Whilst undertaking my degree in Economics and Law I became interested in working with vulnerable families through volunteering opportunities. I worked with children with additional needs and families from socially deprived backgrounds, while also supporting children in having contact with their absent parents. I developed a personal connection with a social worker who was a foster carer and adoptive parent. It opened my eyes to a very different area of work and gave me a sense of an alternative career than what I had gone to university for. After finishing my degree, I then completed a Masters in Social Work.
After qualifying as a Social Worker, I moved to live near Cambridge and applied for work in both Cambridgeshire & Suffolk. Despite Cambridgeshire being a very large authority, when I was interviewed it felt like you were part of much smaller team and that really appealed to me. My interview was in the office that I would join so it was positive to meet my work colleagues and they came across as a supportive team. I joined the Child Protection Team in Ely which was a small team, but I gained a lot in my professional and personal development as there was a strong learning culture and a passion to support each other. There was a mix of social workers and family workers with a clear joined up approach to supporting families. I continued to work in Child Protection in a variety of roles and in various areas of the county.
I became a Senior Social Worker after a few years and really enjoyed being able to support other Social Workers with developing their skills. This led me to take on the Team Manager post and despite this being a step away from working with children and their families, I always enjoyed being involved in supporting social workers with their work with families and hearing and reading about the children. It also gave me the opportunity to see how changes could be made to enable social workers to offer better support to families. In 2011 the local authority started to implement the Hackney Model where Social Workers would work together in small units to support families together in a systemic way. This was an exciting opportunity for me to try a new approach to social work with families and find ways to improve the way that we work. I took the step into a Group Manager role and supported 6 units.
Throughout my career in Child Protection, there have certainly been challenges but there were always rewards enabling families to change and where this is not achievable being able to see children thrive in alternative families.
After being in child protection for 8 years, there was an opportunity to join the Adoption Team that had recently been provided jointly by Coram & Cambridgeshire County Council. This was a new area for me, and it felt like a good time to take my skills outside of Child Protection. I joined as a Team Manager and then 3 years later became the Adoption Manager for the agency. It took a while to feel like I have moved into this work but the skills and experience from working in Child Protection was invaluable and still is to this day.
In 2020 Cambridgeshire & Peterborough set up their Regional Adoption Agency – Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Adoption. There was a lot of change and instability for staff alongside potential to take a different approach to how adoption services are provided to families and ultimately improve the experiences for adopted children. I took the step up into the Head of the Regional Adoption Agency and I have now been in this post for 18 months. It is a very different role and being responsible for the whole service was different to my previous role where I had more hands on input into children and families. I have taken a step back to take a broader view of the aims and vision of the service and allow the team managers the space to implement the day to day service.
People often think adoption is easy, I can assure you it has challenges and there is a different way of thinking, but it is just as rewarding, and I have gained a huge amount of skills and knowledge and in fact I continue to learn on a daily basis.
