In my early twenties, I was undertaking some voluntary work at a High School, in their behavioural support unit. I had graduated with a Psychology degree in 1999 but hadn’t yet decided what I wanted to do. Whilst at the high school, I was helping to support young people who were experiencing challenges in managing mainstream education, because of their additional needs or due to the impact of their experiences at home. I focused on their ability to focus on their learning, build and maintain friendships, respond to the teachers.
This often manifested in behavioural difficulties or friendships issues. Whilst there, Norfolk Children’s Services were advertising for a number of Family Support Workers to work with children and families where there were worries about harm within the family. I was eventually offered one of these positions. I took it, and my career working with children, young people and their families started!
From 2002 – 2004, I worked as a Family Support Worker supporting children who were subject to Child Protection or Family Support Plans. I worked alongside the Social Workers and at times, held a caseload (which was not uncommon in those days). I really enjoyed this role, building relationships with the children and young people. When I was offered a secondment to train as a Social Worker in 2004, I jumped at the chance as I felt, at the time, I was pretty much doing the role anyway. I was supported financially by Norfolk County Council, which enabled me to study full-time and in 2006 I graduated with a Masters in Social Work.
I returned to the same team, then known as the Family Intervention Team, as a newly qualified Social Worker. In those days there was no support for newly qualified workers, and I picked up where I had left off. Nowadays, the support is fantastic, with lots of learning and development opportunities. I soon found working with children at risk of or experiencing harm frustrating, as I felt I was unable to put the interventions in place that I had assessed were needed due to financial constraints. These were very different times to now!
I left Children’s Services in the summer of 2008 to work for an NSPCC project in Norwich, where I felt my direct work skills would be better utilized and I could make more of a difference. When a social work position became available in a Looked After Children’s Team (now known as In Care Teams) in Norwich, I applied and was offered the job, starting in January 2009. I spent much of my social work career working in this team, with children and young people in care, which is where my passion lies. I wrote my dissertation for the Social Work Masters about the importance of securing placement stability for these children. I loved putting this into action in my job.
In the 12 years I spent in this team I had two children. I was supported by my manager at the time, returning to work part-time to better fit in with my role as a parent. In 2017 I became a Senior Social Worker, which gave me more responsibility and put the knowledge I had gained through my years of experience. This role was a huge challenge, as it came at the time Norfolk was graded Inadequate by Ofsted and the moral of everyone was extremely low.
Since 2017 I have seen such a positive shift in the management and leadership group within Children’s Services. Our whole way of working has changed and developed over the last few years, getting us to a Good Ofsted rating, which is fantastic for everyone, not least for the children and families we are working with! I became a part of this new way of working when I took the role of Clinician in the newly developed Support For Success Service in April 2021. This has been an incredible opportunity for me to be part of the development of a brand-new service, part of the new Team Around the Practitioner approach that Norfolk has developed. The aim of our service is to promote stability for those children and young people in care and those who are care experienced, by supporting the professional and family networks around them, as well as directly supporting the children and young people themselves. I feel so lucky to be part of this change and feel proud to work for such a dynamic local authority.
In 2004-2006 I was seconded to undertake a Masters Degree in Social. Since this time, I have completed several post-qualifying modules, working towards a certificate in Advanced Social Work. I have undertaken Level 1 training in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy recently, and as well as utilizing these new skills with foster carers and residential staff to promote stability for children and young people. I’ll be working closely with the Adoption Support Service to support adoptive families using the principles of this approach.
Every day is completely different! The main focus of my role is to provide support directly to the social work teams, so I attend their group supervision sessions every week. Here, I identify cases where the Support For Success service might provide further support and I’ll offer consultations with individual Social Workers to spend time thinking about what might be going on for a particular child or young person that is leading them to present in the way they do. I might attend a Joint Agency Group Supervision (JAGS) or meet with a residential staff group to help them think about the needs of the young people they are caring for and what responses might be helpful. Later, I might meet with a child and their carer to undertake a play-based session, to help strengthen the child’s attachment and provide a sense of safety. I work closely with the SFS Psychologists and might meet them for my monthly clinical supervision to support me in my role, or I might check in with one of our practitioners to review and develop a piece of direct work they are undertaking. No day is the same, and I love it!
In future would like to develop my skills in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, perhaps becoming an accredited DDP Practitioner so that I can provide this support more routinely to carers and residential staff. I would also like to develop my skills and knowledge in play-based interventions.
Working with such a variety of professionals and navigating the different dynamics between them, which can cause barriers to meeting a child’s needs. Unpicking what might be happening and the impact this is having on the child or young person, and then helping the network to understand this, can be tricky at times and has taken me out of my comfort zone.
The most rewarding part of working through some of these difficult professional dynamics, to enable the network to work together more cohesively to support a child or young person in the most helpful way. When this works well and you see the difference it makes to the child and the support they receive, this makes me feel happy and proud.
Soak up all the learning you can and don’t be afraid to take risks by coming out of your comfort zone as this tends to be where the most learning and development happens!
