Hampshire Hive is a support network funded by Hampshire County Council, that assists fostering families across the county.

In this podcast episode Hampshire Hive foster carers Andrea, and Johnny and Hampshire Hive manager Amy discuss the transferable skills that foster carers can bring from previous professions into supporting children and young people.

Johnny used to do youth work, while Andrea used to be a mental health nurse. They both talk about being able to draw from their life experiences as young people, particularly Johnny who was care experienced. 

This podcast is the third and final episode in a three-part series called Hampshire Hive: Fostering Through a Community of Families.


Fostering in Hampshire
Hampshire Hive is a support network funded by Hampshire County Council, that assists fostering families across the county. To date, the network helps 27 Hampshire Hive groups with 23 foster care support workers and over 500 registered foster carers collectively.


If you would like to find out more about fostering with Hampshire County Council, please visit hants.gov.uk/fostering to download their comprehensive information pack.  You can also sign up for one of their upcoming virtual Q&A sessions attended by both a member of our recruitment team and a Hampshire County Council foster carer.

Please find the transcript here.

The Social Work Community podcast is where social workers come to discuss the key issues affecting their profession. Whether you are a student or an experienced social worker - whether you are frontline or management, this podcast is for you. You will hear direct from social workers in your community about their successes and their challenges.

Follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date with the latest news and join the Social Work Community for all things social work.

Improving services for children and young people in a large rural county is no easy feat. In the summer of 2025, Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) children's services received a 'good' from Ofsted in three areas and 'outstanding' in two areas. Read the report here.

With a strong relational approach senior leaders have led the children social care workforce with strong and empathetic leadership. Frontline social workers are using systemic practice to support children and families.

In this episode you will hear from Paul Shallcross, service director of children and families and Beccy Pullinger, a social worker in one of the children and family first teams.

Most importantly you will hear from two ambassadors who are care-experienced and employed by GCC. The ambassadors have a number of roles within children's services to help improve polices, procedures and the support offered to young people in the county.

Danteiye (19) and Shane (20) explain how their roles have helped in improving services for children and families in Gloucestershire. The ambassadors also mentor senior leaders so that they can tell them directly how to improve things across the service, and make sure they are listened to.

This episode is in collaboration with GCC children's services.
Read the transcript here.

The Social Work Community podcast is where social workers come to discuss the key issues affecting their profession. Whether you are a student or an experienced social worker - whether you are frontline or management, this podcast is for you. You will hear direct from social workers in your community about their successes and their challenges.

Follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date with the latest news and join the Social Work Community for all things social work.

This episode is part two of Oxfordshire County Council’s children’s service’s podcast talking about the benefits of having an in-house clinical team.

Clinical pyschologist Dr Emmanuella Vernon is back, talking with Anthony Sayles and Beccy Hawes who are both part of children and families first teams within Oxfordshire.

Anthony and Beccy talk about how they lean on the clinical team for advice on different cases. They explain how having that help and expertise in-house greatly benefits them as practitioners.

You can listen to the first part of this podcast with Dr Emmanuella Vernon and a parent who explains how practitioners at Oxfordshire County Council children’s services have helped her move from crisis-point to the point of stability and safety.

If you are interested in a career with Oxfordshire County Council take a look at its Employer Profile and check out any current vacancies.

Produced by Sharmeen Ziauddin

The Social Work Community podcast is where social workers come to discuss the key issues affecting their profession. Whether you are a student or an experienced social worker - whether you are frontline or management, this podcast is for you. You will hear direct from social workers in your community about their successes and their challenges.

Follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date with the latest news and join the Social Work Community for all things social work.

In this special two-part podcast you can listen to ‘Carrie’ (not her real name) explain how practitioners at Oxfordshire County Council children’s services have helped her move from crisis-point to the point of stability and safety.

Carrie experienced physical abuse from her 10-year-old son. As a result she was invited to take part in a special ‘Non Violent Resistance’ course aimed at parents who had similar experiences.

The ‘Non Violent Resistance’ group is led by the clinical team at Oxfordshire County Council which is made up of therpautic practioners such as clinical psycologists and family practitioners.

Dr Emmanuella Vernon, a highly specialist clinical psychologist, helps run the course and explains some of the reasoning behind the group and some of the techniques used.

In part two of this episode you will hear from social workers from Oxfordshire County Council's children's services talking about the benefits of working side by side with a clinical team within social work practice. This episode drops on 17 October.

Are you interested in a career with Oxfordshire County Council? If so take a look at its Employer Profile and check out any current vacancies.

Produced by Sharmeen Ziauddin

The Social Work Community podcast is where social workers come to discuss the key issues affecting their profession. Whether you are a student or an experienced social worker - whether you are frontline or management, this podcast is for you. You will hear direct from social workers in your community about their successes and their challenges.

Follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date with the latest news and join the Social Work Community for all things social work.

In this episode Sharmeen Ziauddin, senior commercial editor, speaks to Nikki Murphy and Lynn Roberts all the way in the Falkland Islands - that's 8,000 miles away. As a British Overseas Territory (BOT), the Falklands' social services is considerably different to local authorities in the UK.

Nikki being the head of social services explains the kind of issues that are prevalent in the Falklands and Lynn (team manager), who grew up there, tells us what it is like living and working in a BOT.

For those who don't know much about BOTs this is an eye-opener and an opportunity to learn how social work is carried out in small and remote communities.

This new three-part series, is created in collaboration with North Lincolnshire’s Children and Families Service and explores career progression, well-being and social work practice. 

In its most recent 2022 Ofsted inspection, North Lincolnshire Council's Children and Families was rated outstanding in all areas by Ofsted, with inspectors citing an “exemplary” commitment to children as one of its strengths. 

The council’s grow your own approach contributes positively to the service’s succession planning and a focus on supporting social workers in their preferred continuous professional development pathway has resulted in highly motivated, enthusiastic and loyal workforce, the report says.

In this episode on career progression, you’ll hear from two practitioners at different stages in their career. Rachel Smith, who started her career at North Lincolnshire over 20 years ago and is now director of children’s services, and Louise Stretten, who has worked across a number of teams including disability and child protection in her 13 years at the council and is now lead officer in Family Help. They talk about how they have been supported to grow in their careers.

Please find the transcript here.

Hampshire Hive is a support network funded by Hampshire County Council, that assists fostering families across the county.

In this podcast episode Hampshire Hive foster carers Andrea and Johnny, explore some of the myths often associated with choosing fostering as a career.


Andrea highlights the flexibility fostering offers and talks about how she initially combined her career as a mental health nurse with fostering before deciding to commit full time to the role.


Johnny, one of the first male foster carers in Hampshire County Council’s fostering service, explodes the myth that only women can be foster carers. He shares his experience of being the main foster carer in his household and why it was important to establish a support group for male foster carers.


This podcast is the second episode in a three-part series called Hampshire Hive: Fostering Through a Community of Families.


Fostering in Hampshire
Hampshire Hive is a support network funded by Hampshire County Council, that assists fostering families across the county. To date, the network helps 27 Hampshire Hive groups with 23 foster care support workers and over 500 registered foster carers collectively.


If you would like to find out more about fostering with Hampshire County Council, please visit hants.gov.uk/fostering to download their comprehensive information pack.  You can also sign up for one of their upcoming virtual Q&A sessions attended by both a member of our recruitment team and a Hampshire County Council foster carer.

Please find the transcript here.

The Social Work Community podcast is where social workers come to discuss the key issues affecting their profession. Whether you are a student or an experienced social worker - whether you are frontline or management, this podcast is for you. You will hear direct from social workers in your community about their successes and their challenges.

Follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date with the latest news and join the Social Work Community for all things social work.

In the latest episode of The Social Work Community Podcast, we speak to two social workers with experience of working in both Ghana and the UK As part of the ‘Social work around the world’ series, this episode features two social workers who have practised in Ghana and England.

Although social work practice in Ghana mirrors much of what is taught in the UK, a lack of government funding and an emphasis on cultural values that promote community mean that social work in practice is quite different in both countries.

It is commonplace for family members to informally adopt children than them going into care and similarly, elderly family members are retained within the family network rather than being house in residential homes. 

Jemimah, who qualified in social work in Ghana over 20 years ago, and Emmanuel, who qualified in Ghana in 2021, share their unique experiences of supporting children and adults in both countries. 

In the discussion, Jemimah refers to an organisation called FIDA Ghana, which stands for The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Ghana).  https://www.fida-ghana.org/know-fida/

About The Social Work Community Podcast The Social Work Community Podcast explores the issues that matter to social work practitioners in their working lives. Senior commercial editors Kirsty Ayakwah and fellow host Sharmeen Ziauddin, interview experienced and inspiring guests, including frontline social workers who speak from the heart about their jobs, the sector and society.

It was nominated in the podcast category at the 2024 BASW Social Work Journalism Awards following its first season, which ran from October 2023 to April 2024. It can be found on all major podcasting platforms including:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Spreaker

Click ‘follow’ or ‘subscribe’ on your podcast app so you know when a new episode is published. You can also listen to the episode here:

Read the transcript.
To whet your appetite for season three, check out our podcast page to listen to previous episodes from seasons one and two.

This is a special episode of our live webinar which was recorded in June 2025.
Guests include Curtis Powell, podcaster and deputy team leader and two newly qualified social workers, Kai Tutton (adults) and Lashonte Royal (childrens) and was chaired by Sharmeen Ziauddin, an editor at Community Care.

