Followers of this page will be aware that this year I finally started The Secure Start Podcast. So far I have had eleven highly esteemed guests appear, with more booked in. It has been so encouraging that so many respected experts in their fields of endeavour have been keen to appear on the podcast!

In the video below, I provide a quick snapshot of each podcast interview.

The first speaker is Dr Kiran Modi. Kiran founded Udayan Care in 1994 with the goal of providing a family environment for some of India’s most vulnerable children and young people. The podcast highlights a number of very important endeavours of Udayan Care, some of which we can learn a lot from in Western child protection jurisdictions, especially their use of voluntary house parents, aftercare initiatives, and care leaver networking.

The second speaker is John Whitwell. John is a retired former Principal at The Cotswold Community. and Managing Director of the UK’s first therapeutic fostering programme. Highlights of John’s podcast were his presentation about the role of the growing environment in supporting trauma recovery and the importance of aligned practice at all levels of a social care organisation.

The third speaker is Adela Holmes. Adela has been working in child and family services and out of home care for more than fifty years. In her podcast appearance, Adela spoke powerfully about the “great aspiration” for children and young people recovering from trauma – “an ordinary life”.

The fourth speaker is Catherine Knibbs. Cath is an international expert in children and tech and online harms. In her appearance on the podcast Cath spoke authoritatively about how she supports access to technology, and that the reason children come to harm online and around tech is less about the tech and internet themselves, and more about vulnerability factors that exist for the child ‘off line’.

The fifth speaker is Dr Nicola O’Sullivan. Nicola is a Lecturer, Clinical Supervisor and Social Care Consultant, and has worked with children and families in community and residential settings for 24 years. Nicola spoke powerfully about the importance of reflective supervision in fostering best practice and outcomes for children and young people in out of home care, as well as for the child protection workforce.

The sixth speaker is Lisa Etherson. Lisa is the author of Shame Containment Theory, an exciting and powerful way of understanding behaviours of concern and how we approach life and relationships. Lisa’s presentation about the role of shame in the Netflix show Adolescence is a highlight.

The seventh speaker is Graeme Kerridge. Graeme is an international health development consultant who has worked in over 25 countries throughout Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Graeme worked in The Cotswold Community at the very beginning of his career and offers powerful reflections on how this supported his international health development work thereafter.

The eighth speaker is Simon Benjamin. Simon is an experienced leader and consultant in the complex care sector, and has previously worked at The Mulberry Buch School in the UK, and the Lighthouse Foundation in Australia, where he was CEO of the latter. In his appearance Simon spoke of the importance of alignment in practice endeavours across social care organisations and the importance of supervision for all staff, including leadership.

The ninth speaker is Lynne Peyton. Lynne is a vastly experienced leader and consultant to top teams in the child safeguarding and community services sectors. Echoing the message of Simon Benjamin, Lynne speaks authoritatively about the necessity for supervision and mentoring of the leadership of child safeguarding and social service organisations.

The final speaker is Sally Rhodes. Sally is a highly experienced and respected practitioner in my home jurisdication. Sally formed and continues to lead Connecting Families, a social enterprise that has safely reunified over 1200 children, and prevented the removal of many more from their birth family. Sally speaks powerfully about the importance of careful reflection about decisions that are made in child safeguarding.

You can watch the video here:

You can listen to the podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2459807

You can watch the podcast interviews via YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSm5x0fmZ2BX0m3w_UkF2ewGZAdfdrvWn