Anastasia Koutsounia

Two in five practitioners believe families are being subjected to “intrusive child protection enquiries” due to a risk-averse culture, a poll has found. The concerns follow the Department for Education’s latest children’s social care statistics, which showed that the number of child protection enquiries reached a record high last year, but significant harm was found …

Racism against social workers from ethnic minority groups has ‘significantly increased’ in the past year, according to most practitioners. The results of a Community Care poll echo warnings from the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers’ (NAFP) that “rising hostility towards immigrants and the normalisation of discriminatory views” were harming children in care, foster carers, and social …

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career. It is part of Community Care’s ongoing Choose Social Work campaign, which aims to champion the brilliant work social workers do every day and inspire the next generation of practitioners. In this entry, a social worker celebrates her …

Social workers are divided over the government’s decision to replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) with the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS), a poll has found. While some believe the LPS will be less intrusive for families and less burdensome for practitioners, others fear it will weaken safeguards for vulnerable adults. The Department of Health …

View Poll Most social workers consider supporting the friendships of children in care to be a ‘key’ part of their role, amid concerns that services do not sufficiently prioritise these relationships, a poll has found. In a recent article for Community Care, trainers Lowis Charfe and Gabriel Eichsteller argued that helping children maintain and develop …

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career. It is part of Community Care’s ongoing Choose Social Work campaign, which aims to champion the brilliant work social workers do every day and inspire the next generation of practitioners. In this entry, Katie Regan celebrates her fellow …

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career. It is part of Community Care’s ongoing Choose Social Work campaign, which aims to champion the brilliant work social workers do every day and inspire the next generation of practitioners. In this entry, student social worker Fatima Shafique …

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 …

Social workers have dismissed Josh MacAlister’s objective of having sufficient foster carers to allow children a choice of placement as ‘unrealistic’, a poll has found. This follows the children’s minister’s recent declaration that children in care should have a choice of where and with whom they live, during a speech at the Labour Party Conference. …

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career. It is part of Community Care’s ongoing Choose Social Work campaign, which aims to champion the brilliant work social workers do every day and inspire the next generation of practitioners. In this entry, newly qualified social worker Jennifer …