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Editing/Commissioning

I commission and edit reactive and evergreen opinion, features, first-person essays, analysis, profiles and reporting on social affairs. I've worked with first-time contributors and established writers from pitch to publication, and I've conceived and led several thematic campaigns, one of which was recognised by the AOP awards in 2024.

Series & campaigns I've led

Neurodiversity Belongs in Social Work · campaign, 2026

Conceived and led Community Care's flagship digital and audio campaign on neurodivergence in the profession. Commissioned and edited 17 pieces from neurodivergent practitioners across the spectrum — autism, ADHD, AuDHD, OCD, Tourette's, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia — alongside features on workplace inclusion, intersectionality, and the use of AI to support practice. Delivered in partnership with BASW. View campaign here.

Community Care 50th anniversary campaign · campaign, 2024

Led Community Care's 50th anniversary campaign by profiling key figures who have shaped social work over five decades, including Lord Herbert Laming and Eileen Munro, and commissioning submissions on social workers' accomplishments and a limited column on the history of social work. View campaign here.

Community Care Choose Social Work · campaign, 2023-4

Co-led Community Care's Choose Social Work campaign which highlighted the work of social workers and scrutinised its portrayal in mainstream media. The campaign won the team the AOP Editorial Team of the Year award in 2024. View campaign here.

Individual commissions examples

Explore some of the features and reports I have commissioned and edited over the years.

Community Care •

Ending the 'psychological rollercoaster' of repeat Mental Health Act assessments for young people - Community Care

As an approved mental health professional (AMHP) service in Lincolnshire, we found that when detention was deemed to be required for a young person, the decision would sometimes be overturned.
In child and adolescent mental health services, a secondary layer is present in bed management, meaning it is not local CAMHS bed managers who gatekeep and source, but a provider collaborative called the enhanced care referral team (ECRT).
Any requests for tier four beds, allocated to young people with sev...
Community Care •

'Why social work must do more to acknowledge and tackle antisemitism'

When I was five years old, another child at my local primary school told me I wouldn't get any 'elf mail' that Christmas because Jewish people had killed Jesus. 
That question, asked by a child who had simply absorbed the culture around them, taught me something I wouldn't fully understand until much later. Antisemitism in Britain is not imported. We can't blame it on the 'other'. It is embedded in Western culture. 
I grew up, as many British Jews do, learning to keep my head down. It was not fr...
Community Care •

The overlooked link between poverty and domestic abuse in child protection

While welfare reform is at the centre of current UK political debate, the relationship between poverty and domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is little understood.
As part of the team behind the Child Welfare Inequalities Project (CWIP), which reported in 2020, we have previously highlighted the link between poverty and increased demand for children’s social services.
CWIP research also highlighted the need to explore what was happening in relation to domestic abuse and the links with poverty; as...
Community Care •

Being Black in social work: ‘The glass ceilings are there. They’re not always visible, but they’re felt’ - Community Care

When I first joined the profession, I was young, passionate and eager to support children and families.
But, as a Black woman in social work, I found myself navigating not only the complexities of the profession but also the subtle - and sometimes not-so-subtle - barriers that are part of social work's broader structure.
Initially, I had thought the slow pace of my progression was simply my individual experience. I had often found myself feeling overlooked; my hard work going unacknowledged and...
Community Care •

‘I represented a social worker in a fitness to practise hearing - at times it felt like a criminal court’

While practitioners should ideally have a legal representative, this is beyond most people’s means.
In light of that, any familiar face can take up that role, subject to permission obtained in advance from the regulator.
It was on that basis that I took part in a seven-day hearing, held remotely.
These are my observations and reflections on the process.
During that time, the social worker I represented – let’s call them Alex - spent several months unemployed before taking on a series of short-te...
Community Care •

‘Our clients were invisible until our team came into being’: leading a service supporting homeless people

Sara Galvin’s tenacity in supporting and advocating for vulnerable people is admirable.
It is an ethos she has put into practice in running Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust’s (CWPT) mental health homeless pathway service, helping anyone who is homeless or at risk of eviction due to mental illness to access accommodation and therapy.
In 2021, she took on managing the service single-handedly and, last year, her work was recognised with a silver award at the Social Worker of the Year...
Community Care •

Wayne Reid: how George Floyd’s murder inspired social work’s anti-racism ‘visionary’

Our interview with Wayne Reid 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.
In 2021, Wayne Reid became the first anti-racism visionary at the British Association of Social Workers (BASW). In this role, he spearheaded several initiatives to tackle racism in the profession and provide safe spaces for Black and ethnic minor...
Community Care •

‘How admitting I disliked a child helped me grow as a social worker’

