The Secure Start Podcast

11/10/2026

The impact of social care doesn't end with the person in front of us. Neither does our accountability.

In a recent conversation on The Secure Start Podcast, I reflected on something John Whitwell has spoken about:

The boy who is read to becomes the father who reads to.

It's a simple observation, but one with profound implications for those of us working in social care.

What we provide to children and young people today has the potential to influence what they provide to their own children, and what those children, in turn, provide to the next generation.

We are not simply responding to immediate needs, managing behaviours, or helping children recover from adversity.

We are contributing to the accumulation of social capital across generations.

And I think this brings with it an important responsibility.

Social care services are entrusted with significant public resources, authority and responsibility for the lives of some of society's most vulnerable people.

Our accountability, therefore, extends beyond demonstrating that we have delivered a service, met contractual obligations, or achieved prescribed outcomes.

We also have a responsibility to consider the broader social consequences of our work.

Are we helping people develop the capacity to form and sustain meaningful relationships?

Are we providing experiences of care that they can draw upon in their relationships with others?

Are we contributing to the conditions in which future generations might experience greater security, connection and opportunity?

And are we doing enough to understand and demonstrate these longer-term contributions?

Of course, intergenerational outcomes are difficult to measure, and we cannot reasonably attribute them to any single intervention or service.

But that does not diminish their importance.

What we do with the person in front of us matters. Not only to them, but potentially to people we will never meet.

For me, this is both the extraordinary opportunity and the profound social responsibility of working in child welfare and social care.

I'd be interested in how others think we might better recognise and account for these longer-term contributions.



https://youtu.be/f15nlJvkCMg

The impact of social care doesn't end with the person in front of u...

28/09/2026

What happens when a therapeutic residential care environment is designed to support the growth of the adults as well as the children?
We rightly expect children and young people in therapeutic residential care to grow and develop. But if we have those expectations of children, shouldn't we create an environment in which the adults caring for them can grow and develop too?

In this excerpt from The Secure Start Podcast, I reflect on staff development within therapeutic residential child care and the legacy of the Cotswold Community.

The Cotswold Community was not simply an environment intended to support the development of children. Many of the adults who worked there went on to lead fulfilling and significant lives and careers, suggesting that it was also a nurturing and developmental environment for staff.

John Whitwell has described the role of therapeutic carers as being “emotional gardeners” — creating an emotional environment in which growth can occur. What is striking is that this environment for growth appears to have extended to the staff themselves.

This raises an important question for contemporary residential child care: could residential care be a place where both children and the adults who care for them develop, build relationships, grow their capabilities and accumulate social capital?

The Secure Start Podcast explores therapeutic residential child care, therapeutic communities, trauma-informed care, attachment, relational practice, leadership and the relationships and environments that enable children, young people and the adults around them to grow.

This is en excerpt from a forthcoming podcast conversation, due for release 3/10/26

https://youtu.be/B9wbhyDzqVg

What happens when a therapeutic residential care environment is des...

26/09/2026

IF WE EXPECT CHILDREN TO GROW, SHOULDN'T LEADERS GROW TOO?

We ask children and young people who have experienced adversity to do extraordinarily difficult things. We expect them to open up to case workers and residential care staff, engage in therapy, recover from adversity, grow, and ultimately move towards experiencing an ordinary life.

But what expectations should we place on the organisations and leaders responsible for their care?

In this excerpt from my conversation with Simon Benjamin on The Secure Start Podcast, we explore an important question about leadership in therapeutic care: if an organisation expects growth, openness and development from the children and young people it serves, should it apply those same expectations to itself and its leadership?

It is a simple question with significant implications for leadership, organisational culture, residential child care and therapeutic practice.

Supporting children to recover from adversity isn't only about what we ask children to do. It also requires us to consider the expectations we place on the adults, leaders and organisations around them.

The Secure Start Podcast explores therapeutic care, trauma, attachment, residential child care, child protection, leadership and the relationships and systems that support children and young people to heal and grow.

See the link to the full episode in the comments.



https://youtu.be/t8w9-pt04TY

We ask children and young people who have experienced adversity to ...

20/09/2026

Ireland. New project. Three years initially. Adding residential care to general and relative (kinship) foster care. Photo - The Famine Bridge, also known as The Bridge of Tears - in the lee of Muckish Mountain, Co. Donegal. Families waved relatives goodbye here when they left for the New World (never to return). Looking forward to returning, myself.

07/09/2026

Very pleased to release Episode 58 of The Secure Start Podcast. In this episode I speak to Douglas Faircloth about his central role in one of the most significant evaluations of therapeutic residential care in Australia.

