By Isabelle Trowler CBE, Chief Social Worker for Children and Families
As Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, I have the privilege of helping to shape services in England which support families and protect children. As part of this, it’s always essential to listen to children and their families about what they need, rather than us, as professionals, always second guessing. Over my career, I’ve learnt to listen harder.
Many years ago, Sophie Humphreys, the Founder of the national charity Pause, was part of my senior management team when we both worked in Hackney. She would frequently hassle me (and I mean hassle!) about the need to support women experiencing the repeat removal of their children. It took me several years to really listen to Sophie. She came to make the case for investment from the Department for Education (DfE). At that point, then in my role as Chief Social Worker, I heard her. Loud and clear. This is a perfect example of how your position in a complex system really does strongly influence how you see things.
I chair the National Practice Group (NPG), which comes together to support the government to set national direction for practice with children and families. It is of utmost importance that people with diverse lived experience of the children’s social care system contribute to this thinking by being a part of the NPG. I have recently had the pleasure of welcoming a new expert by experience to the group, who has completed the 18-month Pause Programme.
Pause works to improve the lives of women who’ve had children removed from their care. Their programme of post-removal support helps women build a more positive future for themselves and their children. I have followed Pause’s work closely since Sophie’s visit to the DfE and am delighted that since then, they have worked with over 1,800 women across the country. Pause shares their learnings from practice to influence positive changes and ensure families get the support they need, so that nobody experiences the removal of a child more than once.
Pause’s new #NeverMoreThanOnce gallery shares messages from more than 100 women working with Pause across England about their hopes for change in the children’s social care system. This is a group of women whose experiences are not often heard or thought about, and so the gallery provides a platform to amplify their voices. From these messages, we can learn about what is important to birth mothers. While the messages in the gallery are varied, a key theme that comes through is the value of being heard and supported.
Post-removal support means that birth parents can begin to address the difficulties that contributed to their child(ren) being removed from their care, while also managing the complex emotions brought about from the trauma of losing a child. Without this support, many parents are left struggling to cope, which can lead to a cycle of repeated removals. Pause aims to end this complex cycle through their programme of support, transforming the lives of the women they work with, which in turn has a positive impact on their children, families and wider communities.
We must learn from the messages in the #NeverMoreThanOnce gallery and continue to engage and involve birth parents in thinking and policymaking. This will lead to a better understanding of how we can break the cycle of removals, which in turn will reduce the number of children entering care, avoid the devastating impact on families, and make significant savings to the public purse.
I am passionate about driving this change and believe whole-heartedly that keeping children with their families – wherever it is safe to do so – is key to reforming children’s social care for the better. The Children’s Social Care National Framework becomes statutory guidance for all local authorities by the end of 2024. This framework, overseen by the NPG, sets out not just the four outcomes we want to help achieve for families, but how best to do that. These principles of practice are closely aligned to the work of Pause. It’s been a long process, but I think we have reached a point now where there is much greater synergy between what government says it wants to see and what families tell us they need. That’s a very positive context for the launch of the #NeverMoreThanOnce gallery. Do take the time to view the gallery and reflect on the distance travelled, but also how much more there is to do.
