I recently applied to one LA graduate scheme for Social Work and recently found out I wasn’t shortlisted for interview. It’s frustrating and particularly as you get no feedback but obviously I can appreciate that there were probably many stronger candidates.
However, it has raised one big concern in my mind that has been there for a while. I know I have very little experience in this field. I have never worked with any service users. I have been a youth leader and a Hebrew teacher for kids age 10-12 for many years, but not particularly vulnerable children. I’ve done 10 hours of child mentoring training but haven’t yet been matched with a mentee and I’m about to start (next week) a voluntary role in a homeless charity.
Of course, as I’ve written about previously, I feel I have other transferable skills from my 5 years in advertising – whether it be time-management and organisation or writing and delivering presentations, working in a multi-agency environment or more strategic knowledge around behaviour change. And academically I’ve always done fairly well and achieved a First Class degree during my BA.
However, and this was reinforced after meeting some coursemates at my induction for the MA yesterday, I’m concerned that potential job opportunities may overlook me, even after my MA as I have so little experience when compared to others with years in social care, above and beyond their MA qualification.
Am I going to be wasting my time dropping everything for a 2 year qualification…I’ve suddenly become a bit nervous..
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
BASW Student Conf
Today I attended the BASW Student Conference. As someone who is not yet a student, possibly the only person there, pretty much everything I heard was interesting in one way or another. Here are the things that I found particularly interesting/inspiring:
-Making contacts wherever you go is really important, you never know where you’re going to want jobs etc and to really make the most of your placement, go and spend time with other teams within a LA, or visit other agencies within the local area
-Social Work is not only about roles in Local Authorities- look outside the box and consider private and voluntary sector as well, or roles you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of.
-Putting people at ease is an incredibly important part of your job. As a CP social worker, when you enter into a home, the parent assumes you want to take their child away. If you want to be effective, building a rapport and making them feel a little more at ease is incredibly important.
-Don’t only think of yourself as “newly qualified” – everyone has skills and experience beyond their university studying, use those to move beyond that label when applying for jobs
-Campaigning is another way to feel like you’re making a difference. I was inspired by how much this student got involved with other groups on campus to campaign in a range of issues from human rights to climate change and tax evasion but more specifically the work of SWAN (Social Work Action Network.)
-Try to stay well informed, however busy you are – keep aware of the issues that may soon become legislation and affect you.
-Be creative in your placements where possible – some placements may have never had a SW-er in the team, think about how you can make a difference and what you can learn from it.
-Making a decision comes from a combination of cognitive and emotional elements, you can’t separate the two. It’s particularly important to develop emotional intelligence – part of that comes from being aware of and recognising your own emotions, but also from learning how to manage those emotions.
-When they are not managed well we get “amygdala hi-jack”
o “Amygdala hijack is a term coined by Daniel Goleman in his 1996 book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.[1] Goleman uses the term to describe emotional responses from people which are out of measure with the actual threat because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat. An amygdala hijack exhibits three signs: strong emotional reaction, sudden onset, and post-episode realization that the reaction was inappropriate”
-The other aspect is social intelligence – understanding other’s emotions – look at others and anticipate how they feel, about building rapport.
-Stress is the gap between what you can do and the demands made on you – this is your own perception, a reaction that you can learn to manage.
-Part of this is about self-care – reflective practice, taking time for yourself – one example was spending a few minutes before you go to sleep thinking of 3 things that make you happy and 1 positive experience. Self affirmation, meditation – all ways to take time for yourself.
-But also you need to know your limits and push beyond them – face fear.
-We heard lots about the role of BASW for advice and representation – also the support they can give you during placements or challenging the weak placements you may receive. And the importance of always gathering evidence and making records in your job.
-We had a great talk/drama re-enactment of how to manage service users who are aggressive. We heard about the importance of rehearsal – spend time thinking about what you want to say in a given situation, what would your exit strategy be? If you are under threat, get out.
