people in a crowd

Promoting anti-racism in children and family services

Published: 27/07/2022

Author: Research in Practice

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 ignited a global discussion about the impact of racism. Within children and family services there have been calls for ‘action to address racism experienced by the workforce and to create a truly anti-racist profession.’

In order to support the development of anti-racist practice a new suite of resources explore this issue in more depth.

The resources have been designed to stimulate discussion and reflection for professionals in any role within children and family services. As you work through you will hear powerful messages about the impact of racism on both the lives of children and families, and professionals from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic groups.

The learning programme includes:

  • A written briefing which explains why taking action to acknowledge and address the impact of racism within the context of children and family services is both important and timely. Links to further reading and resources are included throughout which can be used to support individual continuing profession development (CPD) and to prompt discussion and reflection with others.
  • A series of short films where you can hear directly from professionals engaged in anti-racist work in children and family services. The films provide an opportunity to see some of the ideas included in the briefing in action with a maximum play time of ten minutes.
  • Prompt sheets accompanying each film to support you or others in your organisation in thinking about the ideas outlined.

The resources can be used flexibly to support individual CPD, in team discussions and training events. They have been developed for use in children and family services, however, much of the content will be relevant to anyone working within adults or children’s social care organisations. 

We hope that they support conversations about anti-racism within organisations.

View the resources

Anti-racist supervision

As part of the suite of videos, two films explore what it means to be an anti-racist practice supervisor and the importance of doing so. These films and accompanying prompt sheets are also available on the open access website of resources supporting the Practice Supervisor Development Programme (PSDP), developed from 2019 to 2022

We are grateful to colleagues from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic groups who worked alongside Research in Practice to support the commissioning and development of the resources.