Team: Specialist Intervention Service Therapy Team

Partners: Children’s Social Care, Foster carers, Young people, Parents, Social workers, Therapy Team

Main Submission:

Despite being the 7th smallest London borough, LBBD faces significant economic challenges, high child poverty, significant health inequalities, and elevated mental health issues with 1 in 5 young people ages 8-25 having a probable mental health disorder. According to the 2021 Census by the ONS, 44.9% of LBBD residents identify as White, making it the dominant cultural identity in the area (ONS, 2021). The remaining residents identify as Asian (25.9%), Black (21.4%), mixed or multiple ethnic groups (4.3%), and other ethnic groups (3.6%).

The aim of the project was to place a cultural lens on Play and Creative Arts therapy practise in a children’s social care setting in order to create incisive thoughtfulness around cultural attunement and sensitivity to ensure that therapists engaged with and were committed to considering painful unconscious bias and developing greater understanding of joining with children and young people around the understanding of culture in every therapy session. The therapy manager determined to increase and optimise the cultural and ethnical diversity of therapy staff, to sustainably affect the service and continuously attend to both personal and systemic racism. The project was also designed to theorise and conceptualise reflection, supervision, and practice. Three new staff members were specifically employed via grant funding. The results from the project showed a profound increase in cultural consideration and an expediential change in hopefulness with the children and adolescence as their cultural richness and complexity was explored.

The team were able to theorise and conceptualise around practises within play and creative arts therapy, to consider stereotypes, reduce play therapy practise bias, consider optimum cultural engagement with child, young person and parent and become more culturally inclusive. The project aimed to enhancem therapeutic services for children and young people in care and on the edge of care, by providing tailored interventions that considered the unique cultural needs of each individual. The therapy manager determined to increase and optimise cultural and ethnical diversity of therapy staff, to sustainably affect the service and continuously attend to both personal and systemic racism. ‘The culturally sensitive therapy project’ was designed to theorise and conceptualise reflection, supervision, and practice, and 3 new staff members were specifically employed via funding.

Between December 2023 and August 2024, 21 children and young people were referred for Play and Creative Arts therapy. 9 of those were offered a culturally connected therapy intervention with a culturally matched therapist. Extensive academic and clinical research was conducted alongside the interventions to ensure they aligned with current theories, neurodevelopment, multicultural thoughts, and clinical practices. The bond and trust building was exponentially increased as a result of cultural matching and ensuring attention was paid to race, culture and identity in every session. The project resulted in a psychoanalytically informed report which incorporated play and creative therapy techniques, strategies, and quotes from the children and young people involved. The pre and post therapy scores of the young people in relation to being culturally understood were considered. It focused on race as a concept, developing a culturally sensitive therapy space, considering the impact of culture and gender in relation to identity, the therapists engagement with culture and trauma, the importance of placing a cultural lens on systems and organisations, creating emotional awareness and shift in racist thoughts in the therapist and therapeutic space, considering cultural competency in relation to de-colonising of play therapy methods, dismantling internalised racial oppression, benevolent neutrality and the notion of cultural matching.

Two siblings accessed a group therapy intervention and said that “having had this safe space has helped us to understand our Pakistani cultural challenges and not feel judged. We can also now see our mother’s point of view since she has moved away from our faith beliefs, but we are now able to accept we can bear to see her again. We could not have done this without the therapy.” One young person said “I feel empowered in my therapy sessions because my therapist understands my position as someone who is a non-White British with the pressures of having to balance my parents’ expectations and be an ordinary teenager. I feel connected to my therapist as she is also Asian like me”.

9 young people were helped to navigate living in high-cost care placements, their internal emotional turmoil, and adverse external events. These factors destabilised their emotional maturation and capacity to understand their lives and explore new possibilities. They were considered holistically regarding physical, psychological, and neurological changes within their social and cultural context. Identity and culture were recurring themes in therapy sessions, as the young people sought to make sense of their traumatic lived experiences and the impact these had on their sense of self. Psychoeducation, as needed, helped children and young people understand their actions, provided theoretical context for their behaviours, and help them makes sense of their cultural identity.

Theoretical and therapeutic insights were shared with parents, carers, social workers, and decision makers, which enhanced the effectiveness of partnership working. This ensured the views, hopes, and experiences of the children were conveyed and understood by all, leading to better outcomes, increased stability, and lower risk levels, as the child’s needs were being met effectively and appropriately.

One case example is that of F 14-year-old trans adolescent of mixed ethnicity, who was offered 13 sessions of Play and Creative Arts Therapy. She was culturally matched with her therapist and together they explored her sense of identity and the intersectionality between culture, gender, sexuality, and race. By the end of the intervention, a CORE- outcome measure showed a 42% reduction is psychological distress. Alongside her therapy sessions, her mother also received therapy to explore her world and understanding of her child’s. By the end of the intervention, F said “I feel like I know myself for the first time. Having an Asian therapist who shares our cultural experiences makes it easier for us to open up, she gets where we are coming from. We feel like we can be ourselves in therapy as she has created a safe place for us to discuss our cultural challenges. I would like to thank my therapist whose Asian background gives us a special connection. It’s comforting to talk to her because she understands our background and values which makes it easier to discuss these really shameful and sensitive things”. Her mother said “the environment is like a normal therapy room, she has let me lead and gently speak.

I am so lucky to have had this support. We now spend time together. I am no longer overwhelmed, and I can see my children for who they are and can let them grow.” As a result of this project, bi-monthly systemic team meetings with a cultural lens had been implemented to discuss all casework with a cultural lens. This is a model which could and should be replicated across all local authorities to ensure that good culturally appropriate practice is consistently considered. By doing so, we can reduce racial disparities and tackle organisational and systemic racism in the workforce.

Team: Brent Children and Young People Service

Partners: Nigel Chapman, Corporate Director. Palvinder Kudhail, Director for Early Help and Social Care. Shirley Parks, Director Education, Partnerships and Strategy, Sonya Kalyniak, HOS Safeguarding and Quality Assurance.

Main Submission

1. Introduction to the initiative and motivations for action; description of exceptional challenges, ambitions and objectives for undertaking the work

The overall ambition of this project was to have a ways of working document that stretched across all of the directorate. This included agreed values and behaviours that set clear expectations in interactions with each other, our partner agencies and with children and young people. As background, Brent first introduced a Practice Framework in 2017 that was represented by an apple tree. We were motivated to redevelop the Practice Framework with staff to align with our evolving practice and to make it a living document that stretched across the whole directorate, including staff with an education focus to their work. In order to do so, we embarked on a journey of defining our CYP values and behaviours that we expect every member of staff to embody and demonstrate. Critical to this was incorporating anti-racist practice into our ways of working document – and aligning with the nationally defined purpose of Children’s Social Care.

It was essential that the Brent CYP Ways of Working were ‘rooted’ in our history and demonstrate that all of us – individually and as an organisation – are on journey of continuous growth. We wanted to keep our tree but better represent diversity. We wanted to articulate anti-racist practice within the behaviours that we expected staff to demonstration.

