with? You know there's a lack of support out there in terms of services and

interventions that these men can go to to talk about their problems. You know

the stereotypical image of a man or a boy is that they don't talk about these

things. So if there's no services, they don't like talking about it, it's a bit

of a problem. Being a care leaver I think what I found hard growing up was the

fact that there wasn't many male role models within social work. Not to say

that you can't connect with female social workers. Young men in my

position don't have fathers, have absent father figures in our

lives, so definitely a positive move to get more male figures into social work, just to

be that positive role model. People who look like me are normally painted in

a negative light. If there could be some kind of push to get more

men into social work to be there to inspire young boys like me to lead a successful

and positive life. Why do you guys think that more men don't play for a job

in social work? It frustrates me because I don't actually understand why

there aren't and I think money often plays a big factor in it, but the wage is

lower compared to city jobs but in fact, what do you want from a job?

And for me it was something I would want to enjoy, something I would get fulfilled,

something that I could actually see change. It's one of the greatest

professions if I'm honest. There are so many different kind of avenues and areas

that you can actually do. There's community development,

there's international social work, there's forensic social work, there's children,

there's mental health. It's ridiculous the amount of stuff, yet you only know

about like maybe child protection. Have you had a particular close relationship with

a male social worker? I actually have never had a male social worker. I've had a youth worker

he was my only male role model within the

social work realm. I was 15/16 at the time, bearing in mind I have been in foster care

since I was nine months old, so to only have that

male figure that late on was, I guess, quite frustrating because of how well the

relationship worked. So why do you think it's vitally important that we have more

men in social work? Social work is one of the gatekeepers of our

society and for that reason it should be representative of the society we live in.

There's quite an even split in terms of children and even adults who are

cases within social work and so they are able to engage with people who look

like them or have shared experiences with them. We're not saying that

women are not able to make that relationship and do, we're not saying

that at all, but it's a situation of it might help. I mean it's like any

workforce, any company, any team. The more diverse it is the better. Some men

will want to speak to women, but its about having the option there. We learn from

the differences in people so it's a situation of we can maybe have a

care plan for society that might be a lot better. You know the work that guys

like you are doing is putting people like me in better positions. I look around

and there aren't many men and I think hearing from someone who's experienced having a

social worker, understanding that it would have been valuable for you to have

had a man, I think is really powerful and reassuring for us to hear that we are

really required and we are wanted and we need more men to to become social

workers.