They talk about their respective jobs on the ASYE programme, how they prepared for their roles and how they overcame challenges. How helpful were their universities in preparing them for life as a social worker? How do they manage their caseload as well as working on the ASYE portfolio? What is the best way to learn how to write assessments?

Listen to the answers of this and many more questions which were sent in by the audience.

Essential listening for all social work students and newly qualified social workers.

Watch it on The Social Work Community

Welcome to a new three-part series, in collaboration with Hampshire County Council’s Fostering Service, called Hampshire Hive: Fostering Through a Community of Families.

Hampshire Hive is a network established by Hampshire County Council to provide support to foster carers in the county. We speak to Hampshire Hive manager Amy and foster carer Johnny about how the Hive works

Hampshire Hive is a unique support network funded by Hampshire County Council, that assists fostering families across the county. To date, the network helps 27 Hampshire Hive groups with 23 foster care support workers and over 500 registered foster carers collectively.

In this episode, you will hear from one of these foster carers - Johnny who was involved in the original pilot scheme for the service back in 2021 - and Amy, the team manager of Hampshire Hive. Both highlight how this community-focused fostering support network has been so transformational for the families they support.

If you would like to find out more about fostering with Hampshire County Council, please visit hants.gov.uk/fostering to download their comprehensive information pack.  You can also sign up for one of their upcoming virtual Q&A sessions attended by both a member of our recruitment team and a Hampshire County Council foster carer. 

Please find the transcript here:

The Social Work Community podcast is where social workers come to discuss the key issues affecting their profession. Whether you are a student or an experienced social worker - whether you are frontline or management, this podcast is for you. You will hear direct from social workers in your community about their successes and their challenges.

Follow us on Instagram to keep up-to-date with the latest news and join the Social Work Community for all things social work.

In this episode, Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, Claire Barcham and Kayleigh Rose Evans offer advice to  an experienced social worker who is looking for a role that offers career progression opportunities after going through some challenging experiences in practice.

Read the transcript here

Send us an email at: careersadvice@markallengroup.com

You can catch up on all the Ask The Experts episodes on The Social Work Community, our forum for social workers at all stages of their career.You can also read past career questions from social workers – and our experts’ responses – on the Community Care website.

This is another episode from the Social work around the world series!

This month the focus is on Zimbabwe. Sharmeen Ziauddin speaks to Theresa Kambani and Weston Mudimu about their careers as social workers in Zimbabwe to working in local authorities in England.
What are the key differences in practice in the two countries? What challenges did both practitioners face when they moved to England? What unique skills have they brought over with them? What do they miss about Zimbabwe and what made them choose England?

Theresa mentions 'ubuntu', a philosophy originating from Southern Africa, that promotes humanity towards others. It can be loosely translated to, "I am because we are", meaning the emphasis is on the interconnectedness of humanity and the importance of community, and this is at the centre of her practice.
A really informative discussion with a lot of learning for all practitioners.

Read the transcript.

About the podcast

The Social Work Community Podcast explores the issues that matter to social work practitioners in their working lives. Sharmeen and fellow host Kirsty Ayakwah interview experienced and inspiring guests, including frontline social workers who speak from the heart about their jobs, the sector and society.


Click ‘follow’ or ‘subscribe’ on your podcast app so you know when a new episode is published.

Join the Social Work Community

Senior social worker Faisa Abdirahman initially had her sights set on entering the police after gaining a BSC in criminology.
 
However, she pivoted to social work after learning that looked after children were at more risk of being criminalised in the criminal justice system compared to those that are not care experienced.
 
In this episode of the Social Work Community Podcast with senior careers editor Kirsty Ayakwah, she explains why her desire to support children and young people, earlier on in that journey resulted in her pivoting away from a career in the police force into social work.


Read the transcript of the interview here.

You can listen to our previous episodes in the Career Transitions Series.

*According to 2022 data from the Office of National Statistics, more than half (52%) of looked-after children born in the academic year ending 1994 who attended school in England had a criminal conviction by the age of 24 years compared with 13% of children who had not been in care. We’ll leave more details about the ONS statistics in the show notes. 

In this episode, Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, Claire Barcham and Kayleigh Rose Evans offer advice to  an international student social worker who is struggling with aligning her expectations about social work with the reality of securing a role for her ASYE. 

Read the transcript here.

Send us an email at: careersadvice@markallengroup.com 

You can follow all the Ask The Experts questions and responses on: www.thesocialworkcommunity.comRead past questions from social workers with a career question and read the responses here.

Are you an adults’ social worker who is considering moving into children’s social work but don’t know how to make the transition?