This led to some exceptional challenges including incorporating staff from different professional backgrounds, differing use of language across different parts of the directorate, having to have a framework that resonated for all CYP including practitioners, those working in education, administrators and all staff that are essential in our work. There needed to be creative space to re-imagine our tree and consider how each element of our ways of working would be pictured. We had considerable amounts of conversation about how to incorporate anti-racist practice into our growing tree. We also needed to consider how to make our tree represent the diversity of Brent and our workforce

2. Details of actions, activities and initiatives designed to deliver on this commitment; description of the best practice implemented and delivered; securing buy-in across relevant teams, obstacles overcome, leadership, structures and budget to achieve the objectives, being sure to emphasise the relevant common themes referenced above.

Over a six month period, a cross CYP working group led a series workshops and conversations trialling ideas and gathering feedback. This led to a directorate wide consultation about our vision at the Brent Staff Conference in December 2023. At the conference, it was clear we had more work to do – especially to make sure people had time to consider anti-racist practice within our ways of working. This meant a further consultation period. Following these conversations, we agreed a way forward with anti-racist practice being integrated into our ways of working as our “earth”.

The artwork was developed through consultations with staff, leading to the concept of a multi-fruit tree. The different fruits represent both the diversity of the children and families we serve, our workforce and that outcomes are different for each individual. These outcomes are to be celebrated based on their individual merits. Our ways of working is represented by:

The trunk represents our values of (1) contribution to society; (2) integrity; (3) creativity and (4) achievement.

Our branches are how we work with the people we serve (our behaviours) – with curiosity, creativity and kindness.

The earth symbolises that we are an anti-racist organisation. Being anti-racist grounds our actions in an inclusive and intersectional setting.

Practitioners working directly with children and families are rooted in purpose, principles and approaches that help practice thrive.

The fruits are the outcomes achieved by the people we serve and ourselves. They are represented by different fruits, demonstrating the diversity of Brent and that outcomes are different for everyone.

In April 2024 “This is Brent CYP. This is how we grow.” was launched. To mark the occasion, staff received copies of the document with fruit boxes delivered to all teams across CYP. There have been a series of activities for staff to share on our internal social media platform how they are demonstration curious, creative and kind behaviour and the impact this is having on children’s outcomes.

Our ways of working document has been consistently reinforced by senior leadership. At an away day, the Children’s Services Leadership Team (CSLT) shared their personal connection to the CYP values and a video of this was shared with staff and is included in induction. CSLT lead workshops and share examples of curiosity, creativity and kindness in action. Our ways of working has been embedded into induction and staff training to keep consideration about the document moving forward. Overall, the feedback from staff is that the values and behaviours resonate across our workforce and unite us as one directorate.

3. Evidence that the best practice is having an impact; description of the effect on outcomes and how the best practice has made/is making a difference

The tagline “This is Brent CYP. This is how we grow” has now become integral to our recruitment and retention offer. It gives permission to each person in CYP to acknowledge that we are growing and developing and to celebration progress, knowing that our work is never done but, by nurturing each other, we’re always striving for the best possible outcomes. Part of this work has been to create a “brand” for Brent CYP that supports with recruitment of staff. There has been content post on LinkedIn that celebrate Brent as a learning, growing and anti-racist organisation. More and more, we are seeing applicants reference that they are attracted to working in Brent based on being attracted to our ways of working.

In the December 2024 staff conference, an activity was conducted with all CYP staff, asking them to write down the impact of our Ways of Working on cutouts of pieces of fruit. Nigel Chapman, DCS, then asked members of staff to hang their “fruits” or outcomes on a life-size papier mâché replica of our tree. There staff lined up to share the outcomes of our work and how being curious, courageous and kind supported these outcomes. There were members of staff from all areas of the service – school admissions, social workers, early years workers and youth mentors sharing and receiving applause for the outcomes they are seeing in children’s lives. Some outcomes written on our “fruits” include:

“A boy in year 10 was permanently excluded. I had been working with him for 6 months and knew he could do well, he had it in him. I spoke to another school and got him a managed moved. I worked with him and his family. He passed his managed move after lots of hard work. I was super proud of him. At the end of year, he stent me an email saying ‘thank you for all your support’. He was in line for a 3 or 4 in exams but got a 5, 6 and 7. He sent me a picture of him holding his exams.”

“I challenged [another local authority’s] admission and they agreed to accept the child into their school. The parent is delighted with this outcome”.

“Worked with a young person who tried to end her life three times and ended up in A&E. I’m very pleased that the young person maintained education including completing her GCSEs and Level 2 and 3 hairdressing and her mental health is stable.”

“Analysing CYP data to provide insights into areas faced with inequalities.”

“4 teaching assistants trained in Braille and passed their RNIB exam.”

“Children thriving and reaching their milestones through encouragement and being curious and kind.”

“Funded British Sign Language Level 1 course for hearing parents of deaf children, creating rich language environments that are key for child development.”

“I have helped a one year old child who has come into care ‘SMILE’”.

“Working with a school and family to find the right placement for their child. He is now thriving ☺”

At this conference, we also went more deeply into what anti-racist practice means for us in CYP. We knew we needed to help people move from the theoretical to the practical implementation of anti-racism. Members of staff courageously shared steps they have taken in a CYP staff video. We then had a session of creative conversations about actively understanding and addressing racism. This featured two examples how anti-racism looks in practice in Brent CYP:

Sharing a review conducted by the Inclusion service on language used in referrals for support and the difference between how black and white children are described. This service is actively supporting referrers to think about their language and describe children in the same way – based on their needs. The Setting and School Effectiveness Service has launched an anti-racist practice award for all Brent schools that seeks to address systemic racism and develop inclusive curriculum.

All of these activities demonstrate that we are achieving our ambition to bring Brent CYP together as one directorate with common values and behaviours. Our ways of working are supporting recruitment, retention and working together to support our children and families achieve their diverse outcomes.

4. Voice of the child; wherever possible, please include the voice of children, families and staff to provide testimony on the work being submitted.

Quotes from below have been taken from feedback across a range of CYP services over the last few months, demonstrating impact of the ways of working both for children and families and the wider workforce.

“I’m very happy that he helped me… He made me smile” (Parent feedback on contacting the Brent Family Front Door)

“I just wanted to thank you for your dedication to helping my dad and [sibling]. We can’t thank you enough.” (Child subject to a child protection plan about a short term team social worker)

“[Social worker] does a great job in keeping in contact with me. I know I can reach her anytime needed and she also checks in by phone often. She has been an amazing worker and you should keep her”. (Young person about her social worker in CWD)

Feedback from the December 2024 staff conference where we looking in depth at impact of This is Brent CYP. This is how we grow., particularly anti-racist practice includes:

“Reflecting on language and unconscious/conscious bias within my work and settings. By challenging this mindset now, will eventually embed a new way of thinking in the future to make Brent more inclusive.” (CYP Conference participant)

I work in an institution and think that it is easy to fall into a pattern of speaking and thinking. I plan to stand back more and think about my processing and words and the impact and outcome I want to have.” (CYP Conference participant)

“I will be braver! I think it will be good to speak about this in a team meeting. I also think it needs to be shared with other eg: Parent Champions to have an understanding as they also support families within the community.” (CYP conference participant)

“I found interesting the short presentation where we were shown two case notes and asked to guess which one was about a black child and which one about a white child. It is good to have an awareness about the racial bias and stereotypes in use of language in professional case recording.” (CYP conference participant)

Supporting Information:

Team: Tackling Structural Racism Group

Main Submission:  

The objectives of this programme of work are to; 

1. Improve understanding of structural racism and how to reduce its impact on our staff as well as on children, young people and families whilst aiming to improve the impact of our work  

2. Improve understanding and awareness of the lived experiences and stories of Black & Global Majority Staff, with the aim of improving staff wellbeing 

3. Improve representation of Black & Global Majority staff in senior roles and ensure the workforce represents the diverse community we serve  

Examples of the work which has taken place to support the delivery of these objectives are: 

Improve understanding of structural racism and how to reduce its impact  

• Developing a programme of anti-racism training, including Social Graces, Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, Cultural Appropriation, Race Based Trauma and Stress   

• Establishing a bookclub celebrating writers who are black and brown. The group regularly meet to have conversations around race, racism and equality.  

