Senior social worker Faisa Abdirahman initially had her sights set on entering the police after gaining a BSC in criminology.
However, she pivoted to social work after learning that looked-after children were at more risk of being criminalised compared with those that were not care experienced*.
In this episode of the Social Work Community Podcast, Faisa tells senior careers editor Kirsty Ayakwah why her desire to support children and young people earlier on in that journey resulted in her becoming a social worker.
Read the transcript of the interview here.
You can listen to our previous episodes in the Career Transitions series.
*According to 2022 data from the Office of National Statistics, more than half (52%) of looked-after children born in the academic year ending 1994 who attended school in England had a criminal conviction by the age of 24 years, compared with 13% of children who had not been in care. We’ll leave more details about the ONS statistics in the show notes.
About The Social Work Community Podcast
The Social Work Community Podcast explores the issues that matter to social work practitioners in their working lives. Careers editor Sharmeen Ziauddin and fellow host Kirsty Ayakwah, our senior careers editor, interview experienced and inspiring guests, including frontline social workers who speak from the heart about their jobs, the sector and society.
It was nominated in the podcast category at the 2024 BASW Social Work Journalism Awards following its first season, which ran from October 2023 to April 2024.
It can be found on all major podcasting platforms including:
Click ‘follow’ or ‘subscribe’ on your podcast app so you know when a new episode is published.You can also listen to the episode here: Listen to "Career Transitions: From a career with the police to children's social worker" on Spreaker.
Read the transcript of the interview here.
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