These feelings snuck up on me, a slow burner perhaps, but however hard I tried to suppress them, they were real.
Charlie* was a pre-teen living in a residential setting. During our meetings, he would interrupt me, call me a liar and other names and tell me that he didn’t want me there. I felt thoroughly disliked by him. It was painful.
I was so full of good intentions but dreaded my time with him. Initially, I couldn’t bring myself to tell my supervisor – I was sure she would judge me and questi...
Community Care •

‘I wouldn’t be here without them’: the power of workplace friendships in social work

I was about six months into being qualified and a child I thought I had been keeping safe had just run away.
I was tired, emotional and overwhelmed – and the one thing that got me through was friendship.
That day, it was the friends I had made at work who let me cry and helped me with practical tasks.
These friendships have supported me in building the resilience I’ve needed to carry on working in social work for the subsequent 15 years.
We talk about relational practice in the sector, but littl...
Community Care •

‘As a social worker I was made to feel shame for my bipolar diagnosis’

It led to an abrupt end to my social work career with some comebacks during fleeting moments of recovery. But, ultimately, my psychiatrist determined that I was unlikely to reach full recovery if I continued to work as a social worker.
Having bipolar has lots of scary connotations and is often viewed very negatively by society.
I have bipolar II disorder which means that, while I suffer from hypomania – short periods that may include high energy levels, abnormally elevated mood, insomnia and/or...
Community Care •

A social worker’s guilt: when people’s needs outstrip resources

Social work is known for being a demanding profession, requiring a great deal of emotional intelligence. The potential for vicarious trauma from supporting adults in extreme distress was something I was prepared for during the specialist mental health social work training scheme I undertook.
What I felt ill-prepared for was the unspoken need to balance the needs of the adults I support with those of the under-resourced organisation that employs me, which have frequently clashed.
I found myself c...

Columns

Below you can find some example articles of the columns I have commissioned

Community Care •

Social Work Tales: 'I blew the whistle in my first social work role' - Community Care

This is the first article in the series 'Social Work Tales', where retired social worker Mike Scott looks back on his 40 years in the sector and reminisces about the mishaps, the triumphs and the cases that struck a cord.
I had a long social work career before becoming a full-time organiser for UNISON in 1993, representing social workers instead of being one. Both jobs were busy and stressful, but when I eventually retired in 2013, I started thinking back to some of the unlikely or astonishing t...
Community Care •

Sara Sharif, Baby P, Victoria Climbié: working as a social worker following a high-profile child death - Community Care

This is the 12th instalment in Sophie Baker’s ‘What I wish I had known…’ series, where she reflects on her approach to practice when she started out – and what she would tell her younger self now.
I still remember sitting in my car as a newly qualified social worker, listening to Radio 4 discuss Lord Laming’s inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié.
I was already feeling stretched thin and many of the recommendations on improving child protection made it sound as though individual social work...
Community Care •

Social work across the decades: the birth of the adults'/children's divide - Community Care

The 1970s saw the creation of a unified generic profession of social work and integrated social services within local authorities.

The 1980s was the start of a sea change with - as tracked by Community Care - the beginning of the separation between services for children and adults and increasing specialisation among practitioners.
It was two major reviews, conducted in the mid-1980s, that both led to the initial fragmentation of social services and cemented local government as having the key re...

My Care Story

Below you can find the stories I have commissioned about experiences within the care system

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 •

My Care Story: ‘Social workers witnessed my isolation, documented it and did nothing’ - Community Care

From the beginning, I was medicalised. My body was assessed, charted and controlled. But my spirit? My laughter? My longing for connection? Those were never part of any care plan.
Social workers and professionals spoke about me, for me, but rarely to me. I became a file, a risk, not a person to be nurtured.
I don’t recall any of that money being spent on me. Not on trips out or on holidays with the foster family, not on anything that might have brought joy or dignity.
I had very limited experien...
Community Care •

My Care Story: 'I wish social workers had recognised my needs as a black child' - Community Care

As a speaker and a trainer who advocates to raise awareness and dispel myths about the care experience, my care journey is vivid and alive in my mind.
I became the subject of a care order in 1979, at the age of six, when a teacher noticed the marks and bruising on my body. Subsequent hospital tests confirmed horrific injuries dating back years. With no medical notes to explain them, my mum was arrested and later sentenced to prison for abuse and neglect.
The first children’s home I was placed in...
Community Care •

My Care Story: 'Don't assume that everything is okay because that is the carer's narrative' - Community Care

'My Care Story’ is a new series dedicated to amplifying the stories of care-experienced individuals and providing social workers with vital insights to improve the support they offer.
Leonie* spends her days advocating for the reform of the care system and championing the voices of children growing up in kinship care.
Her passion is deeply personal, rooted in her own experience of being in care for much of her childhood.
In her entry, she reflects on her journey through various placements, the a...
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...