• Influencing work corporately, including stimulating the development of a council-wide Race Equality Charter and Inclusive Language guide.  

• Supporting the development and embedding of shared values for Children’s Services, continuing to embed a strong commitment to anti-discriminatory and anti-racist practice.  

Improve understanding and awareness of the lived experiences and stories of Black & Global Majority Staff within the directorate to improve staff wellbeing 

• Establishing the EDI Listening Space, which provides a space for staff to have facilitated discussions about their lived experiences.   

• Supporting the development of EDI dashboards, providing expertise and challenge where needed to ensure the HR dashboards meaningfully inform discussion around EDI.  

• Establishing a programme of events throughout the year to celebrate the diversity of our workforce and share our cultures to embed a sense of belonging for all our staff.  

Improve representation of Black & Global Majority staff in senior roles and ensure the workforce represents the diverse community that it serves 

• Supporting the development a Reciprocal Mentoring Programme for the Council, providing space for senior staff to better understand the experiences of Black and Global Majority staff  

• Developing leadership opportunities for Black and Global Majority staff who are in/looking to progress to leadership roles, including enabling participation in the BALI programme and establishing a peer network of staff who have completed the programme. 

• Group Interview coaching sessions held by the DCS focusing on career development and interview preparation with particular attention on considerations for Black and Global majority staff  

• Establishing an EDI Interview Panel for recruitment to senior positions within Children’s Services.   

Improve the impact of our work on children, young people and families through understanding and tackling structural racism 

• Supporting the development of the Black Governors Programme, to increase the numbers of school governors from Black and Global Majority backgrounds and also to give them the training and access to coaching support for them to succeed in these roles.  

• Expanding the roll of our Compassionate Mind Training and Social GRACES training to partners, sharing compassionate anti-racist approaches with our delivery partners  

• Developing opportunities to engage children and young people in discussions about race and belonging.  During Black History Month a number of events were held to engage children and young people in these discussions including a BHM Poetry competition.   

Key to this work has been the bringing together of staff and partners from all levels to inform discussions and to shape our focus.  

Understanding our impact 

A number of the above initiatives have been innovative, influencing wider than Children’s Services and becoming embedded in the work we do.  In recognition of the impact of this programme, the Tackling Structural Racism group won the Excellence in Equity Award at the Royal Greenwich Staff Awards in 2023. The work of the group was also shortlisted for a CYP Now Award in 2023. 

The TSR work is now a core part of the Children’s Services Workforce Development and Engagement Strategy, with evidence of discussions around race and the embedding of anti-racist practice service plans across the directorate.  

Membership of the TSR group has continued to grow, with representatives now from all service areas.  

Some examples of impact include; 

• Increased Empowerment and Representation: Staff from diverse backgrounds have reported feeling more heard and valued, particularly with the establishment of an EDI recruitment panel for senior appointments. This has boosted morale and created a greater sense of belonging across the workforce. 

• Cultural Competency and Inclusivity: Continuous EDI training has fostered a more inclusive work environment. Staff are better equipped to identify and address biases, leading to improved relationships and a more collaborative culture. 

• Diversity in Leadership:  The introduction of an EDI panel for senior appointments has resulted in more diverse leadership within children’s services 

• Improved Understanding of Racial Trauma: The ongoing training on structural racism have enhanced the ability of staff to understand and address racial trauma leading to improved support for children and families.  

Staff feedback is key to our understanding of impact, some quotes from staff captured below: 

• ‘I have growing confidence that change is happening’. 

• ‘I have more confidence to talk freely on institutional racism’ 

• ‘I have used the tools shared in my Practice’ 

• ‘I think there’s something about trying to be more open and vulnerable in work (which can be difficult while keeping a “professional face” but I think it helps us connect to each other and is a source of power)’ 

• ‘I thought it was very interesting, I love the idea of a shared space at work, I find it heart-warming  that these types of discussions are taking place’. 

• ‘Embedded my understanding of intersectionality in others that I work with and how this impacts my assessments’ 

Team: Racial Equality and Inclusion Service

Main Submission:

In accordance with the Equality Act 2010, we as a public body have a duty to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Following the successful implementation of the Children and Families Service Anti-Racist Practice Standards within Children Social Care, and in line with our ongoing commitment to becoming an anti-racist and inclusive organisation, we collaborated with colleagues in Hackney Education to develop the joint Children and Education Anti-Racist Practice Standards. This initiative promotes our “one directorate” approach, ensuring consistency across the directorate in our efforts to champion equity and ensure better opportunities for the children and families we serve.

The Children and Education Anti-Racist Practice Standards empower practitioners and staff to foster equitable opportunities for the children and families we serve by delivering anti-racist practice. The Standards ensure staff accountability in addressing systemic racism across all areas of our work and provide the necessary tools, guidance, and expectations to challenge racism effectively.

Embedding our anti-racist values and ethos plays a key role in shifting our culture, behaviour and practice in relation to anti-racism across the directorate, which sets a baseline of acceptable standards in our service delivery. The dissemination of the standards is supported by a Hackney Anti-Racism Animation, which sets out the Council’s definition and position on anti-racism; this has been actively published and shared across the Council from late 2023.

Evidence of Impact

The findings from the Ofsted ILACS inspection of Hackney Children’s Social Care in July 2024, specific acknowledged the “shared commitment to Hackney’s practice model has sharpened workers’ focus on anti-racist practice, and helped them better understand the needs, trauma and systems that affect children and their families”. In addition a detailed internal evaluation of the ‘roll-out’ of the Anti-Racist practice standards across the Children’s Social Care workforce, evidenced significant learning and impacts on practice for both practitioners as well as managers and leadership across the service. Specific feedback on the usefulness of the training included the following:

‘‘I found it very informative and a great space to discuss what anti -racism looks like to different people. It was also a space I felt safe in as up to this point I was adamant about no longer having discussions about race in the workplace with colleagues as I find the subject triggering” (social worker)

‘‘I think it was helpful to gather with colleagues including those from different services and discuss the issues. It helped to support an awareness that there is a shared goal in respect to ARP standards’’ (social worker)

‘‘I think Hackney’s doing a really good job of getting these conversations going and maintaining the momentum – there’s genuinely been so many conversations happening around the office about anti-racist practice since the start of my placement and I think it’s creating a real open to learning culture. The [standards] training highlighted that we need to challenge/inform other professionals and ourselves, especially from a safeguarding and reviewing or quality assurance point of view’’

Supporting Information:

What is anti-racism?

Team: ‘BLM series of conversations’

Main Submission:

BLM series of conversations

Following the murder of George Floyd on 25th May 2020, a couple of team managers in the assessment teams requested a forum to discuss the issues this brought up for staff and families. A couple of Clinical Practitioners started a forum called ‘BLM series of conversations’ online for all assessment teams in June 2020. Later, in 2021, our staff from our front door team joined and in 2022, our staff from our Early Help service joined. It ran through the pandemic, and highlighted the many inequalities in our society. Social Work managers and H&F’s EDI lead joined the BLM series of conversations along the way.

The topics covered were generated from staff suggestions and feedback following a session. A sample of the topics and resources are: creating a safe space to talk about racial trauma (Lambers video) and the responsibility of the supervisor to create a safe space in supervision to discuss race (Pendry); Sewell report and impact, critique by Professor Hari Sewell and racial trauma (Resmaa Manekem); Red Table Video – invisibility of black women and impact of stereotyping; race and mental health – ‘Maybe I don’t belong here’ by David Harewood; Nova Reid’s ideas about racialised trauma and impact on mental health; Robin DiAngelo’s video on ‘Deconstructing White Privilege’; Slyvia Duckworth’s Wheel of Power and Privilege; show video Wayne Reid & Andrew Thompson on Allyship; Ken Hardy; show video/podcast by Claudia Bernard on Intersectionality; cultural humility; Akala’s video on Everyday Racism and use of Wheel of Power and Privilege; Black women’s experiences of maternity services

The format of the sessions settled into intro and using the courageous dialogue-shared commitments to lay the foundations for talking, an informative video/article, applying the ideas to a case study, discussions in break out rooms and feedback to the bigger group. The sessions took place 6 weekly for 2 hours.

It addressed finding a language and permission to talk about racism and its impact with colleagues at work and in our work with families. There was much debate whether the sessions should be mandatory but in the end the attendance remained voluntary. They have now moved into the Learning Practice space which is mandatory.

We are currently rolling out The BLM series of conversations format across Children’s Services. The Family Support and Child Protection teams have just started the conversations and have so far covered the topics of:

• statistics and responses to Black children that go missing
• Black children and their experiences of education.

The sessions are prepared and facilitated by Social Workers (one from each team), a Social Work manager and a Clinical Practitioner. The format is hybrid (online and in person); they are 4-weekly, and 2 workers take responsibility for facilitating each session.

Cultural humility – a way of tackling racism

The concept of cultural humility was developed by Dr. Tervalon and Dr. Murray-Garcia to learn more about experiences and cultural identities of others and increase the quality of their interactions with clients and community members. Cultural humility is the “ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is other oriented (or open to the other) in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the [person].”

It is helpful to see as others see; what they themselves have determined is their personal expression of their heritage and their “personal culture”.

It involves an ongoing process of self-exploration and self-critique combined with a willingness to learn from others. It means entering a relationship with another person with the intention of honouring their beliefs, customs, and values. It means acknowledging differences and accepting that person for who they are.

Cultural humility is a way of approaching our assessments and interventions and making sure we fully understand the child and parents/carers lived experience. It is a way of understanding how race and culture impact the forming of the child’s identity.

Measuring Impact

Hammersmith and Fulham (H&F) Children’s Services are committed to evaluating the impact of their initiatives to reduce racial disparities and tackle racism.

Participant Testimonials

Regular feedback is collected from participants through several methods, including Mentimeter polls, verbal feedback at the end of each session, and emails. This feedback helps in refining the sessions and ensuring they meet the needs of the participants.

Testimonials from participants highlight the personal and professional growth resulting from the BLM series of conversations. Participants have reported increased awareness, empathy, and the ability to address racial biases more effectively.

By focusing on these areas, H&F aims to ensure that their efforts to promote cultural humility and address racial disparities are making a tangible difference in the lives of children, families, and staff. The continuous evaluation and refinement of these initiatives are crucial for their long-term success and impact.

Two participants of the BLM series of conversation volunteered to give feedback in an interview with one of the facilitators.

Both participants highlighted the importance of having a forum at work to discuss racism and intersectionality and how it gave them permission to call out racist biases. Here are a couple of quotes from the interview

“… a level of boldness I wouldn’t have had before to ask those difficult questions. To be really mindful about my language, language is definitely something I have taken away, what am I saying and how am I saying it and how am I making it really clear this is my hypothesis or my thinking rather than it is a fact and those sorts of things… but I am always mindful of what my intentions are … ”

“… my eyes have opened more. I have to say having done the job for a while, before this starting up and engaging in it, there was an element of autopilot, you do what you need to do and step away and actually I hadn’t really brought my… this is going to sound weird, I hadn’t really brought my blackness into the work if that makes sense? You go and do it and it was the first time I had to stop and think, gosh, there is this whole side of me that I have neglected and not really had brought it to the forefront of my work, and I had to stop and think about myself initially. I had to think, ok, if I am talking about this and feeling all of these different things within myself, how are other people perceiving that and then also, I am doing this from a place of somewhat power, what about the people I am working with from a similar background and don’t have that power, it’s just, it’s like a lightbulb that was switched on, like ok, there is so much dept into the things that are happening but maybe I am not paying attention to.”

Feedback from Families

The impact on families of the initiatives is evaluated during Practice Week when feedback is gathered from families and young people. This evaluation helps in understanding the real-world effects of the initiatives on the community.

This was the feedback from a parent during Practice Week:

“What matters most is that the professionals have empathy, that they show that they can feel human pain. You can tell from the words and terminology professionals use, whether they have empathy or are harsh. I often wonder whether it is hard to show compassion when you have had a hard life yourself. I value a calm individual who shows empathy, kindness and treats you as an individual” (parent)

Quality Assurance

We use our routine monthly audits to evaluate our practice with specific analysis collected in respect to culturally humble practice which is demonstrating a growing awareness and application in practice.

Practice Development

Our Care Proceedings Manager is working with our colleagues in the Legal department to build consideration of race, ethnicity and learning more about experiences and cultural identities of others into the letters of instruction during court proceedings.

Framework Development

We are developing a framework to measure the outcomes of our focus on cultural humility and the BLM series of conversations. This framework aims to track progress and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives.

Baseline Data Collection

A baseline of data on race and ethnicity is being established. This data will help in tracking whether the overrepresentation of racialized and minoritized groups is being addressed through the initiatives

Broader relevance
Other local authorities can replicate this model by:

• Creating an organisational culture where each staff member is understood in their personal expression of their culture.
• Creating staff forums where permission is given to discuss children and staff’s lived experiences of race, culture and ethnicity.
• Having a quality assurance framework that monitors the use of social graces, intersectionality and cultural humility in assessments and interventions
• Listening to feedback from young people, parents and carers and integrating this going forward.

Conclusion

• Race is a major organising factor in society and has an impact on us, and the children and families we work with. Their lived experiences shape how they interact with the world, including children’s services.
• We need to move from talking about reducing racial disparities and tackling racism to actively doing so.
• Creating a culture where permission is given to bring all of our social graces to work, especially race, culture and ethnicity, which creates a better chance of generating the conditions where children and parents/carers feel understood in their lived experience, and which makes it more able for them to share and work collaboratively.
• When as staff you feel race and ethnicity can be discussed meaningfully, your assessments and interventions will have a better chance of generating the changes needed and reducing the risk of harm to a child and creating the conditions for a child to thrive.
• It is important to have several avenues of measuring the impact of the strategies, so racial disparity and racism are shown to be reduced

*Social graces is an acronym which stands for gender, geography, race, religion, age, accent, appearance, ability, culture, class, education, employment, ethnicity, sexuality, sexual orientation, spirituality (Burnham and Roper-Hall)
**Intersectionality was a concept coined by Kimberley Crenshaw to explain the experiences of Black women who – because of the intersections of race, gender and class – are exposed to exponential forms of marginalisation and oppression

Team: Stop and Search Safeguarding Project

Partners: Metropolitan Police Service North Area BCU, London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA)

Main Submission:

Stop and Search through a Safeguarding Lens

Collaboration is the bedrock of effective child safeguarding. The London Borough of Haringey Children’s Services and the Metropolitan Police Service in North Area BCU have, since 2020, been working on a phased project to improve the safeguarding response to children who are stopped and searched. The project aims to consider the information obtained by the police in using their power of stop and search and, where there are wider safeguarding concerns, how these young people can benefit from timely support and interventions.

The learning from this project has been invaluable and has informed changes to systems and processes in Haringey including adjusting the screening within the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub and requesting individualised child stop and search data to enhance risk prevention plans via Multi Agency Child Exploitation meetings.

Together with London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA) we are delivering this pan London project phase and have 29 Local Authorities and 12 BCUs participating. Galvanising the safeguarding body of professionals, we are working to strengthen the mechanism by which children at risk are identified through stop and search, how information is shared, and to ensure children are provided with better safeguarding support interventions. Our project builds on a child centred approach, serves to create safer communities and reduce trauma to children where this could occur. It aligns with the commitments made in a New Met for London and delivers on the priority set by the Association of London Directors of Children’s Services to build safety for young Londoners

Team: Redbridge Educational Wellbeing Team and Educational Psychology Service

Main Submission:

Redbridge is the third most diverse borough in London, so REWT innovatively designed a pioneering Race Equality Awareness (REA) Scheme, to support racial equality, anti-racist practise and inclusivity in our schools. The REA scheme involves the use of questionnaires, which are sent to children, staff and parents of the school. The data is analysed and shared with the school to identify their strengths and areas for development, creating an action plan.

On completion, schools are accredited as Race Equality Aware and are on a path for continual improvement. Following the success of the pilot scheme in 2020, numerous schools have joined subsequent REA cohorts. There are currently 33 schools within the REA scheme. Schools receive ongoing support with their development, in the form of termly network meetings, where their REA representatives have the opportunity to engage in themed Continual Professional

Development (CPD), share good practice, and collaboratively problem solve. Topics at the REA network meetings have been varied and highly informative e.g. examining the impact of colourism in our community (Please see flyer), speaking to children and young people about race and the impact of vicarious trauma.

Following the consistent success of the REA Scheme for schools, internal teams within the Education and Inclusion directorate began a bespoke REA programme in 2021. This ongoing process has so far enabled three teams to train within the Council to ensure that our staff are able to challenge racism and support our community effectively. Feedback from school and Council staff regarding the REA scheme can be seen below. In addition to this, we are now also running Equality,

Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Induction sessions to new starters in the council to ensure that all staff have an awareness of issues relating to EDI.

This work has led REWT to apply for the Bronze Trailblazer status for Race Equality Matters (REM). Their application is at the panel process and the project has also had an impact nationally and has been presented at the NAPEP Conference in June 2023. REWT have also been invited to share the project at the British Caribbean Association (BCA) Lord Pitt Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Education in March 2024. REWT have also been invited to run a bespoke REA Training in an Out of Borough Educational Psychology Service. REWT are delighted that this project is having a wide impact amongst other organisations, outside of Redbridge.

Main Submission:

Most local authorities are tackling recruitment and retention challenges within their children’s social care workforces and the consequent impact of this on building and developing supportive and meaningful relationships with children and their families which can affect positive changes for children’s lives.

In Wandsworth we have achieved many successes in supporting and strengthening our workforce and would like to shine a practice spotlight on our achievements. Wandsworth is a vibrant, diverse inner-London borough, home to 330,000 people and a wide range of communities, cultures, and heritage. We employ 162 children’s social workers, over 25 multi-disciplinary practitioners (domestic abuse specialists, parental substance misuse and parental mental health practitioners, clinical psychologists and family therapists), as well as family support and early help workers. This enables us to provide help and interventions to families in the most timely way possible.

Our Outstanding Practice Framework holds central that a family is the best place for a child or young person to thrive and meet their potential. Systemic practice is our model of intervention and privileges the belief that families are resourceful, that they are best understood when we consider relationships within families, rather than problems being located in individuals. Patterns of belief and behaviour are strongly influential and expressed in narratives which shape our behaviours and how we understand others. This means our own actions and beliefs play a part in creating or maintaining problems and active commitment and sufficient time and space to think and reflect on how we do our work is vital.

We recognise that our workforce is the most valuable asset for our children and families and we have worked tirelessly to invest in our workforce and stabilise and strengthen our retention and recruitment of staff. We have successfully reduced social worker turnover (16%) and agency (9%) to below London rates. We run regular recruitment events promoting our Outstanding Practice Framework and include our staff and the experience of children and families in every event. We believe this speaks to who we are as an organisation and puts our values and beliefs centre stage.

Our implementation of Family Safeguarding embedded multi-disciplinary staff in social work teams. This gives families quick and immediate access to those professionals that can help them to create change for their children. These include domestic abuse workers, parental mental health and substance misuse practitioners. Our social workers are able to work in and lead multi-disciplinary teams for families, as well as benefit from the expertise and multiple perspectives of working in such a way.

To implement Family Safeguarding we reviewed our workforce establishment to ensure that our social workers had a sufficiently low number of families to work with to be able to lead the practice and interventions for change families need. Each social worker has an average of 10.7 children to support.

We have developed a social work career pathway through to senior, advanced and specialist social worker and have systemic social worker roles where we invest in training these social workers to become qualified family therapists. To achieve this we’ve heavily invested in workforce development and CPD. We train our staff in systemic practice, systemic supervision and motivational interviewing. This includes years 1 & 2 in systemic practice leading to accredited Systemic Practitioner status and years 3 & 4 leading to qualification as a Family Therapist. This has resulted in our social workers feeling well supported and trained.

High quality supervision that provides a helpful and purposeful space to think about families underpins our success in achieving workforce stability. All supervision in our Family Safeguarding teams is group supervision and managers are supported by dedicated business support officers to record supervision. This frees team managers up to lead reflective practice led supervision. Our investment in Family Therapists and systemic training creates additional opportunities and spaces to helpfully think about what families need. These include family therapy consultations, systemically led group supervision and additional capacity to think about our children and young people we are most worried about.