In this episode, hear from Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, Claire Barcham and Kayleigh Rose Evans as they respond to this question and highlight the invaluable skills that adult social workers can bring to children’s services. They also highlight how you can find that relevant job, and why the British Army could hold the key in that transition.

Read the transcript here.

Send us an email at: careersadvice@markallengroup.com 

You can follow all the Ask The Experts questions and responses on: www.thesocialworkcommunity.comRead past questions from social workers with a career question and read the responses here.

This special episode was recorded for Refugee Week 2025. Sharmeen Ziauddin, careers editor at Community Care, speaks to Zahraa Adam and Aimee Hinton about their work with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). They have worked with UASC for 10 years and have a wealth of experience.

Both Zahraa and Aimee are national social work award winners and Aimee holds a British Empire Medal for her contribution to social work.They are also age assessors and talk about how this assessment is carried out - this episode was recorded before the news that the Home Office agency, National Age Assessment Board, has been backed by the government despite BASW's opposition to it.

Expect emotional stories, the reality of working in this specialism and surprisingly a lot of laughter! An episode not to be missed!


If you want to find out more about working with UASC, you can register for a special webinar, Trauma-informed practice with unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, run by Community Care Inform. You can find out more on our Events tab on Community Care's homepage. 

Read the transcript of this episode here.

In this episode of the miniseries Social work around the world, Community Care's careers editor Sharmeen Ziauddin, speaks to Riad Arar, a social worker from Hebron, a city south of Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank, Palestine.

He describes what life is like for him since 7 October 2023. Increased military checkpoints make delivering services incredibly hard for social workers and healthcare professionals. The focus is on survival.

Riad speaks about Gaza and the destruction there. But he also talks about hope and how that keeps him going, along with the solidarity of the international community.

Listening with the transcript is advisable.

His previous interview with Community Care can be accessed here:
https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2024/04/25/how-the-israel-gaza-war-has-affected-social-workers-in-the-uk/
Here is the transcript.

In this episode, hear from Dame Lorna Boreland-Kelly, Claire Barcham and Kayleigh Rose Evans respond to a question we received asking how to secure a new job after receiving a negative reference, and where to access help.

Read the transcript here.This episode is hosted by Kirsty Ayakwah, senior careers editor at Community Care.

If you have a question you’d like our experts to answer or if you felt the advice has helped you secure your next social work role, we want to hear from you.

Send us an email at: careersadvice@markallengroup.com

You can follow all the Ask The Experts questions and responses on: www.thesocialworkcommunity.com

Read past questions from social workers with a career question and read the responses here.

Listen to Sharmeen Ziauddin's (career editor at Community Care) report from the One Voice Summit which was held at the London Guildhall on 24 & 25 April 2025.

The summit, was organised by Olympian Fatima Whitbread’s charitable organisation Fatima’s UK Campaign. The main aim of the charity is to ‘create a safer, happier, and healthier environment for children, ensuring they can read their full potential’.

The One Voice Summit brought together many different organisations and individuals involved in the care system. This included charities, social enterprises, politicians, local authorities, academics and care-experienced people. 

You'll be hearing from Fatima herself, Dame Kelly Holmes and Professor Alexis Jay.

Here are some of the links mentioned in this episode:
Fatima's backstory and her day with social workers.
Coram Voice's report
Creation of the Child Protection Authority
Listen to Take My Hand 
News story on Community Care

If you liked this episode do rate and review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening to this on. And do follow us on Instagram - we are @CommunityCareOfficial

In this episode of the Social Work Community Podcast, senior careers editor Kirsty Ayakwah speaks to specialist domestic abuse social worker Jenifer Lamadrid who started her career as an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate.

We find out why she made the move, what core skills she's been able to take from her former profession into social work and what keeps her in the sector.

Read the transcript of the interview here.

You can listen to our previous episode in the Career Transitions Series.

About the podcast
The Social Work Community Podcast explores the issues that matter to social work practitioners in their working lives.

Kirsty and fellow host, careers editor Sharmeen Ziauddin, interview experienced and inspiring guests, including frontline social workers who speak from the heart about their jobs, the sector and society.

The first season went down a storm and was nominated in the 2024 British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Social Work Journalism Awards.

We have since launched season two, during which we have covered whether we need more men in social work and interviewed a practitioner with 47 years’ experience about what keeps her in the profession.

Although the podcast is available on major podcast platforms, Social Work Community members will get special early access to each episode.

So sign up to the Social Work Community to be among the first to catch each episode and to connect with fellow practitioners in a safe space.Otherwise, check out the Social Work Community Podcast on the following:

• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Spreaker
• Audible (Amazon)

Click ‘follow’ or ‘subscribe’ on your podcast app so you know when a new episode is published.And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram.