely on ment...
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 •

Award-winning manager on why family drug and alcohol court services need a secure future

In 2023, Jane Dunne was named the children’s services team leader of the year for her work with the Coventry and Warwickshire family drug and alcohol court service (FDAC).
This was not her first award since becoming manager of the then Coventry FDAC in 2016, with the team winning the public sector children’s team prize at the 2018 Children & Young People Now awards.
In 2021, the service’s success led to its expansion to cover Warwickshire.
Speaking to Community Care, Jane discussed why she belie...
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 •

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 social worker advocating for people with learning disabilities

When speaking to Elaine James, her passion for upholding the rights of people with learning disabilities is almost infectious.
This is also evident in her accomplishments as the head of service for learning disabilities and preparation for adulthood at Bradford council.
In her time there, she has been instrumental in minimising long-term detentions of people with learning disabilities under the Mental Health Act 1983.
And last year, she was named the social justice advocate of the year at the So...
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 •

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 •

‘I wanted to go back and stand up for the little girl that I was’

More than 11 years after leaving care, social worker Rebekah Pierre made the decision to read her case files, seeking clarity and closure for a difficult time in her life. Instead, she found “pages and pages of quite cold, very formal language”.
Her first social worker had misspelt her name ”over 100 times”, describing the then 16-year-old as “a little mixed up about the direction of her life”.
“There were lots of errors,” Pierre says. “People referred to the disclosures I’d made in a way where...

My Work

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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 •

Does the sector need more male social workers?

The shortage of men in social work has been a long-running issue for the sector.
As of November 2022, 83% of registered social workers in England were women, according to Social Work England’s last annual report. In local authority children’s services, the proportion is both higher and growing, increasing from 85.2% in 2017 to 87.4% in 2023.
But is this imbalance troubling practitioners?
A Community Care poll with almost 900 votes found that over two-thirds of readers believed that social work t...
Community Care •

Social workers weigh in on how to improve the ASYE

Readers’ Take is a weekly series by Community Care that showcases your opinions on trending topics. To take part, vote in our weekly poll and share your thoughts in the comments section of the related article. You can read previous articles from this series here.
Social workers have weighed in on how to improve the assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).
This follows Skill for Care’s 2023-24 report on the children’s ASYE, which found that, while the failure rate had dropped, black and...
Community Care •

‘A true doyen of social work’: the life and influence of Olive Stevenson

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 Eileen Munro and Herbert Laming.
In 2013, social work lost a generation-defining academic and social worker, with the death of Olive Stevenson.
During 60 years in the profession, Stevenson trained hundreds of practitioners, while simultaneously challenging and inspiring the field through her numerous books and...
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 •

Social workers divided on striking over pay offer

Social work opinion is divided on whether to strike over this year’s local government pay offer for 2024-25, a Community Care poll has found.
While a slight majority of practitioners would take action in pursuit of a better deal, over a third were sceptical that this would work.
Last month, employers announced a “full and final” pay offer for council staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of the higher of £1,290 or 2.5%. This is worth 3-4% for social workers.
While unions had previously lo...
Community Care •

Social workers don’t feel able to speak about Israel-Gaza war at work, poll finds

Social workers do not feel supported in their workplaces to speak about how they’ve been affected by the war in Gaza, a Community Care poll has found.
UK practitioners have been deeply affected by the conflict, in which over 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza due to Israeli attacks, following the killing of about 1,139 people and the taking of 253 hostages in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
However, children’s social worker Alshad Dustagheer told Community Care that “there...
Community Care •

Family safeguarding founder recognised in Frontline Awards 2024

Sue Williams, the mind behind the family safeguarding model, has been recognised for her outstanding contribution to children and families in the second annual Frontline Awards.
Her award was presented by chief social worker for children Isabelle Trowler, who described Sue as “a leading light in bringing change and innovation to children’s social care across England”.
“Her incredible tenacity, intellectual clout, creativity and commitment to the sector has made a huge and lasting contribution,...
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 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 •

Two-thirds of social workers say their practice is influenced by fear of the media, finds survey

Almost two-thirds of social workers have been influenced by fear of adverse media coverage when approaching cases, a Community Care survey has found.
Of 151 respondents, almost 28% said they or a colleague had been influenced many times by the thought of the media catching wind of something going wrong with a case, while 35% said this had happened a few times.
Many reported feeling anxious and constantly second-guessing themselves when working on cases out of fear of being targeted by the media...
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 •

When social work becomes a family affair

For Kath and Rebecca O’Dwyer, social work is a family affair.
Both Rebecca’s parents were social workers, so it should have come as little surprise when she decided to follow in their footsteps. So much so that, on her first day as a qualified social worker, she wore almost the same outfit as her mum!
However, Kath’s social work days are long behind her. She is now chief executive officer of St Helens council, following a career, spanning over 40 years, that has seen her take up many roles: soci...
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 •

Readers’ Take: how much does negative media coverage affect social workers?

Social work has never been easy and it continues to get worse for many reasons, one of course is funding, as it is funded through Local Authorities, (LAs) the employers of social workers, but LAs are to some degree funded by government who are not prepared to fund LAs sufficiently to invest in social care with the necessary amounts it really requires.
This and previous Tory governments have done this by introducing austerity cuts to LAs since 2010 and thereby severely reduce the amounts of fina...
Community Care •

World Social Work Day: the social workers crossing oceans to practise in the UK

Recent Social Work England (SWE) figures showed that the number of international social workers applying to work in England had risen from 611 in the 2019-20 registration year to 1,684 in 2021-22 – a 175.3% increase.
Chris Armstrong, business director of recruitment agency Morgan Hunt’s social care branch, has been supporting social workers relocate from Zimbabwe and South Africa, two of the most common countries of origin for overseas practitioners, for the last three years.
“Every year there h...
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...
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