We have a strong focus on anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice. We recognise the disproportionality of Black and Global Majority children at all levels in social care. We have focussed over the last year to reduce disproportionally of Black children on child protection plans, challenging our own held bias and beliefs about change, challenge with partners and the lens through which we view risk. We have successfully reduced disproportionality. We aren’t stopping there and have formed an anti-racist practice group in our safeguarding partnership and held a partnership conference from which we have developed a multi-agency action plan.

Alongside this we have recognised disproportionality exists within our workforce. We have implemented our Upstream Scheme which creates and embeds opportunities for personal and career development and progression for Black and Global Majority staff. This includes mentoring, leadership training and shadowing opportunities. We facilitate ‘safe spaces’ for open discussions to ensure that all staff feel safe and supported to challenge racist practice and increase our understanding of how discrimination functions, and impacts, the lives and experiences of children and families with which we work.

Celebrating our workforce is very important to us. This includes weekly blogs by our senior leaders which always showcase our workforce’s achievement, staff awards (link to videos of social workers shortlisted) and staff parties and celebrations.
Listening to children and families’ experiences and co-production on service design sits at the heart of our work. We have parents and care experienced young people on all social work recruitment panels, young scrutineers in our safeguarding partnership and young influencers in our corporate parenting space and a parent forum. Our testimonies capture their feedback.

We are very proud of our achievements, we are proud of our workforce and we are proud of the testimonies from children, young people and families about the transformational effect of our people on their lives.

Supporting Information:

Feedback from Social Workers who are part of “Care Space”. Care Space is a Family Therapy Clinic working with families and carers of Children Looked After across a range of areas – including reunification, family time (contact arrangements) and improving relationships. The clinic is supervised by a dual trained Family Therapist/Social Worker and the Social Workers in the clinic have a range of Systemic training from those currently in training, those trained and a Social Worker who is a Trainee Family Therapist. Children and families attend the clinic with their referring Social Worker.  

• “What I learn and how I develop in Care Space impacts how I work with families outside of Care Space for the better. It helps me apply systemic theory to practice and be more confident in systemic practice” 
• “I appreciate learning from the team, each others and learning from families too. Working collaboratively in a team provides a richness of ideas and multiple perspectives that families benefit from too” 
• “Care Space is a really supportive environment. We’ve created safety with families helping them to open up, share vulnerability, build connection and stronger relationships, draw upon their strengths, and help family members to see and relate to each other in ways that are more aligned with how they want to see each other. We’ve helped families to manage rupture and repair and address unequal power dynamics in family relationships” 
• “Families tell us and show us that they feel valued, respected, validated, and empowered. We work ethically and pay attention to context, power and difference. This make our interventions focused and purposeful.” 
• “It has been so helpful to reframe problems from individual ones to relational ones, which has helped families reflect on their role in the problems and motivated them to think differently.”  

Feedback from a newly recruited experienced Social Worker following a new starters induction session with the DCS and a young person from the Children in Care Council (CLICK). 

• “The new joiners “Tea with Ana” meeting was a breath of fresh air and exceeded my expectations!  It did not feel like a tick-box exercise.  Ana was genuinely welcoming and took time to get to know us as well as share some priorities for the service.  I met other interesting new people, and it was a nice touch to meet a young person who shared the importance of the work we do (and how we do it) as social workers and child practitioners!  I’d encourage all new joiners to attend and engage fully in the discussions to get the most out of it.”  

Feedback from an Experienced Social Worker about the impact of systemic training on their practice 

• “Wandsworth has adopted a systemic approach to practice in the past few years. This is the first borough I have worked in where systemic ideas and practice was formally introduced and thought about. Since joining Wandsworth I have completed my Foundation Level Systemic training and I am currently enrolled on the intermediate level course. I ascribe to the systemic way of thinking. Having this training has shaped how I practice in my social work with families. It has given me the skills to think more broadly about families meaning I now recognise that family life is much more dynamic and multifaceted than purely existing through the lens of their family ‘problems’. The focus of systemic practice is relational and I find that this approach has really helped me work alongside families. It has made me think more about who I am as a person/practitioner and what I bring to the work with families. Systemic thinking and approaches has developed my skills and has allowed me to work more creatively with families. The response from families has been great and they feel that they are being listened to and seen by me as the family social worker. How I explore family needs and problems is much less binary now and much more systemic and this often allowed for me to better understand the families I work with. My Intermediate Level development can now be used in my role as Practice Specialist. These are skills and ideas that I can support colleagues with. There is a zest for systemic ideas in the service and I can see that this approach is improving the overall practice in the service. Having the service committed to working systemically also means that the contextual constraints have been limited as much as possible and we are supported by the organisation to work creatively with families.” 

