News

The impact of Covid-19

Social work with children and families in the pandemic. A time of possibility and potential, opportunities and challenges. @SusannahBowyer@Acsocialwork on doing and thinking differently: HERE University of East Anglia have also undertaken research, with similar findings. You can read at source: HERE This research briefing from @ESRC & @UKRI_News funded study of how social workers … Continue reading The impact of Covid-19

Reducing isolation for care leavers during Covid-19 and beyond

Book your place today! HERE

Huge spike in number of children needing foster care during pandemic, Barnardo’s warns

A surge in demand for foster care places combined with a drop in potential carers as a result of the coronavirus pandemic is creating a “state of emergency” in the care system, Barnardo’s has warned. The coronavirus pandemic has hit vulnerable families the hardest, with many reaching crisis point. This has created a state of emergency, … Continue reading Huge spike in number of children needing foster care during pandemic, Barnardo’s warns

NIROMP: Nominations for National IRO Advisory Group

Call for an IRO Advisory Group - get your nominations in! We are looking to set up a national IRO Advisory Group, to provide an important link between IROs and NIROMP (the National IRO Managers Partnership), in order to strengthen the IRO identity and ensure that the voices of IROs inform the development of policy … Continue reading NIROMP: Nominations for National IRO Advisory Group

Public Law Working Group Recommendations to achieve best practice in the child protection and family justice systems:Special guardianship orders | June 2020

Message from the President of the Family Division Since its addition to the canon of orders that are available to the Family Court in 2005, the role of a Special Guardianship Order has changed and developed. It is plain that SGO’s have a useful role to play, and are the right order to make in … Continue reading Public Law Working Group Recommendations to achieve best practice in the child protection and family justice systems:Special guardianship orders | June 2020

RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION – EDUCATION & ACTIVISM

The National IRO Managers Partnership (NIROMP) is appalled by the murder of George Floyd. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests and speaking out against continued racial injustices. Racism and racial discrimination is decades, centuries old. We are angry and sad that in 2020 it is still killing people, destroying lives, affecting … Continue reading RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION – EDUCATION & ACTIVISM

BREAKING: @article_39 have issued judicial review proceedings against the Secretary of State for Education

VIDEO: Watch Article 39’s Director explain why we threatened legal action (from May 2020):  https://youtu.be/e4W-8tCKbOM Article 39 has applied to the High Court for a judicial review of secondary legislation that dilutes or removes a series of duties, including around the arrangements under which social workers must visit children in care and IROs must carry out reviews of … Continue reading BREAKING: @article_39 have issued judicial review proceedings against the Secretary of State for Education

Carlene Firmin & Susan Rayment-McHugh #ContextualSafeguarding

TWO ROADS, ONE DESTINATION: Community and Organizational Mechanisms for Contextualizing Child Abuse Prevention in Australia and the UK Authors: Carlene Firmin & Susan Rayment-Mchugh  International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice (2020) https://twitter.com/carlenefirmin/status/1266309358004195328?s=20 Abstract Calls for a contextual approach to abuse prevention highlight a need to better understand how contextual frameworks may be operationalized. Using a … Continue reading Carlene Firmin & Susan Rayment-McHugh #ContextualSafeguarding

NIROMP Guest Post by Martin Barrow as part of our Covid-19 Short Stories series

LET’S BUILD SOMETHING TOGETHER Author: Martin Barrow @MartinBarrow Local authority foster carer, journalist. The bunk beds in the children’s room have been part of the family, well, forever. They once belonged to our now grown-up daughters, and over the years have been a resting place for foster children trying to sleep away their worries and … Continue reading NIROMP Guest Post by Martin Barrow as part of our Covid-19 Short Stories series

Using video chats for family time

The current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has demanded that IROs, IRO managers and social workers make adjustments to practice extremely quickly. One area of practice that has required a rapid rethink is how links between children and their birth families are promoted. This recently published research by Neil, E., Copson, R., and Sorensen, P. (2020). Contact … Continue reading Using video chats for family time