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Profiles & Features

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

Profile interviews

Community Care •

My Care Story: 'My foster parents were my family - even when the system didn’t see it' - Community Care

'My Care Story’ is a series dedicated to amplifying the stories of care-experienced individuals and providing social workers with vital insights to improve the support they offer.
At age seven, Kayla* was taken into care. She was told her mother’s “narcissism syndrome” was to blame.
The entire process was a blur, but the word ‘narcissist’ lodged itself in her mind. It evoked confusion; it was not a word a young child would be familiar with.
When she enquired what the word meant, she was told “bl...
Community Care •

‘I was assaulted at work because I’m black. The risk assessment could have prevented it’ - Community Care

One January, several years ago, Marina*, a social worker working in the north of England, was looking forward to the new year with optimism.
She couldn’t have imagined that by the end of the first week back, she’d be scarred by physical injuries and post-traumatic stress that would keep her awake at night for months to come - all because key information about a child was missing from a risk assessment.
That day, an email had gone out to her team asking if any social workers could spend the eveni...
Community Care •

Baroness Lola Young: ‘Just surviving shouldn’t be our best hope for children in care’ - Community Care

When I meet Baroness (Lola) Young, she is serving as a judge for children's charity Coram Voice’s annual writing competition for children in care and young care leavers.
Young has worn many hats over the years: as one of the first black women to join the House of Lords in 2004, a former actress, author, lecturer, public speaker and campaigner against modern slavery.
She was also in care. Born in 1951 to Nigerian immigrant students, she entered care at just eight weeks old, moving between foster...
Community Care •

Lemn Sissay: 'All care stories should be successful ones' - Community Care

Moments into our conversation, Lemn Sissay kindly grounds me with a sobering truth.
Before our meeting, I’d spent most of the previous year conducting interviews that reflected on social work over the past five decades - including the progress the profession had made - for Community Care’s 50th anniversary.
But when I ask Sissay – renowned poet, author, broadcaster and former child in care- what progress he has seen, he politely shuts the question down.
“There is no child in care right now who’l...
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 •

‘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 •

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 •

‘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...
Essex Live •

Essex boy went from being bullied to eating Nando’s with Vivienne Westwood

Like many young boys, matching outfits, designers, and vogue were far from what compelled Harry Napper’s attention growing up in Essex.

If you had told him that a few short years later he’d be getting Nando’s with Vivienne Westwood after a photoshoot in London, he’d probably blink at you, wondering who the fashion mogul was.

In fact, Harry had never cared much for trends. While his peers in secondary school sported the then deemed fashionable combination of spiky hair, skinny jeans, and shiny...

News / Reported features

Delve deeper into my work in News, Features, and Multimedia.

Community Care •

Addressing poverty: can social work go back to its roots? - Community Care

Since 2020, the UK has seen a steady rise in poverty among children.
By 2023-24, 4.5m children (or 31%) were in relative poverty, meaning their household’s income was below 60% of the national average after housing costs, up from 3.9m in 2020-21.
There is also a well-established link between family poverty and contact with children's services. This was reflected in a recent Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) research, which found rising poverty and homelessness were driving d...
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 •

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 •

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 •

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 •

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 •

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 •

Social workers urged to help tackle impact on Gypsy and Traveller families of tougher eviction laws

Social workers have been urged to help tackle the impact on Gypsy and Traveller families of increased police powers to evict them from unauthorised camps, brought in this year.

Practitioners from the communities have produced a guide to carrying out welfare enquiries to help social workers and others support families affected by the measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.

The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Social Work Association (GRTSWA) said provisions (see tougher eviction...
Community Care •

‘We are just working to live at the moment’ – social workers on the cost of living crisis

Some were going into debt to manage rising costs, whether through credit cards, overdrafts or borrowing from friends and family. One said:
“I struggle to pay my own bills and pay for fuel,” said another. “For a few months I have lived on my credit card.”
To manage budgets, some social workers had stopped using their car for personal purposes, cut down on groceries, heating or electricity use or, in a few cases, pulled out of their pension scheme.

“Working in a county LA, travel is now unafforda...
Community Care •

Neurodivergent social workers ‘exhausted’ from lack of understanding at work

A lack of awareness and support at work has cultivated a climate of fear and exhaustion for social workers with neurodiverse conditions such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia.
A pilot study on the experiences of neurodivergent social workers has found that, of 60 responses, 34 participants reported they had received no specialist workplace support. Around 14 of those said this had been the result of a fear of speaking out and asking for help.
According to Deb Solomon, chair of the British Association...
Essex Live •

The devastating impact climate change could have on Essex by 2051

Get the latest traffic and travel news straight to your inboxGet the latest traffic and travel news straight to your inboxRising sea levels, hail in the middle of summer followed by dry heat waves, devastating wildfires, and frequent floods – these are just a few of the now more and more visible effects of climate change. Just a few decades ago, climate change was largely an unheard of term, but you have only to watch one of Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries to witness how rapidly the world...

Edited interviews & first-person voices

Community Care •

Being black and neurodivergent in social work: 'I became a master at masking because I didn't feel safe’ - Community Care

This article is part of Community Care's 'Neurodiversity belongs in social work' campaign, which aims to spotlight the diverse minds in social work and challenge the systems that weren’t built for them.
Shantel Thomas has never been good at doing one thing at a time.
After a decade in frontline practice, she moved to academia in 2018, eventually becoming a course lead in 2022. In the same year, she founded the Anti-Racist Movement (ARM), a national platform and space for black female practitione...
Community Care •

Neurodivergent social workers on struggling to disclose: 'I feared my capabilities would be questioned' - Community Care

From the Front Line is a series where social workers share their experiences on topical or ongoing issues within the profession. To express an interest in taking part or tell us what you'd like to see covered next, email us at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
It is estimated that one in seven people in the UK are neurodivergent – and evidence suggests that there is at least this level of representation in social work.
Community Care’s 2025 jobseeker’s survey, which gathered the views of 3...
Community Care •

Social workers on navigating conflict with families and management - Community Care

From the Front Line invites social workers to share their experiences on various topics and running issues within the sector to help others in their professional journey. To suggest an idea or express interest, email us at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
Learning how to deal with adverse reactions to your decisions is a daily struggle in social work.
Individuals and families may respond angrily to plans, sometimes due to past experiences with services the worker may not have been a part...
Community Care •

Black social workers on their paths to leadership - and the barriers they faced along the way - Community Care

From the Front Line invites social workers to share their experiences on various topics and running issues within the sector to help others in their professional journey. To express an interest, email us at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
Black representation in senior roles has historically been low relative to the front line.
In 2024, Department for Education data showed that black practitioners made up 20.5% of case-holding social workers, but accounted for just 10.2% of managers, whi...
Community Care •

Ageism in social work: how do young practitioners challenge age-related assumptions? - Community Care

From the Front Line invites social workers to share their experiences on various topics and running issues within the sector to help others in their professional journey. To express an interest, email us at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
The social work profession is relatively mature by national standards.
Of social workers in local authority adults' services in England in 2024, 22% were aged under 35, according to Skills for Care data, compared with 33% of all workers in England and W...
Community Care •

'I was close to being unable to work': social workers on disclosing mental health struggles at work - Community Care

From the Front Line is a series where social workers share their experiences on various topics and running issues within the sector. To express an interest or tell us what you'd like to see covered next, email us at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
Struggling with mental health can be a crippling and deeply isolating experience. It is also one that many social workers know all too well.
Practitioners work with people in crisis, experiencing severe hardship or with significant trauma, ofte...
Community Care •

‘They shut down the conversation’: frontline practitioners discuss their experiences with management - Community Care

From the Front Line is a new series where social workers share their experiences on various topics and running issues within the sector. To express an interest in taking part, email us at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
Good management can be the difference between a fulfilling career in social work and practitioners being driven out of the profession.
A 2024 Community Care poll found that social workers were more likely to leave an employer over unsupportive management than pay.
The sam...
Community Care •

'A true doyen of social work': the life and influence of Olive Stevenson - Community Care

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...