-Also, ways to ask challenging questions while building a rapport – if your service user is shouting at you, look for ways back in – if they are annoyed that they’ve taken time off work to meet you, perhaps say you weren’t aware they had to do that and in future you’d like to make a more convenient time to meet them etc. If they’re crying, don’t ignore it – show your humane side, but don’t be distracted from challenging questions. (I imagine this is easier said than done.)
-This also lead on to the important of a supportive peer setting and supervision – if we’re not getting any support, if you’re left to deal with issues of aggression on your own, leave. I found this particularly interesting, given the role of a social worker – for us to neglect our peers is quite sad.
-There was also a presentation on the transition phase from student to practitioner and the reality shock that comes from being accountable for your own caseload. Lots of people had struggled with service users who didn’t like them because they were constantly bearers of bad news, and very few in this research study wanted to remain in LA settings.
-Finally after hearing that everyone knows a famous nurse but few know famous social workers (famous rather than infamous) we heard an inspiring talk about Irena Sendler, a Polish SW-er born in 1910 who helped Jewish mothers in the ghettos to give up their children for adoption by Polish families. She hid and buried all their real identities and after the war dug them up and reunited siblings wherever possible. When she died, she was being looked after in a care home by one of the children she’d rescued. I really like the idea of looking back at amazing SW stories – if ever there was a profession in need of some pride and good role models it may be this one.
(I was perhaps less pleased to hear that SW is the 5th most dangerous job after the army and emergency services, "and we don't have a tank or pepper spray to defend ourselves, just our diary". My mum will be pleased!
All in all – a great day!
Few book recommendations that came out of it:
The Spirit Level – which happened to be in my bag today!
Reaching out by David Johnson about emotional resilience
For training on managing aggressive service users go to asenseofself.org
For the film or Irena – “A courageous heart”.
-Making contacts wherever you go is really important, you never know where you’re going to want jobs etc and to really make the most of your placement, go and spend time with other teams within a LA, or visit other agencies within the local area
-Social Work is not only about roles in Local Authorities- look outside the box and consider private and voluntary sector as well, or roles you wouldn’t necessarily have thought of.
-Putting people at ease is an incredibly important part of your job. As a CP social worker, when you enter into a home, the parent assumes you want to take their child away. If you want to be effective, building a rapport and making them feel a little more at ease is incredibly important.
-Don’t only think of yourself as “newly qualified” – everyone has skills and experience beyond their university studying, use those to move beyond that label when applying for jobs
-Campaigning is another way to feel like you’re making a difference. I was inspired by how much this student got involved with other groups on campus to campaign in a range of issues from human rights to climate change and tax evasion but more specifically the work of SWAN (Social Work Action Network.)
-Try to stay well informed, however busy you are – keep aware of the issues that may soon become legislation and affect you.
-Be creative in your placements where possible – some placements may have never had a SW-er in the team, think about how you can make a difference and what you can learn from it.
-Making a decision comes from a combination of cognitive and emotional elements, you can’t separate the two. It’s particularly important to develop emotional intelligence – part of that comes from being aware of and recognising your own emotions, but also from learning how to manage those emotions.
-When they are not managed well we get “amygdala hi-jack”
o “Amygdala hijack is a term coined by Daniel Goleman in his 1996 book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.[1] Goleman uses the term to describe emotional responses from people which are out of measure with the actual threat because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat. An amygdala hijack exhibits three signs: strong emotional reaction, sudden onset, and post-episode realization that the reaction was inappropriate”
-The other aspect is social intelligence – understanding other’s emotions – look at others and anticipate how they feel, about building rapport.
-Stress is the gap between what you can do and the demands made on you – this is your own perception, a reaction that you can learn to manage.
-Part of this is about self-care – reflective practice, taking time for yourself – one example was spending a few minutes before you go to sleep thinking of 3 things that make you happy and 1 positive experience. Self affirmation, meditation – all ways to take time for yourself.
-But also you need to know your limits and push beyond them – face fear.
-We heard lots about the role of BASW for advice and representation – also the support they can give you during placements or challenging the weak placements you may receive. And the importance of always gathering evidence and making records in your job.
