UK practitioners find the impact they have on people's wellbeing most rewarding but are struggling with administrative burdens, inadequate staffing and workloads, finds first annual British Association of Social Workers (BASW) membership survey.

This article draws on first-person narratives of care leavers in Ireland who have aged out of care and transitioned into independent living in a dedicated social housing programme to examine their strategies for coping with these competing pressures.

Salary:

GBP £50-55,000 equivalent - fixed in local currency. Salary will be determined based on experience and adjusted to the local market rate.

This report provides analysis of all up-to-date LA sufficiency strategies with a focus on identifying (I) the main perceived challenges for local authorities (LAs) to meet their sufficiency duty, (II) what actions are being undertaken or planned by LAs to improve commissioning outcomes, and (III) perceived negative consequences associated with using certain commissioning or market shaping approaches. This work was commissioned by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

This research aims to identify and better understand what it is that enables and challenges the necessary improvements needed at national and local level to support children and young people to successfully transition to adulthood.

Separating a baby from his or her mother at birth when there are safeguarding concerns is traumatic for birth parents and painful for professionals. This report presents findings from a study that analysed qualitative data from the lived experiences of parents and professionals where the state intervened at birth. The aim was to identify key challenges and to surface good practice examples with a view to developing a draft set of best practice guidelines for piloting with partner research sites in England and Wales.

Increased support for care leavers and new legislation to reduce out of area placements must also be introduced as part of a major reform of the children's social care system, according to a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for looked-after children and care leavers. The report, which reveals the results of a spotlight inquiry on the care system, will feed into the upcoming Care Review.

This APPG report puts a spotlight on what ‘community’ means to care-experienced people and explores what might be done to help strengthen important community relationships and connections for current and future generations of children in care. The report contains 15 practical recommendations for changes that could be made in the near future to improve the ways in which the care system supports young people to connect with their communities and highlights 5 broader areas where the authors feel serious reform is required that the Department for Education (and others) should consider in greater detail.

James and his wife said there was "no question" of their granddaughter moving in with them after the five-year-old's mum attempted to take her own life.

James is one of up to 300,000 people in the UK who cares for a young relative.

But people in Wales who look after a family member feel they are providing "care on the cheap" as the majority are paid less than unrelated foster carers.

Government plans for mental health support teams in a third of schools in England by 2022-23 lack ambition and need to be stepped up, UK MPs have heard.