Big Brother or Accountability? CCTV, Body Cams and Someone’s Back on the Naughty Step

This week, Sarah and Louise are back with the cynicism dial turned all the way up, and, for the first time, Sarah and Louise find themselves firmly on opposite sides of one of the biggest debates in fostering right now, and let’s just say, it gets lively! Do Sarah and Louise fall out or disagree agreeably?

Westminster’s latest response to care leavers being pushed off a “dangerous cliff edge” to another round of reports, handbooks, carefully crafted quotes and political promises, they ask the increasingly uncomfortable question: is anyone actually fixing anything, or are we just getting better at talking about it?

Somerset Council take the converted Naughty Step Award for a second time, with a Best Value Notice (no, that's not an award!) and a £7 million “transformation” programme, overseen by the very people who got them into this mess in the first place, not a resignation or sacking in sight. And can you really transform fostering by simply asking foster carers to do more?

And finally, cameras. Should social workers wear body cams? Should foster carers have cameras in their homes? Sarah is firmly on the fence, but perhaps the more important question is why so many people now feel they need a recording device to prove what actually happened. When trust in the system has deteriorated to this point, are cameras the answer, or are they evidence of a much bigger problem?

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All views shared in this podcast reflect the personal opinions of the hosts alone. They are not intended as factual assertions about any person or organisation, nor do they represent the views of any employer or professional body.