-We had a great talk/drama re-enactment of how to manage service users who are aggressive. We heard about the importance of rehearsal – spend time thinking about what you want to say in a given situation, what would your exit strategy be? If you are under threat, get out.
-Also, ways to ask challenging questions while building a rapport – if your service user is shouting at you, look for ways back in – if they are annoyed that they’ve taken time off work to meet you, perhaps say you weren’t aware they had to do that and in future you’d like to make a more convenient time to meet them etc. If they’re crying, don’t ignore it – show your humane side, but don’t be distracted from challenging questions. (I imagine this is easier said than done.)
-This also lead on to the important of a supportive peer setting and supervision – if we’re not getting any support, if you’re left to deal with issues of aggression on your own, leave. I found this particularly interesting, given the role of a social worker – for us to neglect our peers is quite sad.
-There was also a presentation on the transition phase from student to practitioner and the reality shock that comes from being accountable for your own caseload. Lots of people had struggled with service users who didn’t like them because they were constantly bearers of bad news, and very few in this research study wanted to remain in LA settings.
-Finally after hearing that everyone knows a famous nurse but few know famous social workers (famous rather than infamous) we heard an inspiring talk about Irena Sendler, a Polish SW-er born in 1910 who helped Jewish mothers in the ghettos to give up their children for adoption by Polish families. She hid and buried all their real identities and after the war dug them up and reunited siblings wherever possible. When she died, she was being looked after in a care home by one of the children she’d rescued. I really like the idea of looking back at amazing SW stories – if ever there was a profession in need of some pride and good role models it may be this one.
(I was perhaps less pleased to hear that SW is the 5th most dangerous job after the army and emergency services, "and we don't have a tank or pepper spray to defend ourselves, just our diary". My mum will be pleased!
All in all – a great day!
Few book recommendations that came out of it:
The Spirit Level – which happened to be in my bag today!
Reaching out by David Johnson about emotional resilience
For training on managing aggressive service users go to asenseofself.org
For the film or Irena – “A courageous heart”.
Sunday, 26 June 2011
People’s reactions to my career change:
Saying you want to become a Social Worker seems at times be quite a scary thing to do, and I often say it with an expression that says “I know what you’re thinking”.
I’ve seen quite an array of reactions to my career change.
My best friend got it immediately and just said, I didn’t ever see you in the media for long.
My family have been incredibly supportive – they had all the normal worries, the same ones I did and do still have – what happens if you don’t like it, can’t get a job, aren’t any good at it etc and the financial concerns that come with being a student again with a mortgage to pay. But their support has been invaluable during the times when I doubted myself.
I told one of my old friends who was just amazed and questioned every element – do you really know what you’re getting yourself into? I hear radio phone ins all the time where you see SW-ers only doing paper work? How are you going to support a family with that kind of money etc.
And then my favourite one, where I told some friends at a dinner party and after understanding that one of my main motivations was about making a difference, my friend’s husband said “you could become a management consultant..they also make a difference.” I think he’s a Tory. I bit my tongue as I didn’t want to ruin the dinner party.
But it’s also the reaction from strangers – when I was out walking the dog with my mum, we bumped into a neighbour and the conversation turned to what I was doing with my life – she was like, really?! Errm wow..-
Oh and then there was the woman who was giving me a manicure who said “gosh I don’t really know how you can do that, I worked in a school once with families like “that”, it was awful and then I moved to work at Jaguar with people with money, it was so much nicer.”
Right.
It’s interesting to see people’s reactions, and to be honest, some of them did make me doubt my choice in the early stages. But it also is a small window into the public’s perception of Social Work.
When I did some work on teacher recruitment at one of the previous ad agencies I worked on, we looked at behaviour change in some detail, and one of the notions we focused on was called “anchoring”. It’s basically about understanding someone’s reference point – so asking one person to become a teacher, who had a horrendous time at school and thought all the teachers were terrible, is quite different to asking someone else who had a great time at school and who has many friends enjoying a career as a teacher.
