During 2017, tinkering away on his laptop and scribbling notes for most of the year was 33 year-old Ben Westwood, a former child runaway. He was writing his debut book ‘Poems From a Runaway’ , which is a collection of sixty stories about his life until the age of 16 years old. Sleeping in ditches…
In the news today, the Children’s Commissioner’s Office has published a statement saying, ‘Thousands of ‘pinball kids’ are being moved around the care system with too much instability’ and points out that most LAC experienced one or more moves during 2016/17. As professionals we already know this; we know that instability causes additional psychological harm…
This is how a child may feel when they come into foster care I’m ugly So, don’t try to convince me that I am a beautiful person Because at the ned of the day I hate myself in every single way And I’m not going to lie to myself by saying There is beauty inside…
My Name is Kieron, I live in the northwest of England with my wife Joanne and our 2 children. We have been approved foster carers with UK Fostering since December 2016. We started our journey into fostering in January of 2016, we contacted several agencies and where most impressed with UK Fostering, this was due…
“Point your toes!”, “straighten those legs!”, “stretch those arms!” were some of many comments which were bellowed at me as a child, by my coach over a gymnasium floor. As you may have guessed, I was a gymnast as a boy. It wasn’t easy training eighteen hours per week, five days per week and it…
Before entering into the social care sector, I had no idea what CSE was and initially I found myself thinking the same as many would think – “CSE doesn’t happen in our area” “My child wouldn’t let that happen” “I would know if they were being exploited” So let’s start with the basics – what is CSE? By government definition…
As I have been both in my time I thought I would compare the two professions. As a child protection social worker I would leave for work and be at my desk by 8:30am. I had a ‘to do list’ which I never completed as I was always adding to it quicker that I deleted…
What is Domestic abuse to you? Most people believe that domestic abuse is being physically hit by a person, well you will be shocked to read that it’s a great deal more than that! Domestic abuse incorporates various strands of abusive behaviour and that includes Physical, Emotional/Psychological, Sexual, Financial, Coercive (being intimidated, isolated from family…
We talk to a lot of people who for one reason or another start of their conversation with, “I would like to foster but I don’t think I can because…..”. Many people, perhaps through fear of rejection do not come forward because they have already decided they would not be suitable. This at best is…
It’s April and it’s 2018 and you’d be forgiven for wondering what was going wrong in UK Society. The media all of a sudden appear to be picking up on stabbings and murders in London. 80% the population are disturbed with this seemingly ‘new’ trend and 20% are wondering why, all of a sudden, we…