13 MAR 2014 · David Akinsanya is a successful campaigner for Looked After children. The reason for his work is due to his complex and troubled story. David was brought up in care and consequently experienced many troubling events. My interview with David discusses these events and how they have influenced David's following career and life story. David transpires a positive and emotive message to those in care, who have left care or those who work with children in care. He emphasises the significant impact of his social worker Jenni Randall - he feels that without her he would be in a very different position in life. David and Jenni now offer training for David Niven Associates titled 'Working with looked after children: an experiential perspective' for those working with children in care. A crucial thread running through the day is the importance of listening to the voice of the child. For information on this training contact David Niven Associates on info@dnivenassociates.co.uk or 0845 833 0859. David has addressed conferences for Barnardos, BAAF, Hertfordshire, Derbyshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and many others. He has made films with young people for Southend, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Cambridgeshire Police as well as with voluntary organisations around the UK. Since 2007 David has worked with BBC, Sky News, Channel 4 and other broadcasters as a presenter/reporter. He is a regular reporter on BBC’s Inside Out and is often called upon to comment on social issues on both BBC and Sky News. Amongst many other appearances, David presented the award winning series “Find Me a Family” on Channel 4 in 2009 and reported on The One Show and various Radio 4 programmes. David has also worked as an AP/Producer on: Black Britain, Thin Green Line, Real Estates, Radio 5 and 4 Current Affairs Docs, The Investigators (Thames for ITV), Sex Talk (Channel 4), Sky News Features and The Sky Book Show. Most recently he was included in Debrett's 2014 influential list.       See also: Interview with Jenni Randall Young people in care

7 MAR 2014 · Faye Dicker of Freelance Bristol Mum and I discuss some of the headlines that have made the papers this week. Included are the risks and effects of older fathers, pushy parenting, drinking alcohol during pregnancy and obesity on the lives of children. These topics raise a lot of debate and differences of opinion, do you agree with our responses to the stories? Faye Dicker was a BBC Radio Bristol presenter but since having her daughter Jemima changed career path into freelance work. Since then she has set up 'Freelance Bristol Mum' to help network busy mums working from home. Secondly it was the 2 year anniversary of Daniel Pelka's death this week and so I had been invited to give many radio interviews on the subject. I have included my interview with Coventry and Worcester where I discuss the impacts and progression the case has had on social work and social workers.  

27 FEB 2014 · Interview with Chief Social Worker for adults, Lyn Romeo. She discusses her role and how the work of adult social workers supports vulnerable adults to live their lives in the way they want to with great success. However she feels this good work has been lost in the public eye and hopes in the future the positive stories and fantastic differences which are made to peoples lives can be transpired in the media. We discuss much more, including her advice for social workers, the benefits of social media, the struggles social workers encounter and how the best possible differences to families can be made. Lyn took up her post as Chief Social Worker for Adults in September 2013. She works collaboratively with the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families and together they work from the Office of the Chief Social Worker to: support and challenge the profession to ensure that children and adults get the best possible help from social workers provide independent expert advice to ministers on social work reform, and the contribution of social work and social workers to policy implementation more generally provide leadership and work with key leaders in the profession and wider sector to drive forward the improvement and reform programme for social work challenge weak practice to achieve decisive improvements in the quality of social work provide leadership to the network of principal social workers    Secondly I have included a BBC interview on the Martin Narey report. The report about social work education quite rightly identifies areas of training and preparation for new social workers that needs to be improved. It should be seen as is an evolutionary step in social work maturity where continuing improvement is a positive force.  

19 DEC 2013 · Shirley Ayres is my guest this week, she is a well established social media consultant, social worker, innovator and in her own words a care maverick and a 'super connector'. A social media enthusiast with a large following across digital media platforms including a video podcast.  She reflects on her work and networking in the social care sector. She talks of why nurturing social media is so important and how digital and social media can deliver services differently.   Followed by reflections on Christmas.   Do sign up for updates from the social world and future podcasts and blogs and please subscribe on iTunes and keep your kind reviews coming. Have a very happy and merry Christmas to you all.

28 NOV 2013 · Parenting - the ups and downs. Interview with Jane Evans An interview with Jane Evans, a parenting expert who has a book out in February called How are you feeling today Baby Bear? Which examines the impact of domestic violence on 2-6 year olds and age appropriate strategies to discuss it. I then talk about and reflect on personal anecdotes of children at risk through poor parental assumptions.

14 NOV 2013 · Faith based child abuse, Bullying  & Media Training I share thoughts on child abuse in relation to faith and belief. I also cover cyber bullying as next week is anti-bullying week.  Finally I reflect on a busy week giving media interviews to both radio and television. David Niven Associates is able to offer individuals and groups access to the media training they need to ensure they can represent themselves effectively in a positive way or deal with a crisis situation should they need to address the media at any time in the future. To subscribe to the Social World Podcast for my thoughts on the social world click here. See previous blog on the importance of media training in social work here.

5 NOV 2013 · The Social World Podcast After a good look at some of the inside pages in the media I discuss: A new book by a Swedish psychiatrist criticising liberal parenting and challenging a long held belief in Swedish society concerning the ways that children are disciplined (or not as the case may be). The comments by the just stepped down Attorney General saying he thinks it should be a criminal offence not to report child abuse. This is in the light of many occasions that have been reported where professionals such as teachers, doctors, priests etc have been aware of child abuse occurring but chosen not to report it. In the run up to the festive season we hear shocking reports of at least 80,000 homeless children in the UK. This is a report published by Shelter who point out the disgraceful conditions that some families have to live in and ministers who say that there’s already enough money being given to local authorities to sort this. To subscribe to the Social World Podcast for my thoughts on the social world click here - and leave reviews and comments.    

31 OCT 2013 · The Social World Podcast In this weeks podcast I provide information and sites, ideas and thoughts about how to get help and information regarding missing children. Then an interview with Dr Neil Thompson talking of new e-learning initiatives which my company David Niven Associates has agreed to promote in association with Neil. Today’s podcast finally finishes with some short and sweet stories from the social world. To subscribe to the Social World Podcast for my thoughts on the social world click here - and leave reviews and comments.

15 OCT 2013 · To subscribe to the Social World Podcast for my thoughts on the social world click here - also leave reviews and comments. Welcome to the social world podcast second edition. Today I am going to cover 3 main topics. Firstly a look at new legislation being proposed to further control sex offenders. Secondly an interview with one of our Associate trainers at David Niven Associates Jenni Randall who has been nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Social Work of the Year Awards in November. She reminisces on her work with Looked After children. Finally a brief look into the future and what the next generation may have to cope with.