“In the context of behavioral change work, anchoring refers to ‘a stimulus which triggers a specific physiological or emotional state or behavior’. It gives us the ability to access desired feelings at lightning speed which we can utilise to help us achieve the outcomes we desire.
Sometimes we create anchors involuntarily. For example, if you think of your favourite teacher’s name from school, or the smell of a certain food or perhaps a photo on holiday or a song you heard, you may find that you get a whole host of emotions instantly. These can empower or disempower, motivate or demotivate.”
Understanding someone’s anchor, helps you to emphathise with their viewpoint, and if you are looking to change their behaviour, its helps you to make your approach that much more targeted.
If your perception of Social Workers comes from reading the Mail, or even worse, a bad personal experience – then your frame of reference is going to be significantly different from some of my friends – for example one who works for Barnados.
I’ve seen quite an array of reactions to my career change.
My best friend got it immediately and just said, I didn’t ever see you in the media for long.
My family have been incredibly supportive – they had all the normal worries, the same ones I did and do still have – what happens if you don’t like it, can’t get a job, aren’t any good at it etc and the financial concerns that come with being a student again with a mortgage to pay. But their support has been invaluable during the times when I doubted myself.
I told one of my old friends who was just amazed and questioned every element – do you really know what you’re getting yourself into? I hear radio phone ins all the time where you see SW-ers only doing paper work? How are you going to support a family with that kind of money etc.
And then my favourite one, where I told some friends at a dinner party and after understanding that one of my main motivations was about making a difference, my friend’s husband said “you could become a management consultant..they also make a difference.” I think he’s a Tory. I bit my tongue as I didn’t want to ruin the dinner party.
But it’s also the reaction from strangers – when I was out walking the dog with my mum, we bumped into a neighbour and the conversation turned to what I was doing with my life – she was like, really?! Errm wow..-
Oh and then there was the woman who was giving me a manicure who said “gosh I don’t really know how you can do that, I worked in a school once with families like “that”, it was awful and then I moved to work at Jaguar with people with money, it was so much nicer.”
Right.
It’s interesting to see people’s reactions, and to be honest, some of them did make me doubt my choice in the early stages. But it also is a small window into the public’s perception of Social Work.
When I did some work on teacher recruitment at one of the previous ad agencies I worked on, we looked at behaviour change in some detail, and one of the notions we focused on was called “anchoring”. It’s basically about understanding someone’s reference point – so asking one person to become a teacher, who had a horrendous time at school and thought all the teachers were terrible, is quite different to asking someone else who had a great time at school and who has many friends enjoying a career as a teacher.
“In the context of behavioral change work, anchoring refers to ‘a stimulus which triggers a specific physiological or emotional state or behavior’. It gives us the ability to access desired feelings at lightning speed which we can utilise to help us achieve the outcomes we desire.
Sometimes we create anchors involuntarily. For example, if you think of your favourite teacher’s name from school, or the smell of a certain food or perhaps a photo on holiday or a song you heard, you may find that you get a whole host of emotions instantly. These can empower or disempower, motivate or demotivate.”
Understanding someone’s anchor, helps you to emphathise with their viewpoint, and if you are looking to change their behaviour, its helps you to make your approach that much more targeted.
If your perception of Social Workers comes from reading the Mail, or even worse, a bad personal experience – then your frame of reference is going to be significantly different from some of my friends – for example one who works for Barnados.
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Placement request form
I recently was sent my placement request form from university. They’re asking me to fill in a cover letter style template as to why I want to work in SW etc and then very briefly answer a few questions about what skills and knowledge I want to acquire and whether I’ll be choosing Adults or C+F in my final year.
It was quite an odd form to fill out. I’ve always assumed I’ll choose C+F but am aware people change their mind during the course, and without even one seminar under my belt, it’s an odd question to answer. But more odd is asking me what skills and knowledge I want to acquire – well I don’t know anything really yet, so I’m happy to learn anything and everything!