We trace what the data showed across the original TRC pilots and six further outcome evaluations over 13 years. We talk about the changes that mattered most: reduced self-harm and substance use, improved mental health indicators, better self-care, and the slow but powerful growth of relationship capacity. Along the way, we dig into why sleep can be a meaningful marker of trust and turmoil, and how measuring progress can shift a whole team from crisis-only thinking into hope and momentum.

If you care about trauma-informed care, child protection outcomes, and what works in residential care in Australia, this one will give you language, evidence, and practical ideas. Subscribe, share this episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more people find the conversation.

Therapeutic residential care in Australia sits right at the hard edge of child protection, out-of-home care, and youth mental health. On the Secure Start Podcast, Douglas Faircloth reflects on deca…

23/08/2026

Episode 57 of The Secure Start Podcast, with Marie Clutton of Amberleigh Care, is now live! It is such an inspiring conversation - I challenge you to look and listen!

https://thesecurestartpodcast.com/2026/08/23/the-work-you-cannot-leave-at-the-door-with-marie-clutton/

Working in residential care with boys and young men who have experienced trauma and displayed harmful sexual behaviour changes you, and that is one of the most honest truths shared on the Secure St…

09/08/2026

Episode 56 of The Secure Start Podcast - Reclaimed Belonging, with Richard Rollinson - is now live and accessible via the link in the first comment.

In this conversation Richard and I unpack what belonging really means in out-of-home care and therapeutic residential care. We talk about how the stories we tell children about their parents can either stabilise them or split them apart, and why it matters to honour birth family without denying harm. Richard shares a practical reframe for the child who says “my mother doesn’t love me”, and we tease out the difference between making a necessary judgement and being judgemental.

If you take something positive from the conversation, please consider liking, subscribing, and sharing the podcat episode in your network. It really helps me to be able to continue to bring you high value content via the podcast.

https://thesecurestartpodcast.com/2026/08/09/reclaimed-belonging-with-richard-rollinson/

A child disappears into the underside of a foam settee, furious when the adults cannot find her. Another child “loses” Super Ted again and again, and what looks like chaos turns into a quiet test: …

07/08/2026

The Secure Start Atlas of Therapeutic Care is Growing. See the link for the second concept page, concerning "Attachment".

https://thesecurestartpodcast.com/concept-2-attachment/

At a Glance Key QuestionsAnswersWhat is attachment?A biologically based relational system that motivates children to seek protection, comfort and support from familiar caregivers when they feel vul…

06/08/2026

And just like that, the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care becomes the foundational therapeutic care approach for a residential child care provider in Ireland.

Appreciated for it's simplicity and clear direction regarding what therapeutic care looks like in practice, the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care responds to one of the primary challenges in residential child care provision: consistency of care across staff.

To find out more about how the package might benefit your social care organisation or program, do get in touch.

26/07/2026

I am very pleased to release another conversation between Richard Rollinson and I on The Secure Start Podcast. There is so much to pause and reflect on that I have decided to release it in two parts.

In this first instalment, we acknowledged that care gets framed as gentle and cosy, but that story falls apart the moment you work closely with children who have lived through fear, loss and disruption. We explore a tougher, more honest view: care as something we carry, not just something we do. Richard brings two objects to make the point - a Care Bear and the Oxford English Dictionary - and cites definitions that connect “care” to grief, mental suffering, doubt and sorrow. It lands because it sounds like the real emotional labour of child and youth care, residential care, foster care and therapeutic support.

We remind the listener about Richard’s love of objects and storytelling: how a childhood habit of arranging things, an unforgettable stage performance filled with objects, and decades of practice in the Mulberry Bush community shaped a way of communicating that invites people in rather than telling them off. We talk about presence, remembering and the strange truth that a single detail can hold a whole world, including a photo where a father’s shoe becomes a doorway into family history, disability and connection.

We also get practical about safeguarding and organisational culture. Richard contrasts whistleblowing with something that should sit beside it: voicing concern early, as course correction, so teams can question routines before harm happens. That leads into containment and reflection about how supported staff can hold children’s feelings without becoming punitive, how naming an experience can calm a storm, and how good containment spreads through a group in the best possible way.

If you care for children, lead a team, or want trauma-informed practice that stays human under pressure, you’ll find plenty to pause on. Subscribe, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway or the object that carries your story.

https://thesecurestartpodcast.com/2026/07/26/caring-means-holding-grief-without-turning-punitive-with-richard-rollinson/

Care gets framed as gentle and cosy, but that story falls apart the moment you work closely with children who have lived through fear, loss and disruption. I sit down with Richard Rollinson for ano…