Social Work England’s policy toward maternity leave during registration renewal is at odds with social work values. Not only is it despairing to see the 33% fee hike (with no exemption) but the assumption learning isn’t being “nurtured” during mat leave is patronising & outdated.

Subject access request routes for care leavers are unfit for purpose. I’ve received bin collection letters with more warmth than the communication I had from my local authority when I requested my files.

‘I’ve had bin collection letters with more warmth’ I wrote about subject access requests for care files in @CommunityCare As corporate parents, local authorities have a duty of care; they can’t control the content, but they can control the delivery: www.communitycare.co.uk/2025/08/08/c...

A reflection on my care files, three years after sharing “An open letter to the social worker who wrote my case notes”, which ended up going viral at the time. Here’s how my perspective has shifted: (Original letter available at basw.co.uk/articles/ope...)

The appallingly comments made by Cllr Andy Osborn about children in care are doing the rounds. As far as I’m concerned, his words don’t deserve any airtime. Not in this context, or indeed in the context of

My childcare fell through ahead of a keynote presentation this week and I was faced with a dilemma. Here’s what happened:

My childcare fell through this week ahead of a keynote presentation. Initially I thought about joining virtually; I was concerned that my little one might cause too much disruption, and detract from my message. /1

You know that feeling when you’re at the GP, and you can see the doctor glancing to the side, clock watching whilst you’re sat there sharing painfully private information? Where the screen in front of them seems to have more pull than you, the individual beside them?

Like many care-experienced people, I am ambiguous about #careday25 - it mostly feels like a day for big orgs to gain PR opportunities/fish for likes. That being said, it would be remiss not to mention Free Loaves on Fridays, written by 100 care experienced children & adults.

I used to avoid the 20th December. It marked a painful ending as a child in care whose placement broke down at Christmas. Now it marks a new beginning in a book where 100 care experienced people reclaim our past. Find your Christmas copy of Free Loaves on Fridays here: unbound.com/books/free-l...

NEW: Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill Our initial analysis of the Bill was published this morning. Sorry we cannot join the chorus of congratulations. We expect so much more for children and young people. article39.org.uk/childrenswel...

Recommended to anyone for anyone (except those who don’t want to see the world through the eyes of others who may share complex and difficult stories).

⬇️ So this happened today! article39.org.uk/2024/12/12/a...

In case you missed it - @article39.bsky.social response to gov's children's social care strategy, covering proposals for: 📌Children deprived of liberty 📌16-17 year olds in care-less accommodation 📌Corporate parenting 📌Tackling profiteering & much more... article39.org.uk/labour-gover...

What Jim said 🎁 🎄Free Loaves on Fridays is the gift that keeps on giving long beyond Christmas Day, containing stories, poems & letters from 100 care-experienced children and adults. Proceeds to Article 39 & The Together Trust. unbound.com/books/free-loa…

Great to see a book review of Free Loaves on Fridays amongst excellent company in this journal. "A book with such a diversity of written experiences and formats that it’s possibly the closest thing we’ll ever have to an encyclopaedia of the care experience" Open access.

A few months back, Lemn Sissay & I spoke to Pod Save the UK about the gross privatisation of the care system. The government’s new children’s social care strategy could have halted this. Yet it treats providers with kid-gloves, asking them to ‘voluntarily limit profit’ before legislative🧵

For anyone interested in the children's social care strategy launched yesterday, this is a really useful and comprehensive breakdown from @basw-uk.bsky.social Definitely worth bookmarking in case you haven't already seen it🔖 basw.co.uk/about-social...

Bitterly disappointing to see this soft-touch approach to ending profiteering in care system. Asking providers to 'voluntarily limit' profits (when cost of a child in care can exceed £1m p/a) assumes a level of trust never earned. Tougher measures are needed now; gentle negotiations won’t work.

NEW: Government urged to end the wilful neglect of teenagers in care. Timeline showing how last government reversed the strong, cross-party political consensus that children in care aged 16 and 17 should not have to fend for themselves. #KeepCaringTo18 article39.org.uk/2024/11/18/g...

There’s a lot of tokenism in lived experience participation. Whether it’s requests for unpaid keynotes “for the exposure!”, or politicians stopping by for a photo opp before disappearing, much needs to change. Pleased to be 1 of 15 care experienced people to contribute to this paper. Open access 👇🏼

NEW: Hundreds of children are being deprived of their liberty - and placed in illegal/unregulated care. AirBnBs, security guards, restraints - and often costing the state £1m+ Ministers want to act on this shocking failure of our welfare state: www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

We are thinking of Amir Safi, and his grieving family and friends. Another young person failed by the immigration system, with social work complicity. We are sorry on behalf of the profession. 1/ tinyurl.com/y4xam3ts

A book review so brilliant it’s worth bleeting (is this the Bluesky equivalent of tweeting?) twice. Open access - Free Loaves on Fridays review in the Scottish Journal of Residential Care: www.celcis.org/application/...

Our first post in our new online home 😀 With our friends at Mind, we have been granted permission to intervene in the upcoming appeal concerning the power of local authorities to deprive children in care of their liberty. More here: article39.org.uk/2024/11/15/c...

