In this special episode to mark Social Work Week, Carolyn Smith talks to two of Somerset Council's Advanced Practitioners, Amanda Rae and Jana Taylor about Wellbeing and the transformative role social workers play in people's lives. But we need to look after ourselves.

Tim Fisher has been a social worker for over 15 years and is currently a service manager in London's Camden Council. Tim's Masters Degree research focussed on empowerment models in social work and he has published academic writing on community approaches.

He has collaborated with organisations to develop restorative practice, under the banner To Love is to Act. This encourages people towards Relational Activism, which means taking action in the everyday and making change happen through personal and informal relationships.

@familygroupmeet

Chris Hamilton is an experienced social worker and leader of Somerset's Mental Capacity and DoLS Team. Carolyn Smith talks to Chris about his past and his work in Somerset. Chris speaks passionately about communicating decisions so that non-professionals can understand them and what 'best interest' actually means for people and their families.

Dr Phoebe Beedell is a Senior Research Associate in the School for Policy Studies at Bristol University. In this episode of the Social Work Sessions, Dr Beedell talks to Carolyn Smith about her recent research project into social work with older people (SWOP), undertaken with the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol, and Effective Practice , funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research.

For more information, please go to: https://swopresearch.wordpress.com/

In this episode of the Social Work Sessions, Professor Michael Preston-Shoot talks to Carolyn Smith about legal literacy; the ability to connect relevant legal rules with ethical and rights-based practice; and how legal literacy informs defensible decision-making.

Philippa Geddes, from Social Work England, talks to Carolyn Smith on the work of the Social Work regulator.

Bryony Shannon is the Strategic Lead for Practice Development in Adults, Health & Wellbeing at the City of Doncaster Council.

Bryony is also the author of the Rewriting Social Care blog, which can be found here:

https://rewritingsocialcare.blog/

In this thought-provoking and highly entertaining episode of the Social Work Sessions, Bryony talks to Carolyn Smith about the importance of language and the overuse of labels and jargon in social care.

In this episode of the Social Work Sessions, Carolyn Smith talks with Lyn Romeo, Chief Social Worker for Adults. In a wide-ranging discussion, Lyn talks about her Australian roots, her current role and the importance of keeping social work personal, curious and, above all, hopeful.