In addition, I think a lot of students broadly have an idea of what placements they’d like before they start uni but it clearly says on the form, do not indicate what setting you’d like to work in or what service users you’d like to work with. Just the skills and knowledge. The sad truth is, that although I’m sure there are a huge range of placement settings that will offer fantastic experience and transferable skills, most of us would like a placement in a LA, because we’re constantly told that that will help our job opportunities. So the form becomes a kind of tightrope walk to hint at where you might like to go, without overtly mentioning it.
I’m not entirely sure this is the best process but I do know, it makes it all feel so much closer and I really am excited to start working in a social services setting and very aware from others I’ve spoken to, how much can be learnt in the placements you least expect to be rewarding. Plus, its up to you to make your placement experience what it can be.
I have my induction day next week as well as the BASW student social work conference. More writing to come.
It was quite an odd form to fill out. I’ve always assumed I’ll choose C+F but am aware people change their mind during the course, and without even one seminar under my belt, it’s an odd question to answer. But more odd is asking me what skills and knowledge I want to acquire – well I don’t know anything really yet, so I’m happy to learn anything and everything!
In addition, I think a lot of students broadly have an idea of what placements they’d like before they start uni but it clearly says on the form, do not indicate what setting you’d like to work in or what service users you’d like to work with. Just the skills and knowledge. The sad truth is, that although I’m sure there are a huge range of placement settings that will offer fantastic experience and transferable skills, most of us would like a placement in a LA, because we’re constantly told that that will help our job opportunities. So the form becomes a kind of tightrope walk to hint at where you might like to go, without overtly mentioning it.
I’m not entirely sure this is the best process but I do know, it makes it all feel so much closer and I really am excited to start working in a social services setting and very aware from others I’ve spoken to, how much can be learnt in the placements you least expect to be rewarding. Plus, its up to you to make your placement experience what it can be.
I have my induction day next week as well as the BASW student social work conference. More writing to come.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Volunteering difficulties
Just a brief note on volunteering.
I always had it in my mind that it would be ridiculously easy to add some voluntary experience to my CV. This is actually far from true.
Most voluntary positions, rightly, need a period of training in order to begin the post. They may also need application forms, interviews, CRB checks etc.
I started sometime last year deciding I wanted to do some voluntary work, this was before I had decided to do the SW MA.
I went along to the Samaritans information session and discussed Childline with a few people but decided that it wasn’t quite for me. I then found out about child mentoring and after completing an application form, was invited to interview. However, the only interview times they could offer were in the middle of the afternoon – and would need 3 hours out of the office including travel time. So I’d need to take a half day holiday just for the interview.
I eventually found another child mentoring organisation who kindly met me at 8.30am to interview me before work and get the CRB process in swing.
I then needed to attend four two and a half hour training sessions on weeknights at 6pm, requiring me to leave work bang on time, something that rarely happens. The very first session I was unable to attend so I missed that group of training and waited two months for the next lot, which fortunately I was able to attend. Since that time I have not yet been matched to a mentee, something we were told to expect to happen as of course it depends on what the mentee needs, even down to whether they would prefer a boy, or someone with specific hobbies etc.
So I thought about another opportunity and found a role in a new homelessness pilot project run by a group called No Second Night Out. I filled in the application form and went along to the interview and was told the next day I had got the role, which was great news. But then I needed to start the CRB process, which involved another trip to meet them, leaving work on time to get forms signed off, and then the reference process, which in this case, took my referees some time to complete. In fact, they finished today (my interview was about 3-4 weeks ago).
So I’m now waiting to get a time for my first shift.
I’m really looking forward to it, but it does show that its taken me about 9 months to start some actual voluntary work – assuming I start soon!
I do run my own charity, but nothing to do with social equality (it raises money and awareness for Crohn’s Disease) and have been a youth leader and Hebrew teacher for years too – so I do have some experience but not as relevant as I’d like.
Rant over!
I always had it in my mind that it would be ridiculously easy to add some voluntary experience to my CV. This is actually far from true.
Most voluntary positions, rightly, need a period of training in order to begin the post. They may also need application forms, interviews, CRB checks etc.
