The Context: Why collect Black Social Workers’ Oral Histories

All children in care need secure permanent families and homes that meet their identity needs. Historically, Social Work practice has not always met Black and minoritised children’s identity needs. In the 70s, it was standard practice to place Black children in white homes. In 2002, legal policy was amended to emphasize children’s religion, race, and culture in finding permanent homes. However, in 2014 the legal requirement to consider ethnicity was removed, allowing transracial adoptive placements. Many frontline social workers did not agree with this change, arguing that by removing ethnicity, the law devalued the significance of ethnicity to individual children’s identity.

During 2020-2022, armed with the findings of our Muslim-heritage children in care research project and knowledge of the policy changes, my colleagues Dr Alison Halford Dr Kusha Anand and I delivered knowledge exchange workshops to over 300 children’s social work professionals. Our aim was to better equip then to better support the identity needs of children from Black and minoritised backgrounds and to learn from their frontline experiences of identity and linked policy. During workshops Alison and I observed that very rarely did a Black Social Worker attend a workshop. When they did, they were often the only Black person in the room, other than me. And almost all Black social workers we encountered spoke about being described by colleagues as “troublemakers” because they ask, “too many questions about a child’s identity”.

Against this backdrop of policy U-turns and the stigmatisation that many Black Social Workers’ reported that they feel, this oral history project explored Black SWs navigations around identity – how did they perceive and experience these changes? Racialized hierarchies made it difficult for Black SW to assert their voices, yet they played crucial roles in advocating for children’s identity needs, encouraging Black families to adopt/foster and influencing changes in family placement policy. These contributions to social work remain unrecognized. Our work sought to challenge this.

Black-lives matter brought into focus the marginalities experienced by all minoritised groups, showing also how contemporary experiences are historically-determined. Now, more than ever before, there is societal will to facilitate difficult discussions around racial and other disparities. Within this context, our heritage project uncovered the history of racialised identities and inequalities in the children’s care system in Britain.