The Chief Social Worker for Children and Families visits CFAB
At a crucial time for kinship care in England, the Chief Social Worker for Children and Family visits Children and Families Across Borders.
3 minute read
11th September 2024
Yesterday, the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, Isabelle Trowler CBE, visited the office of Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB). Trowler met with the charity to discuss how social work can be enhanced through cultural understanding and cross-border coordination.
CFAB’s mission is to ensure vulnerable children and families who are separated across international borders are given care and protection. The charity assesses long-term care options for children — wherever possible reuniting them with their family. As the only UK charity with an inter-country social work team, we work with 80% of local authorities on cross-border children and family cases.
For the visit, Trowler joined our inter-country social work team for their weekly allocations meeting – where team members are assigned child protection cases which involve cross-border coordination.
The meeting highlighted CFAB’s international reach and the volume of family cases involving multiple countries. Trowler acknowledged the need for the social work profession to adapt to our increasingly multicultural society.
The cases CFAB receives often involve exploring potential overseas kinship carers for children in care in the UK. Kinship care –where children are raised in the care of relatives or other people in their network – is widely recognised as the next best option for children unable to live with their parents.
The visit comes at a crucial time for kinship care, as England awaits the publication of the Department for Education’s statutory guidance on kinship care and the announcement of the Kinship Care Ambassador.
CFAB has fed into the guidance, pushing for changes to acknowledge overseas kinship. The charity raised its concerns with Trowler that overseas kinship care is not prioritised due to its complexity, at the expense of children’s right to family.
Later, we presented copies of our Cultural Family Life Library – a series of guides designed to support social workers to work confidently and respectfully with children, young people and families from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. So far, CFAB has published guides on supporting children and families with Romanian and Jamaican heritage.
On the charity’s Cultural Family Life Library, Isabelle Trowler said:
“The Cultural Family Life Library is an excellent resource for helping social workers to engage positively with different cultures and religions.
“This work is necessary to prevent children and families from becoming disadvantaged and discriminated against due to misunderstanding or bias. By welcoming and building on cultural strengths we can foster more positive relationships between social workers and the families they support.
“I am proud to support CFAB’s work to enhance the social work profession through cross-cultural understanding. Every social worker would benefit from having the Cultural Family Life Library on hand to support their practice.”
Carolyn Housman, CEO of Children and Families Across Borders said:
“We are grateful to Isabelle Trowler for taking the time to visit CFAB, and for her endorsement of the Cultural Family Life Library.
“We look forward to working together to support social workers with their complex responsibilities and ensure that family comes first for every child – no matter where their family lives.”
