Looked-after children face significant challenges in school, often due to poor collaboration between teachers and social workers, which can hinder their progress. Effective teamwork between these professionals can greatly benefit these children by providing more consistent support for their educational and emotional needs.
Clear communication, sharing information about the child's development, and understanding each other's roles are essential for improving outcomes. Policy changes and successful models from other countries offer valuable insights, while families and communities can also play a key role in fostering better collaboration.
Listen to Ellyse Hinder, Senior Marketing and Engagement Officer for CoramBAAF, talk with Sylvia Ikomi and Lorna Stabler about how social workers and teachers, or those working in education, can come together to help looked after children and young people.
Sylvia and Lorna were both awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake research into their chosen areas. Sylvia's research explored the adultification of Black girls in state care. Lorna's research looked into delivering support for kinship carers to reduce reliance on institutional care.
Sylvia Ikomi is a lecturer and qualified teacher. She delivers Continuous Professional Development training that is aimed at raising professionals’ awareness of the adultification of Black girls within the education and social care sectors.
Lorna Stabler currently works with CASCADE as a Research Associate. She is a Chief Investigator on an NIHR study focused on understanding how Family Group Conferences can be embedded in statutory child and family social work. Lorna is also Principal Investigator for a Nuffield Foundation funded study focused on Special Guardianship Orders in Wales.
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We have provided a transcript for this podcast episode to offer an alternative version and promote accessibility. Please note that this is a transcription of a video interview. The content remains the same whilst some changes have been made to improve readability in a written format. Therefore, there may be some inconsistencies between the recording and the written conversation.
Recommended reading
- Social Workers in Schools trial - What Works for Children's Social Care
- Timpson Schools Programme
- The designated teacher for lookedafter and previously looked-after children CASCADE research – social worker within schools
- The adultification of black girls in state care: perspectives
- The adultification of black girls in state care: perspectives research paper
- Learning from Research: The adultification of black girls in state care webinar recording
- No Child Left Behind: Bridging the Literacy Achievement Gap of Looked-after Children in Secondary School Through Speaking and Listening