Feedback from people supported by us 

• “I have an open and trusting relationship with [Social Worker] and the rest of the network of professionals who are involved with me and my daughter. I have found the involvement of these professionals supportive more than I ever had in the past… I am definitely 100% involved in making the plans for me and my daughter. I am listened to by the professional network I trust their advice and feel open to share my thoughts with them.” – Care experienced Mother whose child is being supported through a Child in Need Plan 
• “Having [Social Worker] helped my mental health tremendously. I felt alone before and felt that no one understood what I was going through. I was not sleeping and anxiety was through the roof. I could not cope without this support which has made a huge difference in my family’s life and for my Mental Health” – Feedback from a Mother who’s child is being supported through a Child in Need plan 
• “[Social Worker] was just like an ‘angel’ who had helped with the enormous weight of the situation. His support and intervention made an enormous difference. Thank you so much for your amazing help in supporting us during the most painful experience of our lives. When I couldn’t think straight, you were always focused on what was best for the children. You were always respectful of our family and our decisions. You were absolutely right to listen to [Child] even when we were a little doubtful. So a huge thank you. I couldn’t have navigated these few months without your help which was always sensitive to our family needs.”- Feedback from a Mother who was receiving support through a Child and Family Assessment 
• “[Social Worker] has worked really hard for our family and does everything that she says that she will. You can see it in how she is with the children – she is very thoughtful and kind and the children really like her. We are really glad that she is with our family and we are very glad that we have been able to stay together… We are included in everything… She has been kind and very good. The children are so much happier now than previously”- Feedback from an Uncle whose nieces and nephews were being supported through a Child in Need Plan 
• “It has been good to see that there are people that can help. [Personal Advisor] has been really good. Having that extra adult, a male figure showing him the right way, how to make his way in life… my son has been in trouble since he was 13, [Personal Advisor] has been a person who showed he cares, that the system cares, and that there is help out there for my son.” – Feedback from a Mother whose son is Care Experienced and currently being supported by the Leaving Care Service 
• “Since [Social Worker] has started working with us, she has always been kind. She has time and makes me feel like she wants to support us. I do not feel like I am a burden on her. There is nothing too much for her to support us with. I feel very lucky to have her. I was apprehensive when the previous social worker left but I am so grateful for [Social Worker].”- Feedback from a Grandmother whose grandchildren are in her care as their Special Guardian 
• “My relationship with my daughter has got better. I hope my relationship with my other daughter has got better too. [Social Worker] has provided a lot of help and support. She has a lot of good things to say and has really helped me to open up and makes me feel I am doing well. [Social Worker] is really encouraging and very supportive. I feel safe in her presence.”- Feedback from a Mother whose children are being supported through a Child and Family Assessment 
• “I trust him (Social Worker). I don’t trust many people, it’s taken a while to develop that. He has my children’s best interests at heart, I know he does. He’s helpful.”- Feedback from a Father whose children are being supported through a Child in Need plan 
• “(Social Worker) is clear and approachable and has helped me understand things. I really like that we go through things together. I feel included in decisions made. (Social Worker) is a kind, gentle person and he puts me at ease. I feel like I have a voice and that I am respected. He has really helped me to think through how my Granddaughter might be feeling. For example, when she asks about her Mum and Dad. (Social Worker) supported me in finding things to say that will best help her. That has helped my granddaughter too, as I can find the best ways to answer her questions and help her to understand things. My Granddaughter adores (Social Worker)! She talks about him all the time, ‘he’s my friend’ she says. So much so that a friend of mine thought my Granddaughter was speaking about a little school friend! I don’t know what she will do when we don’t need to work together anymore. He has been a real positive in our lives. He is so respectful. It’s like this is our life and he is trying to help us in the best way he can. It has helped us to have a different sort of relationship with social workers. Just a big thank you. (Social Worker), you are amazing!” – Feedback from a Grandmother who is a Special Guardian for her granddaughter  
• (Social Worker) is very understanding and respectful. We have had social workers before but no one like (Social Worker). He really gets us and my daughter is so comfortable with him. She has opened up in a way that she has never done with anyone else. He understands family life and is very reassuring. We listen to him. What he says makes sense. (Social Worker) reminds us of what is normal. My daughter and I butt heads. She’s 14. (Social Worker) reminds us that this is usual, and not to worry. He is absolutely brilliant with my daughter. Please understand, she does not talk to anyone usually. She’s like a closed book. Then (Social Worker) comes along, and within minutes, they are both in hysterics. He can really reach her in a way that I haven’t seen before with a professional. That’s a big deal to us. (Social Worker) talks in a way that helps my daughter to listen. (Social Worker) has introduced us to community resources that we didn’t know were there. He is very resourceful and that has encouraged us to link with what is around us. Our relationship is so much stronger because of him. Thank you, (Social Worker), please know the difference you have made to our lives. We really appreciate you.” – Feedback from a Mother whose daughter is being supported through a Child in Need Plan 
• “(Social Worker) listens and greatly understands the challenges I face. Over time we’ve formed a special bond between us which makes it easier for me to speak up, sad issues become lighter when I speak to (Social Worker). It is a great pleasure having (Social Worker) as my social worker.” – Feedback from an Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Young Person who is looked after 
• “(Social Worker) has been very clear with us. He has been respectful, and he has really listened. That has helped us to have good communication between us. (Social Worker) explains things well and he checks with us what we are saying. He will think of different ways of looking at a situation. We have found that very helpful. He hasn’t come to judge us; I can see he is here to help us. Sometimes we need support to think about things in a different way. He says things in a way that helps us to think.  
• He has helped me to think about different ways I can respond to the children. When there are a lot of children it can be difficult to always get things right. He has helped me to think about how they are feeling. The children really like him. he gets on well with them. It’s his manner, he has a nice way about him.” – Feedback from parents whose children were subject of a Child Protection Enquiry  
• “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I received a phone call to invite me along to a MLM support group, I was hesitant and apprehensive as to what to expect, I need not have been. What I discovered was a caring safe space to share my thoughts, feelings and frustrations with the facilitators and other women in the group who were in similar situations. This gave me the platform to get honest, firstly with myself and to take a look at what my part was in the current situation and what action I needed to take to improve mine and my children’s lives going forward. It was very easy to continue to be angry and point fingers in every direction about the predicament I found myself in but all the time I was stuck in the anger I couldn’t move forward. With the support of the group, I was able to identify what I needed to do to improve my situation for the best possible outcome in the future. When I started to attend the MLM I was in a domestically violent relationship and I was drinking alcohol every day, I am an alcoholic. My daughter wasn’t living with me, and my son didn’t want to have contact with me for those reasons. The relationship with my children was severely fractured. It took time to register and muster the strength to make changes and do things differently and I made mistakes along the way but MLM was always there giving guidance and I know that they genuinely care about me. They showed compassion and were sincere, there was no hidden agenda, they truly wanted to help. Since attending the group I’ve been able to make the necessary changes that were so desperately needed. I got out of the DV relationship that I was in, I had to take out a non-molestation order and it was incredibly hard but with support doable. I met another mother in the group who had alcoholism and had used AA to combat her addiction and had been sober for many years. This gave me inspiration as she had found something that worked and I wanted what she had, sobriety. Nothing positive had ever come from my drinking, in fact I was getting more and more terrible consequences… My health, my finances, my relationships, criminal record – a lot of my poor decisions were due to my drinking and it made life totally unmanageable. I started to attend AA and I’ve now been sober for eight months, a year ago I thought this was impossible. I also have made friends with other women in recovery. As a result of ending the toxic relationship and putting down the bottle my life has improved dramatically. My daughter moved back home and now I see my son regularly, sometimes several times a week but more importantly I am able to be present and a positive influence and part of their lives. Since I’ve made these changes both are now thriving. I’m supporting my son through his GCSE’s and with next steps for further education. My children have peace of mind now and this stuff is priceless. I’m also applying for work and seeking employment and most importantly I’m in recovery! The sign posting to other services and support such as employment and training advisers, the additional help – food banks, toys and cinema tickets are incredible in these hard times. It’s a real struggle some days… The group facilitators have always been there for me, they go above a beyond to help me and other women in the group to come to a place of accountability and change, change that when I arrived would never of dreamt was achievable. I shudder to think where I would be now if I had stayed on that hamster wheel, the next three things that were going to happen was lose my flat, be in prison or be dead in any order. This group is life changing and there is no support like it for a Mum like me :-).” – Feedback from a Mother attending Mother’s Like Me, a group for Mother’s whose children are not in their care. This Mother’s children are Looked After and a Care Leaver 
• “As a kid I was often neglected, with not much support from other family or the community. I was excluded from school, in and out of care, and had people taking advantage of me. A social services referral said this was exploitation and I was the victim of child slavery. To deal with past trauma I relied on substances, which made me very emotional, upset and angry. Social services have been around me all my life.  They worked with me when I was put in care.  However, it was when I was arrested for possession of drugs, weapons and ammunition in 2022 that the support stepped up for me and I was referred to Evolve.  My worker was someone I knew from a charity that supported me in the past (Carney’s Community).  He had worked with my sister and had really helped her, so I agreed to being referred to him.  Initially I wasn’t sure about anyone really wanting to, or being able to help me.  I would miss a few appointments and not really open up as much as I could have.  I was angry at my situation and didn’t think anyone understood.  After I started working with Evolve I was arrested a couple more times, but it was when my worker called me to say my mum had been arrested because of stuff I had left in my house, that I really thought I needed to change my life.  It was my worker who told me about her being arrested (my sister had told him).  He came and picked me up and I opened up about the exploitation.  I showed him snap chats from people threatening me and trying to force me to sell drugs for them or hold things in my house.  He knew about this sort of thing and helped me put a plan together for how to move away from those people.    It was difficult, because I still lived in the area that they hung around in, but I was able to get involved in a local charity, where I could access boxing fitness sessions and food, as well as meet people that wanted to help me.  I kind of felt like I belonged there and was appreciated.  I needed money as my mum had got into a lot of debt and I needed to help her, but did not want to turn to crime as I had started to recognise that the people trying to get me to work for them, were just taking advantage and exploiting me.  So I did some job searching with my worker and he introduced me to another charity that had a social enterprise called “Feel Good Bakery”.  He referred me for a job with them and I got it!  It was part time and started early, so I could avoid being out at the same time as the people I was avoiding.  I enjoyed working and started to recognise I had something to offer.  Although there were a few issues at work, my worker helped me to resolve these and I even went on to deliver customer services to the rest of the staff team there.  Around the same time I also got involved with CLICK (Children Living in Care Kouncil) where I met more positive people who wanted to help.  I changed my whole friendship group and started doing things I would never have thought about doing before.  I even got to go to Wimbledon Tennis, with my worker, who had helped my sister get a job there. Once my contract finished with “Feel Good Bakery” I told my worker I was ready for full time work.  So he told me about an advertising company he knew, that were looking for staff.  I met with them and was honest about my past.  They must have appreciated that, as they offered me a full time job as a business executive.  I’ve been working there full time, since January 2024, and have only taken time off to take my first trip abroad, in May.  I went over to Kenya, to support the Feel Good Bakery’s feeding program, which made me feel very proud.  I continue to meet with my worker weekly and also volunteer on a weekly basis, trying to help people that have experienced similar issues to myself.  I have helped out at fundraisers and am one of the “Young Influencers”, which means I attend events to advise on how agencies working with young people should deliver their services and have sat on interview panels for both council and voluntary groups. I’ve also had some sessions with a therapist, who has helped me with dealing with some of my childhood issues and I have a worker from the Future First (Leaving Care) team, who is helping me with getting my own house. Whilst I’m aware it is me that has changed my life, I’m grateful to everyone who has supported me and opened up opportunities for me, which has helped me to get out of the situation I was in and to be the person I am proud to have become.”- Feedback from a care experienced young person 

