New writing
The notebook
In the book, Ray says the notebook is your first witness and your best defence. This one is where I put the things that did not fit in the book.
Start here
The questions people ask, and the long answers.
What a social worker does on a Tuesday
An ordinary day, hour by hour. Nothing happens, which is the point.
Should I become a social worker?
An honest answer, from somebody who would do it again and would not recommend it to everybody.
Why a novel, and not a memoir
The honest book about this job had to be the invented one.
Do social workers steal babies?
The short answer is on the cover. The longer one takes about four minutes.
Things people say at parties
What happens when you tell a stranger you are a social worker, in order of frequency.
Why I use a pen name
Four reasons, one of which is cowardice.
Scenes
Short, and made up, like the book. Nobody’s case is described in any of them. They are about the rest of the job, such as the fridge and the pool car.
Twenty to nine
Finding a desk, in an office that has eight for every ten of us.
Waiting at court
Listed for ten o’clock. Called at twenty to four.
The fridge
The longest-running dispute in the building.
The student
A week of being watched by somebody who is writing it down.
Sunday night
What happens between the end of the weekend and the start of the week.
The training day
Six hours, one flipchart and an icebreaker.
First day back
Two weeks away, and what is waiting.
The pool car
A small silver hatchback, and everybody who has ever driven it.
School reception
Ten minutes on a chair built for somebody of six.
The leaving do
Twenty-six years, a card in an envelope, and a speech nobody wanted to give.
The lanyard
What happens when you forget to take it off.
The fire drill
Eleven minutes in a car park with everybody who works in the building.
Letters
To the people on every side of the work.
To the teacher who noticed
A letter to everybody in a school who has ever filled in the form and then not slept.
To the person who rang it in
For the neighbour, the auntie, the friend. You were worried about a child and you picked up the phone.
A letter to whoever starts on Monday
For the newly qualified. What I would say if I could sit you down with a brew the Friday before.
If a social worker knocks on your door
For parents. What to ask, what you are entitled to, and what I would do in your place.
To foster carers
A thank-you letter, several years late.
How to love a social worker
For partners, parents, best friends and anybody else who has been told “I can’t talk about it.”
The job
What to get a social worker for Christmas
They have enough mugs. A guide for families, friends and Secret Santas.
The cup of tea
On being offered a drink in somebody’s house, and why you say yes.
Room 2.14
A short history of every meeting room in local government.
On being shouted at
It happens. What it is, what it is not, and what to do with your face.
What goes in the bag
The home visit kit list that nobody gives you at university.
The car park
On crying at work, and where to do it.
A field guide to the biscuit tin
There is a hierarchy of everything. This is the biscuit one.
Books that got me through
Seven books I have lent and never got back.
What the file leaves out
On case notes, and the child who will read them one day.
The first year
For whoever is in it, and whoever is looking after them.
How to survive your ASYE
Twelve months, a portfolio, and a caseload that was supposed to be protected. Notes for the first year.
Supervision: a user’s guide
An hour a month that is supposed to be yours. How to get it, keep it and use it.
How to keep a newly qualified social worker
For managers. Care instructions, as for a houseplant, but with more paperwork.
Looking for the blog from the novel? That is in the 2015 archive.