Transforming Care
A podcast journey taking you through the lives of care leavers, the struggles they face, and potentially their solutions. LISTEN TO THE TEASER EPISODE HERE.
Introduction
Introducing the hosts of Transforming Care, Jake Lake and Joy Millani. Listen HERE
Jake has worked with the care experienced community since 2013, and Joy is care experienced herself.
In this episode we discuss how and why we chose to embark on this project, and some of the challenges we faced in our interactions with the care system.
A Journey Through Care
In this episode we interview Siobahn, a young woman who tells us of her journey through the care system. It was a privilege to talk with her about her life in care and beyond. Listen to it HERE
This is an extremely emotive and thought provoking story of the challenges she has faced, how she has overcome, and ideas for what young people in the care system need.
So often we hear from people in positions of power about ’what needs to be done’ for young people, but rarely do we hear from people who have actually been there themselves. This is one story of so many.
The Role of Social Work
In this episode we talk to Dr Kate Morris, professor of social work at Sheffield University. With over 30 years in and around social work, Kate gives us an in depth understanding of how the profession has changed and we talk about how to change it for the better. Listen to it HERE
We discuss how the care system became a for profit industry, and how to ensure we can support young people and families before they reach crisis point, looking at the structural issues around why young people are going into care in the first place.
This is an extremely interesting and enlightening conversation, getting to the heart of why the care system is in the state it’s in and how we can move towards something that works in the interest of young people and families.
The Role of Empathy
In this episode we talk to Anne-Marie, CEO of the charity Peer Power. We discuss the role of empathy in the care system, thinking about what it means to truly care about people and how power works to exclude people. Listen to our interview with her HERE
We think together about a wide range of cultural and political ideas, how we can change for the better and how we can support excluded young people in the care system and in wider society.
Anne-Marie is extremely articulate and compassionate and it was a pleasure to discuss these things with her!
The Privatisation of Care
For this episode we have two guests. First is Alex Bax, CEO of Pathway, a charity working with homeless people who present at hospital. We discuss what a public health approach would look like when working with the most vulnerable and excluded communities in our society, the ways in which working with homelessness intersects with working with young people in care, shared challenges and the shared potential for solutions. Listen to the episode HERE
We then interview economist Grace Blakeley, author of ‘Stolen: How To Save The World From Financialisation’. Grace gives us an insight into how privatisation and financialisation has corrupted the care system and our wider public services. Grace gives us a unique insight into the way government and private companies have played with the lives of those who most need our support.
These are vital interviews to help us understand the wider context of the care system and the lasting impact it can have on individuals and on society as a whole.
Incarceration, Care and COVID-19
In this episode we talk to Carolyne Willow, CEO and activist in chief at Article 39. We discuss incarceration, prison abolition, SI445 and COVID-19, and Article 39’s legal battles to reinstate legislation for young people in care, and the significance of the government trying to strip young people of legal protection.
We also discuss how we can change the care system, and wider society. We try to imagine a society where young people are not repeatedly failed by the state and other institutions, but have full control of their lives, given the support and love they deserve and feel safe and secure growing up, without the fear of incarceration. What does that future look like, and is it possible with the systems we have in place at the moment?
In this episode we ask these questions to Carolyn Willow, and try and answer them together.