A PSA to organisations asking for lived experience training: If you ask to record a session for attendees who can’t make it, that’s just about acceptable. But asking to replay it indefinitely is exploitative. Not least because you wouldn’t ask that of other professionals. But

A PSA to organisations asking for lived experience training: If you ask to record a session for attendees who can’t make it, that’s just about acceptable. But asking to replay it indefinitely is exploitative. Not least because you wouldn’t ask that of other professionals. But claiming access to a

Truly delighted with this review of Free Loaves on Fridays, by the inimitable Jim Goddard. . With 100 authors and a no-rejection policy, this book really could have been an editorial nightmare. But it turned out inspired. Open access. Link below: www.celcis.org/application/...

Truly delighted with this review of Free Loaves on Fridays, by the inimitable @JimGoddard1. With 100 authors and a no-rejection policy, this book really could have been an editorial nightmare. But it turned out inspired. Open access. Link below:

The theme of National Care Leavers Week is 'All of Us, We are One'. Which is fitting in the wake of 'Free Loaves on Fridays, the Care System as Told by People who Actually Get It', featuring 100 authors aged <13-68. The only mainstream anthology to have a no-rejection policy❤️

Just a couple of weeks til Berwick Literary Festival, where I’ll be joined by the brilliant @nicolatweets_, @samuptonn for a reading/panel on Free Loaves on Fridays. Together we will celebrate the 100 authors who made the book possible! Tickets here:...

Struck by the amount of posts today from parents re A level results; many celebrating success, others advocating for clearing places on their children’s behalf. Thinking of care leavers who have been failed by their corporate parent. Many will be have opened their results alone

The below is from a book review of Free Loaves on Fridays in the British Journal of Social Work. A watershed moment as 100 authors with lived experience are acknowledged loudly & clearly (by a care experienced reviewer) in academia. Things are changing. Well done to all 👏🏼

Thrilled to speak to the wonderful @jumokefashola on BBC London this morning about Free Loaves on Fridays, who held space so beautifully to reflect on the power of 100 voices from care. You can catch the segment below: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d7dj @unbounders

If anyone’s about near Kings X tomorrow night, will be playing a small part in a live recording of The Guilty Feminist podcast for an episode on fostering. Alongside some brilliant guests. Tix here: https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/comedy/the-guilty-feminist-15-07/

Wonderful to see this PSW piece by Free Loaves author @ChanBillson about the legacy of her social worker Gail “one of the few people who has known me my whole life”. Read her chapter “Addiction to Adoption: Care through the Eyes of a Child” in the...

A sobering reminder that corporal punishment is NOT banned for 16/17 year olds in supported accommodation. Every other care setting (children’s homes, foster care etc) explicitly bans it. We urgently need the @UKLabour to stop the grave mistreatment of teenagers in care.

Free Loaves on Fridays has been spotted in the wild. Surrounded by idiots apparently 😂. @unbounders

Shout out to @harrymvenning, who drew this witty illustration about Free Loaves on Fridays today. It really captures the book’s essence; that care-experienced people are denied real choice. Something the book aims to change by allowing > control over how stories are told.

Looking forward to presenting on Free Loaves on Fridays at #JUSWAC tomorrow! It goes without saying that it is impossible to do justice 100 care-experienced authors in 20 mins...so grab yours here (& lets get it on reading lists for ALL social work students this Sept):

If you know any care-experienced people aged 25 and under who would be interested in a FULL undergraduate scholarship, FYI this brilliant initiative from @jlpartnership in partnership with the @OpenUniversity. Applications close 24 July....

“I read this book and I wept…I wept the whole way through because these are the voices of people from care who have experienced the other side” - a foster carer’s reflection on Free Loaves on Fridays on @bbcworldservice. Our slot @...

An honour to speak to @bbcworldservice about Free Loaves on Fridays this morning. To summarise, this book is needed because “Our names our everywhere in care files, assessments & headlines - but our voices are nowhere” Listen from 33.30:...

Delighted to see Free Loaves on Fridays make it to no.1 of @pagesofhackney’s Top Ten for May list! Well done to each of our 100 authors 👏🏼 @unbounders

Can we stop the culture of expecting people to speak about lived experience for free? Was approached on LinkedIn at 11pm with a keynote request. A polite “Is this a paid opp” was met with “If this is a deciding factor then…”. Would you ask a builder, teacher, hairdresser 🧵

Glad to see Free Loaves on Fridays is back in stock (again!). If you’re compiling reading lists for Sept for any profession supporting children in care, look no further. Hear what needs to change (& what works!) from 100 children/adults who’ve lived...

Foster carers are advocates, cheerleaders, role models, & much more. To mark Foster Care Fortnight, here are a some #FosteringMoments that are forever etched in my memory. Read the full piece in Free Loaves on Fridays - available at @unbounders: ...

Two days left until this free seminar, covering the making of #FreeLoavesonFridays - the only mainstream anthology to have a ‘No Rejection Policy’. If you care about care, as well as fairer/more inclusive publishing, sign up for free...

An honour to feature on Pod Save the UK podcast tomorrow with @lemnsissay, where we talk Free Loaves on Fridays, privatisation, & the lack of gov ambition for care. Grateful to @MrNishKumar & @cocobyname for shining a light on the above 🙏🏼 Listen here:...

If you work with children in care, please consider investing in a copy of Free Loaves on Fridays for your office. The headteacher/social worker below say they wish they had one at the start of their career. Hear from 100 voices from care below: http://amazon.co.uk/Free-Loaves-Fr…