1. Parenting and Poverty

Listen to young parents talk about whether they feel poor, the stereotypes of young parents, zero-hour contracts and how they lived on £300 a month.  As part of London Challenge Poverty Week, we wanted to share some of the voices and experiences of the young parents.   Thank you to 4in10 and Trust For London for supporting this work. 

Dads can often be marginalised or sidelined when it comes to family support services. With this week being London Challenge Poverty week, we wanted to look at how poverty affects some of the dads we work with and how this, in turn, can impact their children. Sarah spoke to Elaine is our Outreach Manager, who runs our Caring Dads programme. She has a long history of working with dads. 

One young single dad turned his life around. Lost in his teens and heading down the wrong path he managed to find a stable career in his 20s. Now he's given up his job because he can't afford childcare in London. The irony being he was offered more government support with childcare when he wasn't at work.  Lawrence, our Young Fathers Practitioner, shares this story as part of our contribution to London Challenge Poverty Week. We want to raise awareness of the difficult currents that stop young parents are faced with when trying to lift themselves out of poverty. 

In the final part of our mini-series of working with parents with learning difficulties, we talk to Nadine Tilbury from Working Together with Parents Networks.   A former lawyer with experience from all angles of the child protection system she now works to make sure parents with learning difficulties are treated fairly. In this interview, she tells us what the Network has been working on, tells us about some innovative community support programmes and explains the rights of parents. 

In part 3 of our mini-series looking at working with parents with learning difficulties, we talk to the pioneer and creator of the Parenting Assessment Manual (PAMS), Sue McGaw.  As a newly qualified clinical psychologist in 1988 Sue McGaw realised there was a gap in how professionals were trying to assess and support parents with learning difficulties.  In 1998 she used the experience she had developed to create the PAMS tool kit. A way for professionals to assess the skills of parents with learning difficulties. It's a tool we use with the parents at our residential assessment centres.  In this podcast, we find out more about why the tool kit was needed, how it has developed over the years and find out if it can help all parents with learning difficulties. 

In part 2 of our mini-series looking at parents with learning disabilities. We talk to Gillian McIntyre an Senoir lecturer at Strathclyde University who specialisies in parents with learning difficulties.  We ask her why there has been an increase in parents with learning difficulties?  Why their children are more likely to be removed?  Whether this is justified?  What advice she has for social workers working with parents with learning difficulties?

Part one of our mini-series on supporting parents with learning disabilities and difficulties. We talk to Hannah about how St Michaels works with parents who come to us for a residential parenting assessment. How does she build trust and how do we make sure the assessment is fair. Please note: Through this podcast series we will be using the terms learning difficulty and disability interchangeably to cover all parents who struggle with literacy numeracy, organising, planning, abstract concepts whether they are formally diagnosed with a learning difficulty or not. 

How has covid affected food banks in Lambeth? With the number of people relying on Food banks increasing is there enough food? An interview with Jon Taylor who runs the food banks in Brixton and Norwood.

St Michael's first-ever podcast coincides with London Challenge Poverty Week. Is poverty always what we think it is and how is it affecting our parents.