Team: Children and Family Services

Main Submission:

At Bi-borough Children’s Services, we are committed to ensuring our practice is anti-racist and we have undertaken a number of different projects, initiatives and trainings to ensure all staff are equipped with the knowledge and support they need to provide truly anti-racist practice. One of our greatest assets in Westminster and in Kensington and Chelsea is the diversity of our residents and our pupils and so by embedding inclusive practices, we will ensure that everyone has the chance to thrive.

Our senior leaders and other staff have engaged in work with the Staff College, including distributing reports such as ‘Leadership in Colour; the Fierce Urgency of Now’, which offers insights and learning on understanding and combatting inequality. From this, we developed internal ‘Scenario Book Clubs’, where staff were invited to come together to look at, discuss and create a future we want to see for the children and families we support. The overall aim of the sessions was to support a conversation about race, equality, justice, poverty and our service, an approach we also took with children in the development of our Children and Young People’s Plan 2023-2026. The book club format gave us a chance to consider what we need to do to ensure the demography of our boroughs is reflected in our workforce and consider how we set a different path for children in the area.

Additionally, our Westminster staff complete the Black and Asian Leadership Initiative (BALI), which is designed to explore the obstacles and barriers facing aspiring global majority leaders and give them the knowledge, skills and strategies to overcome them. Some specific examples of our commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion and anti-racist practice include:

Youth Justice
In both boroughs, we have opted to rename the Youth Offending Team to Youth Justice Services (YJS) recognising how the previous name could marginalise children. All staff have received the “adultification” training within the YJS, and we are now ensuring we refer to all under 18s as ‘children’. We are mindful of the impact of the language we use and the difference it can make when we refer to “teenagers” as “children” rather than “young people”.

Social Care
Our ‘Black Fathers Unheard Project’ focuses on Children Services’ current work practices in relation to all fathers, particularly marginalised Black Fathers, many of whom feel that they are still largely the ‘unheard gender’. Local authorities often struggle to engage with fathers of children, particularly non-resident Black fathers. Reasons for this include racialised social stigma and perceptions of risk and gender-based norms. Black Fathers Unheard is a collaboration between Dr Alexandra Cox and our councils aimed at understanding the dynamics shaping non-engagement with Black fathers and developing training tools for child welfare and youth justice workers. The broader aim is to reduce the numbers of global majority children, and particularly Black children, in care and the youth justice system. So far, we have trained 92 practitioners, with training focused on improving practitioner confidence in engaging with Black fathers, supporting them in reflecting on their work with Black fathers, and improving engagement with fathers more generally and we’ve seen improvements in all of these areas. The Youth
Justice Board has also incorporated our guidance on engaging fathers into their recently published, Prevention and Diversion Tool.

Bi-Borough Anti-Racist Practice Standards and Action Plan
To create an accountability and governance mechanism we developed a 5-year Bi-Borough Anti-Racist Practice Standards and Action Plan co-designed with staff and led by a diverse editorial board. The Standards were inspired by the significant work of Hackney Council on their anti-practice framework and other anti racism work. Our Standards set out the international, national and local context in which they have been developed and note that EDI and anti-racist practice are a corporate priority in our councils.

Data
Our Disproportionality Dashboard is a key tool in our commitment to anti-racist practice, providing a data-driven approach to identify and address inequities. Using the Relative Rate Index methodology, the dashboard tracks the representation of multiple protected characteristics across three key areas of delivery; social services, education and youth justice. Our Dashboard expands on the existing work by not only looking at outcomes against the general population figures but instead, comparing referrals into children’s services against the population and then further comparing outcomes to referral cohorts. By comparing observed outcomes to expected rates, we can see whether systemic disproportionality is exacerbated, or mitigated, by our decisions. This innovative self-comparison method enables a focus on equitable outcomes and transparency.

Schools and Early Years Settings
In January 2024, we held a conference for schools, early years settings and governors focusing on EDI, with a specific focus on anti-racist practice. We had over 220 attendees across different sectors, including authors, market stalls, and inspirational speakers. The purpose was to continue the conversation regarding anti racist practice, ensure that it is embedded within curricula, and positively challenge professionals’ views and practices to address disproportionality. All participants put together an action plan and a wider EDI programme for schools and early years settings has been introduced as a result.

We have also developed our Bi-borough School Inclusion Strategy which aims to support our excellent schools to be inclusive spaces. We know that exclusion from school disproportionally affects certain children, including boys from a black Caribbean background. In the strategy, we committed to addressing factors that lead to specific groups of children being disproportionately affected by exclusion. Therefore, we have engaged in local investment through Early Help and High Needs Block-funded alternative provision and outreach and collaboration to deliver against the ambitions of our Inclusion Strategy, including supporting groups overrepresented in-school suspension, exclusion and persistent absence figures. Disproportionality is actively discussed at the Education Partnership Board, chaired by the Executive Director of Children’s Services and with school leaders and governors at a strategic and local level. During core school visits, School Standards ensure there is continued focus on the local impact agree actions and share best practices to foster positive change.