My faith has sustained me through long career in social work

What first drew you towards a career in social work? 

I saw a documentary on what was then called ‘House Parents’ in a residential home and this struck me as something I would like to do. However, I did not act on it at the time but several years later after having children and I saw a job advertised for a ‘Night Care Officer’ in a residential home for teenagers and got the post. I found working with the young people very rewarding. From there I learned so many skills and eventually I trained to be a social worker, as I felt I could be more helpful to them in terms of planning and meeting their needs.

Could you briefly outline your career journey? 

The children’s home I worked in closed and I had the wonderful opportunities of helping children and young people to stay at home with their birth families and also with foster carers too. This developed my skills further and once I was qualified as a social worker, I worked in the ‘Children We Care For Team’. During this time, I was surprised at how many of the foster carers were struggling to manage the children they were caring for and my work started to involve supporting them to manage them. My residential experiences enabled me to fulfil this role well. This led to my journey in the fostering team as a supervising social worker and this lasted for 20 years before retiring in April this year. Although I am still working on the Casual Bank for West Sussex County Council.

What are your reflections on supporting foster carers and the children they look after?  

Fostering 20 years ago was nothing like it is now and I am pleased that we are becoming a modern and up to date service. Far from the days when a visit consisted of a cup of tea and a chat. Hardly any records to speak of, but all that started to change soon after I joined the team.

I am so blessed to have had a lot of excellent training and working with the CAAMHS team (although they are not called this now) and they helped me to look behind the behaviours and to work more therapeutically alongside the foster carers. It is wonderful when carers begin to use the ideas and the child starts to respond positively and start to thrive. 

Mostly, the foster carers I have worked with are open to these ideas and we work together well. However, sometimes the fostering experience is so painful for them, and my work was to try and support them, identify training and other help to help bring relief, so that together we can support the child. I appreciated the trust that then built with the foster carer and their family. This is so important if they are to share openly and honestly.

Something that I also learned early on in my fostering career was the incredible value of the work that the carer’s birth children take in caring, accepting, sharing and welcoming role with the children we care for. If the relationship between the birth child and foster child is under strain, the placement is unlikely to last, so the birth child needs to be recognised, supported, and praised. This can make the difference of the placement lasting or failing and needs time and attention given to it.

What has sustained you through your long career? 

Personally, my faith as a Christian because it is where I experience unconditional love, I don’t have to earn it but I learn to share this with others.  I have had a safe and secure childhood and have worked hard to do the same with my children, which is why I feel so enthusiastic about children in care having the same experiences.

My team members are fantastic, it like working with family. I have met so many wonderful people in WSCC, people who are encouraging and inspiring. 

How do you stay motivated - particularly during challenging times? 

Again, my faith which give me hope and strength for everyday life, whether personally of for work.   

I have a life outside of work, church life, meeting friends, hobbies and I work with the children in the community, spend time with my grandchildren and these keep me grounded and up-to-date with children’s trends and normality.

Training is also vital for refreshing and updating.

What are your hopes for the future of social work? 

There is a new direction in fostering where high nurture is being modelled from senior social workers to foster carers who then pass this on to the children we care for. This increases trust and a ‘wrap around’ service. However, my hope is that this will grow to the whole of children’s services and that it will come from the top of the directors, down to the workers and so on. Imagine how that would change supervisions, tasks, working with families, foster carers and connected persons carers. This would increase team unity, working together and attitudes all round.