Inspiring current and new social workers to continue to #ChooseSocialWork through learning and development

Gloucestershire's dedicated practice development team have been working hard on promoting and sharing best practice across the adults' operational teams, including areas such as anti-racist practice, as well as developing a range of programmes to support adult learners and newly qualified social workers. Their strong learning culture means that they are consistently the most engaged users of Community Care Inform resources nationwide. Aileen will share tips from her team to yours.

Lori has been a social worker for 25+ years and has practised social work in Canada, the US and the UK. She is currently the principal child and families social worker for Medway Council and has been delivering workshops on secondary trauma for more than eight years.

Su is a passionate ambassador for EDI in Northumberland and the whole North Eastern region. Her focus being on relationship building to overcome challenges. Over the last few years Su has been instrumental in supporting Northumberland to build a strong academy for social workers and she’ll be able to share their experiences and tips for other organisations work in looking to create or improve how their academy operates. This includes an understanding around staff bringing their whole selves to work and how imperative it is to support staff wellbeing as the norm.

Rob Winfield works for Hampshire County Council in the Learning and Development Service. Rob is a qualified social worker and practice educator with a Degree in Applied Social Studies.

I started my social work journey in 1989 working in a family centre in rural Gloucestershire before moving to work in children’s residential units within Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. 

In 1997 I became a social work assistant in the children and families team in Buckinghamshire undertaking a broad range of social work related tasks. 

In 2000 Rob qualified with a Diploma in Social Work with Oxford Brookes University and then in 2001 received my Hons Degree in Applied Social Studies, at which point Rob worked as a social worker in a generic social work team. 

In 2002 I moved to Somerset and worked as a social worker in a disabled children’s team, becoming the team manager in 2005.  I remained in this role managing both children with disabilities and mainstream social work teams until 2011, at which point I became a service manager for the Isle of Wight children’s services responsible for children and young adults disability services.

Rob continued in this role until 2015, at which point they took on additional responsibilities for the Isle of Wight fostering and adoption services as the resource service manager.

In 2016, Rob moved to Southampton City Council for a year as the service manager responsible for SEN and Education. At the end of this contract in early 2018 Rob made the decision to return to frontline practice after a significant number of years as a senior manager and spent 2018 to 2021 working as a social worker in a children in care team for Hampshire Children’s Services and then as an assistant team manager in a children’s assessment and safeguarding team.

In January 2022, Rob joined Hampshire’s learning and development service on secondment to support and promote the development of new social workers entering the profession and now jointly leads the development of the GETS programme within Hampshire alongside Ingrid Millerchip. 

Returning to frontline practice has given me an opportunity to appreciate some of the pressures in today’s world faced by new social workers joining our profession.

Sophie and her team have built an impressive academy for staff in Birmingham Children’s Trust with a focus on supporting career pathways for Newly Qualified Social Workers through a 3 year development plan, the ACFP Accredited Child and Family Practitioner Programme which has been in place since 2021. BCT have been pioneering partners in a number of DFE programmes including the NAAS and are currently advising and supporting in the development of the new 5 year early career framework for social workers.