Midway point of placement and the Guardian Open Weekend

I'm now approaching the midway point of my placement. And i'm enjoying it more than ever. I'm particularly enjoying the work I do with one of my clients who was recently released from prison. After i set up our first keywork session to create some realistic goals we can work on together, i now regularly receive notes under the office door or thrust in my hand with more goals to work on! Whether or not they are achieved, it feels like a good mindset to be in and i feel like i've developed a really positive relationship with him.

And i found out yesterday that I'll be getting a third client next week, which is exciting as students normally only get 1 or 2. This might sound very small compared to the caseloads you get in stat settings but it's very different being a keyworker in a residential setting as the face to face support is much greater.

One of the things i'm loving is the randomness, the charmingness (i know it's not a real word!) of working with people everyday. The unpredictability of it. While some days may be stressful or emotional and full of incidents or clients shouting, many days are spent laughing with the clients. Or sharing lovely days out, like our recent picnic and ice cream in the park which the clients have been talking about ever since.

My uni work has been driving me pretty mad as the uni have totally mucked up all our portfolio requirements. They have realised now, at the midway point, that most of the students on the course were working to the criteria set out by our course leader, that was in fact wrong. So all the students and their supervisors have become somewhat panicked, realising the evidence that has been 'ok-ed' at the midway point, may in fact not be OK. Joy!

Next week I start to have some days off for exam revision. I admit i'm pretty tired now, trying to sustain uni work, placement work etc so I'll be glad when exams are over and I can have a weekend away for a proper break.

Last weekend, I had a fantastic time at the Guardian Open Weekend. I went to four back to back sessions.


One was a panel debate about the nature of communities, including Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder of Kids Company, and somewhat a hero of mine! She spoke about the fact that the issue of revenge has still not been addressed, young people don't feel they have been heard, for example young people feel they are being used to sell the Olympics and then won't benefit from it. She also discussed how we need somewhere for young, unemployed people to go and do something even if there is no labour. They shouldn't be stuck in their own living space, they need to be encouraged to create a community. She explained that people assume that behind every child is a competent carer but that is not true for 1.5m children in UK who become marginalised with their needs unmet. These sometimes, vulnerable individuals may not have the baseline competences to seeks out social cohesion. You need economic resources and social confidence to seek this out.

Sue Marsh was one of the panellists in a talk about the shape of the welfare state, discussing issues such as the fact that the child in poverty is more likely to have a parent in work than unemployed, alcoholic etc. Parents are not able to make a living wage. She also said that we have the lowest level of benefits in the developed world with 94% of those on JSA getting jobs in the first 6 weeks.

The talk on what the new age of protests was achieving was also interesting - discussing whether they are successful given that often they do not serve to veto law, ie tuition fees, NHS bill etc or is it an acheivement anyway, to get those who are voiceless onto the front page? or to raise the consciousness of a generation. It was also mentioned that while once you could not imagine the end of capitalism, now radical systemic change is more on the agenda.

It was amazing to have so many under 18s in the room asking questions and expressing their desire to be able to vote. It was such a fantastic, buzzing atmosphere and I loved the opportunity to listen to such a range of speakers and be surrounded by people who give a bit of a sh*t about the world we live in. I really wish there were more events like this, even if not on this scale, but with opportunities to hear experts speak and debate on their subject.

Sharing feelings

Before and after every group we run, we have a pre and post group.

The pre group at the start of the day, i particularly enjoy. We go round the room and everyone just discusses how they feel. It could be anything from - "tired, i didn't sleep well" to "anxious about the day because i found yesterday particularly hard..." etc

I think there's something incredibly refreshing about this group. For one thing, it helps just to relieve you of any negative feelings you might have about the day ahead. For another, it allows you to feel some empathy towards your colleagues and judge the way you behave with them accordingly - i.e if you know they're having a bad time in their personal life, or even that they didn't sleep well last night, you might be a bit more patient with them or give them a little extra support. If you know they're feeling demoralising, you can try to inspire them etc.

Anyway....just a little thing i like and think could be transferred in some way across different settings.

Control issues

Historically the issue of control has always been a big one for social workers and some of the dichotomies involved in partnership working vs control.

One thing that I have found a struggle is my own lack of control in this role. In my past career I felt pretty much in control of everything I did, I had my to do list and I got on with it, in I would say quite an efficient way.

But working with people is different, (it's not rocket science I know!) People won't attend that meeting just because it's on your to do list or answer the phone because you want them to or get up in the morning because you believe it's best. And sometimes however hard you think you're working or however much effort you believe you're putting in, you won't see the progress you were hoping for. In fact they may go backwards sometimes. Basically you can't control what's going to happen, you can only do what you think is best with each intervention and each decision but the control and the responsibility lies with them not you.

People are unpredictable. And that what makes working with them so bloody interesting