British born author Freya Barrington, is to be a guest speaker this Wednesday, the 30th of September at OASI in Victoria, starting at 11.00am. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Freya will be talking about her debut novel – Known to Social Services – which became the #1 Bestseller for Social Work Books in the UK, in March 2015. The book is published by Faraxa Publishing.

Her book titled Gozo: Is the Grass Greener? is her second work, and tells the story of Freya and her husband, Steve, when they moved from the UK to live on Gozo.

Written from life experience and ringing with authenticity, ‘Known to Social Services,’ follows Diane Foster, a dedicated social worker, into the grim, grey world of the Deacon Hill estate in Millbrook and the tormented lives of its inhabitants.

Domestic violence, child abuse, serial paedophiles and ex-convicts proliferate in the daily lives of most of the children, but Diane enters deeply into this world of misery to help the victims and keep together the fragile structure of society.

Hampered by an administration inhabited by paper-shuffling and uninvolved, uncaring bureaucrats, Diane fights unremittingly to protect the children of Deacon Hill from rape, horror, random violence, female genital mutilation and murder, within the context of a horrifying barrenness and desolate existential reality.

Freya grew up in Lancashire, England, with an overriding passion for animals, specifically horses. After attending girls grammar school where English was her strongest subject, the only desire Freya held was to work with her beloved horses. To the dismay of her parents, she went to work in a racing yard.

Realising that it was not a passing phase, her parents eventually encouraged Freya in her chosen career and she went on to work with event horses, show jumpers and hunters, gaining several British Horse Society qualifications along the way – namely, the BHSAI, BHSII and BHSI (SM).

All this enabled Freya to work as a riding instructor and trainer, which she did on a freelance basis. Freya continued working in the equestrian field for many years, eventually running her own yard.

Eventually Freya took a change in career and started in residential childcare and eventually became a full-time foster carer for the local authority. From there she went on to train as a social worker, gaining the Diploma in Social Work in 2001 from the University of Derby, with an award for excellence in practice.

Freya also gained the Post-Qualifying Award in 2007. She is a registered member in good standing with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) of the United Kingdom.

The main area of expertise of Freya Barrington is as a senior child protection social worker. She has been the principal social worker and mentor on a number of teams. Freya has also worked as a foster carer’s support social worker, as a court advisor and hospital social worker.

Since 2006, Freya has worked exclusively as an agency social worker, with specific focus on working for local authorities that require experienced social workers to offer support in the face of staff shortages. Freya’s assessments and reports are in high demand, with managers from several local authority areas making specific requests for her to join their teams.

In 2010, Freya moved with her husband, Steve, to Gozo while at the same time continuing to work in England as an agency social worker, flying back and forth on a fortnightly basis. This attracted comments from colleagues who said that they would never again complain about their commute to work! It was at that time that the idea for writing her non-fiction books started taking shape, so with the full support of her husband, Freya took a year’s sabbatical to write.

Freya lived in Gozo with her husband from 2010 to mid-2015. Presently she lives in the South of France, writing the sequel to ‘Known to Social Services.’

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