BASW mourns the death of social worker Sarah Fensom

Shock and much sadness following tragic loss of social worker Sarah Fensom

BASW is shocked and saddened to learn of the tragic loss of social worker Sarah Fensom, who passed away after a car accident last week. Sarah was working as a team manager of a frontline child protection team for Nottinghamshire County Council Children’s Services Department.

Her dedication to social work and trying to protect children was highlighted in a 2021 blog she co-wrote for BASW on child sexual exploitation.

After protecting a child from being groomed, she went on to play a crucial role in securing convictions against a grooming gang, in a case that made headlines in 2021. She will be sadly missed by everyone at BASW and our thoughts and prayers go out to her friends and family."

Reflections from friends

“I just remember Sarah with a smile on her face walking into the office with her coffee, she always wanted to help the children and families we worked with and was always humble and balanced in her views, never being judgemental or pretentious. I enjoyed chatting about the different types of coffee we both loved.”

“I always felt impressed at how quickly Sarah went from ASYE to great social worker to great manager, in such a short period of time. She has always had such a great work ethic and she never forgot what it’s like to be a frontline social worker.”

“She loved to meet up for costa coffee and going charity shopping”. 

“I remember when teams stats were dropping due to staff being off work and everyone was stressed, she went through every case chronology, over a 100, and checked each one and updated every one that was out of date, just to help the team escape management criticism of the stats.”

“She wasn’t easily scared and her first cross examination in the witness box was barnstorming and lasted only a short time as she knew her case inside and out. She fiercely protected the children on her case load, she was single minded about it.  I think her role in the safeguarding of children from a paedophile grooming gang in Nottingham may be her greatest professional legacy.”