I started sometime last year deciding I wanted to do some voluntary work, this was before I had decided to do the SW MA.
I went along to the Samaritans information session and discussed Childline with a few people but decided that it wasn’t quite for me. I then found out about child mentoring and after completing an application form, was invited to interview. However, the only interview times they could offer were in the middle of the afternoon – and would need 3 hours out of the office including travel time. So I’d need to take a half day holiday just for the interview.
I eventually found another child mentoring organisation who kindly met me at 8.30am to interview me before work and get the CRB process in swing.
I then needed to attend four two and a half hour training sessions on weeknights at 6pm, requiring me to leave work bang on time, something that rarely happens. The very first session I was unable to attend so I missed that group of training and waited two months for the next lot, which fortunately I was able to attend. Since that time I have not yet been matched to a mentee, something we were told to expect to happen as of course it depends on what the mentee needs, even down to whether they would prefer a boy, or someone with specific hobbies etc.
So I thought about another opportunity and found a role in a new homelessness pilot project run by a group called No Second Night Out. I filled in the application form and went along to the interview and was told the next day I had got the role, which was great news. But then I needed to start the CRB process, which involved another trip to meet them, leaving work on time to get forms signed off, and then the reference process, which in this case, took my referees some time to complete. In fact, they finished today (my interview was about 3-4 weeks ago).
So I’m now waiting to get a time for my first shift.
I’m really looking forward to it, but it does show that its taken me about 9 months to start some actual voluntary work – assuming I start soon!
I do run my own charity, but nothing to do with social equality (it raises money and awareness for Crohn’s Disease) and have been a youth leader and Hebrew teacher for years too – so I do have some experience but not as relevant as I’d like.
Rant over!
Shadowing in a duty and assessment team
For 3 days I'm shadowing someone in a duty and assessment team.
When I walked into the building it felt so different from the vibe of an ad agency. The crest on the doors somehow make things feel a lot more serious but once I met the team and saw everyone chatting and joking I felt relieved to see that the sense of gravitas wasn’t wholly intimidating.
I was lucky to have an hour to chat all about the work that this team does and what cases are on at the moment. I went to the shift meeting and heard about the cases coming in today; from domestic violence to a young boy at school who'd told his friend he'd been having anal sex with an older man. Cases were allocated and I was given some interesting leaflets to read about CP processes and family assessments.
I spent some time chatting to other SW-ers about their time at Uni, how they found their job and some of my fears. It was great to speak to people who seemed to love their job and reassured me that despite all I've heard, many people do enjoy it!
Listening to phone calls really helped, the tone and manner by which SW-ers were talking - and the patience when repeating to people who couldn't speak English well. Also, I could see how frustrating it could be when so much time seemed to be spent leaving voicemails, endlessly chasing people who didn’t necessarily want to be found. One of the mums under investigation had run with her kids to Kenya and messages were being left to find out about their wellbeing.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to shadow the court hearing for an EPO or school visit to speak to the boy since they already had a large team including an interpreter out to meet but I’ll find out what went on tomorrow.
I then sat in a meeting with a woman talking about her child who she claimed was being bullied at her school for being Muslim. Afterwards I learn that Ofsted have already investigated and found no merit to this claim. She was then talking about the gangs her child is being caught up in and how the child has been beaten and is being more aggressive towards her mum. I saw the Sw-er in her role as expert in support services, recommending advocacy groups to help with some educational advice to help the child be removed from her new rough school and youth services that could provide a mentoring programme to help the child with the aggressive behaviour she picked up since moving to that school.
This is a fantastic insight even in a few hours into some of the challenges the Social Workers are up against. Even just an insight into human behaviour. I hadn’t even considered that some of the people who came in, when making serious allegations about their children being abused at school, might me making it up. I’m not saying this was the case – it’s still being investigated but it sounds like it may amount to that. There’s clearly reasons behind it – and I’m making any profound point here, just that it can be easy to be too trusting I suppose, in the same way it can be easy to be too judgemental. A balance I’m sure I’ll learn, or at least get better at!
