Championing Social Work Values

Carolyne boasts a long social work career, in which she has tirelessly championed the rights of children. After qualifying in 1988, she spent seven years in local authority children’s services, before moving into the voluntary sector to work as a children’s rights advocate.

Between 2000 and 2012, she was the national coordinator of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England. Here, she coordinated two submissions to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, and wrote extensively on advocacy and safeguarding children in custody.

In 2015, Carolyne set up a new charity, Article 39, which focuses on the rights of children in institutional settings. Her achievements with this fledgling charity have been remarkable, perhaps most notably leading the ‘Together for Children’ alliance to campaign against the exemption clauses in the Children and Social Work Bill, which risked limiting children’s rights.

Carolyne organised a petition that received over 100,000 signatures, and her colleagues said it was arguable whether the clauses would have been dropped, had it not been for Carolyne’s “energy, commitment and unflagging leadership”.

The judges praised Carolyne for significantly changing legislation for the better, challenging inequality and “absolutely campaigning for everything social workers believe in.”