Ibrahim* knows he is one of the lucky ones. Fleeing conflict and unrest in his home country of Sudan, he had to seek asylum in the UK. All alone, speaking no English and knowing nobody, the teenager was placed in the care of children and family social workers in Cornwall, who nurtured and guided him on his journey to create a new life for himself.
Today Ibrahim is studying for a university degree, speaks perfect English, and feels at ease with his fellow students. He credits his success to the support he received from the specialist team at Cornwall Council and the unwavering confidence they had in him. “Look at me – I’m at university. I couldn’t even speak English when I arrived and now I’m doing everything I wish to,” he says. “In Cornwall, I was listened to and was made to feel able to do the things that I wanted to. I know that I can always ask for help and it will be there.”
Ibrahim is one of the 77 young people who, in the past 18 months, have been referred under the Home Office dispersal system to the council’s 16-plus and separated children seeking asylum service.
The challenges social workers faced in supporting young people such as Ibrahim were particularly significant in Cornwall, which has a small, but growing, ethnically diverse population, as the very rural peninsula made it especially difficult to set up support networks for the young people entrusted to their care. “It was very much starting from scratch. We had only one interpreter and they only spoke Arabic and we had no idea where halal meat was stocked, for example,” remembers Joss Wills, the specialist team’s service manager. Her colleague, team manager Sara Leudar, adds: “We did a lot of research and spoke to the young people, and with every young person who arrived we learned a little bit more.”
The team was instrumental in establishing the first English for speakers of other languages (Esol) college courses for young people in England, it sourced favourite foods and organised social activities to help the young people establish new friendships as they built their new lives.
Cornwall’s work with young asylum seekers is testament to the “creative and innovative” approach taken by its social workers, which was recognised by Ofsted inspectors who have praised its children’s services as “outstanding”.
And the work with these young people from overseas is another reason why the children’s services decided to take a closer look at what it needed to do to create an anti-racist service in its social worker practice and culture. A recruitment drive employing children and family social workers from southern and eastern Africa also helped focus on the awareness that the local population was starting to change, with more Black, Asian and other global majority families moving into the area.
Children’s services are now working with the specialist consultancy Mahogany Inclusion Partners to create a more inclusive and diverse workplace. The programme includes developing an anti-racist plan and mission statement, and training to provide staff with the resources and tools they need to further develop anti-racism in their practice and gain a fuller understanding of what it might feel like to be in somebody else’s shoes. A “living language guide” is also being developed, which pulls together words and phrases that can help promote diversity and support compassionate conversations about race.
“Cornwall is one of the most beautiful places to live and bring up a family, but inclusion and diversity has not always been Cornwall’s biggest strength, and we want to change that,” says Ben Davies, Cornwall’s children and families services director. “We are determined to become a service where everybody feels included – for our staff and for the families and people we work for.” A major part of the programme has been about confronting “white fragility”, where white people feel uncomfortable discussing racism. “It’s difficult for a caring profession that is all about doing the right thing for families to challenge the way our services and systems can sometimes make people feel that they don’t belong,” says Davies.
Mahogany chief executive officer and lead inclusion director Aggie Mutuma says Cornwall has shown a “real desire to understand and make sure that their services for children and families are as fair and just as possible”. Creating more diversity-aware social workers can be transformative. “Social workers are on the frontline and work with the whole of society. They can help increase understanding across society about how people feel – and if they are confident in that space, they are able to hold that space for everybody.”
Cornwall’s principal child and family social worker, Tracey Davey, agrees: “As social workers we need to build really strong relationships. It’s essential to find ways of engaging with people and to walk in other people’s shoes – to understand where people are coming from and how they feel.”
*Name has been changed
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