Social work in 2022: podcast

Next month sees the 25th anniversary of Community Care Live, our flagship event for the profession.

To mark the occasion, Community Care’s editor, Mithran Samuel, sat down with two senior managers from our event partner, Essex County Council, Michelle Hayden-Pepper and Alison Ansell, to discuss social work in 2022, in the latest episode of our Employer Zone Insights podcast.

Listen to “Social work in 2022 with Essex County Council” on Spreaker.

Alison Ansell, Essex County Council

Michelle, director of local delivery for West Essex children’s services, and Alison, the council’s principal social worker and director of adult social care for Mid Essex, discuss the impact of Covid and the cost of living crisis on the communities the council serves and their own staff.

They highlight how Essex has supported the wellbeing of their staff through a challenging two years, both through supportive initiatives and championing successes – for example, through an Adult Social Care’s Got Talentshow!

This sits alongside its strong investment in social workers’ learning and development, led by the Essex Social Care Academy, which Michelle leads and which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Raft of social care policy

Michelle and Alison also turn their thoughts to the host of new policy and initiatives that children’s and adult social care are facing at the moment, from the government’s response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care to the introduction of a cap on adult care costs next year.

Michelle Hayden-Pepper, Essex County Council

Essex is both strongly engaged in these developments nationally and also supporting its workforce to understand what they mean for them.

We also look ahead to Community Care Live, which takes place from 11-12 October at the Business Design Centre, north London.

For the fifth year running, Essex will be our event partner, and, as part of that, will be delivering six masterclasses. These cover:

• Innovative occupational practice in children’s social care
• Systemic practice within adult social care
• Understanding the discrimination faced by Essex’s minoritised staff
• Thinking tools to support practice with children and families
• Occupational therapy with adults with learning disabilities and autistic adults
• Supervision – and how it links practice to wellbeing

We hope you enjoy the podcast episode and, if you haven’t already done so, please do register for your place at this year’s Community Care Live.
Listen to “Social work in 2022 with Essex County Council” on Spreaker.