Social workers call for training on working LGBT+ service users
Social workers do not need to have all the answers when it comes to working with adults or young people questioning their gender or sexuality, but listening and asking open questions helps.
This was one of several key messages which emerged from WillisPalmer’s Independent Social Worker Virtual Drop In this week to coincide with LGBT+ [...]
Status of foster care has to improve
All fostering services in the UK should implement a foster carers’ charter to improve the status of foster care, the Fostering Network has urged.
The charity’s latest report shows that foster carers are not treated with the respect and value their vital role warrants, and not given the support they need to help children thrive.
Kevin [...]
Social workers leaving profession rises by 16%
The number of children and family social workers leaving the profession in 2021 has risen by 16% in a year, Department for Education statistics have shown.
The figures show that 4,995 children and family social workers left the workforce in 2021 - up 16% compared to 2020 and the highest number in the last five [...]
ParentAssess framework for assessing parents with additional needs
PAMS assessments have been synonymous with assessments of parents with a learning disability pretty much since the assessment’s inception in 1988.
Still hugely popular, we frequently are asked for expert social workers to carry out PAMS assessments of parents with a learning disability to assess their parenting abilities.
However, more recently, we are increasingly getting requests for [...]
Government to ban conversion therapy
A government consultation calling for a ban on so-called conversion therapy closed earlier this month.
Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual or their gender identity from transgender to cisgender using psychological, physical, or spiritual interventions.
While there is no reliable evidence that [...]
COVID has significant impact on children’s overall health
While COVID symptoms might have presented in a milder form in children generally, the impact of the pandemic on the overall health and wellbeing of children has been significant, a report has warned.
Children were 10 times less likely to be hospitalised as a result of COVID, but the pandemic has resulted in an 81% [...]