Few reflections:
- advertising is almost always involved with white, middle class people aged 25-40. Both in agencies and clients
- You get so used to the luxury of getting cabs everywhere, seeing SW-ers stepping out to make the 15 minute walk to the tube station in the pouring rain is weirdly alien to the ad agency I work in!
- This job feels incredibly intense by comparison to a lot of the work I do, every little task so important.
- But one similarity, I spent a lot of time reading the guide to family assessments and many of the techniques and tasks involve elements I'm quite familiar with from leading focus groups.
Let's see what day 2 brings
Day 2;
I followed up to find out what happened on the two visits yesterday. The boy was apparently making it up - so risk levels are down, just initial assessment needed. Although I considered how you would know whether he was actually making it up, or just said he was due to the situation he’d found himself in. I suppose by entering him onto the “system” after initial assessment will at least make the process faster if his file turns up again in the department.
I have been given some interesting reading on assessment tools and theories associated with interventions. And the really nice SW-er next to me has printed a core assessment he did for me to read. It’s great to see how the theory becomes practice.
He's also invited me to a meeting with a woman who arrived in the UK from Romania 2 weeks ago with her child, who she told the borders agency, she wants to leave in this country. She apparently has mental health issues and has been having increasingly long conversations with the SW-er, refusing to tell him where she is but claiming to have a lot of the UK’s secret services knowledge at her disposal.
I then sat in on a walk-in with a young girl who was the victim of DV. She is living on her own with a young child and was looking to move house. Really this was a case for a range of other services to deal with, mainly housing – for which she is on the list, but the SW-er spent a long time sitting with her, making her an appointment with Victim Support, speaking to the police about putting a panic alarm in her flat, even calling housing to try to hurry along her case. I found it really encouraging that although a lot of these calls could have been made by the girl herself, and there wasn’t a huge amount we could do in this case, it felt like just making a few calls on her behalf was a help, and there were some clear next steps for her to follow. I was also amazed, after hearing quite how confident and proactive this girl was as a single mother facing so many issues, that she was only one year younger than me.
I also spent time looking at genograms - a kind of family tree with an additional layer of detail, i.e showing the strength of relationships between family members/friends, or medical history and ecomaps, which shows the influence of different things on a person's life for example social support systems, or community groups.
Day 3:
The Romanian woman didn’t ever turn up to make her meetings and there was little else we could do for her. The SW-er tried to encourage her to disclose where she was or at least come to us, but she seemed to refuse.
I sat in on another walk-in with a single mother close to break down, dealing with her oldest child with special needs. It was sad, the school he was at was over an hour from her home and she was finding it impossible to take him to and from school each day while dealing with other kids too. The transport that had been put on for him had just refused to take him anymore because he was acting up and she was refusing to take him herself as she said it was all too much and that it was making her suicidal.
I realise this sounds naïve, but having never worked in a setting like this, it was hard to hear these intentions dropped into conversation so easily, and not knowing exactly what we could do to help. I know the case was being referred to a CIN team who would form a team around the child to discuss how different services could be put in place to help the family but I discussed it further with the SW-er after, who explained that there weren’t that many SEN schools and so often the child did have to travel a long way to reach his school. She had suggested different options to the mother, such as trying to find a rota with other parents, to no avail. So, I’m left hoping the CIN team could find a better solution.
Finally I sat in one more walk-in with a girl who said she didn’t want to go back home and had been living with a friend’s family who were moving house and could no longer keep her there. The SW-er discussed her options with her and gave her some further reading to help make her decision.
Before I left I was able to read a few child protection case conference plans to understand how the assessments were used in practice.
It’s been a really fantastic experience, and I learnt a lot more than I really expected to in just three days. Many people have asked me whether it’s made me feel that this is definitely the right job for me. Truthfully I don’t think it did that, nor put me off either – there were times I could see myself fitting right in and imagining my own role within this world, and other times where it felt incredibly overwhelming and made me feel quite daunted at the thought. But that’s three days, pre training.
As my MA start date draws closer, I’m definitely feeling more and more excited.
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