Sarb Bhambra didn’t set out to be a social worker. Born and bred in Coventry, she left home at 18 to study in Leeds for a degree in business information systems. Four years later, she found herself working as a finance officer in Manchester, and was considering becoming a chartered accountant.
“Then I suddenly stopped and realised: ‘I don’t enjoy this job – I am clock-watching,’” she says. What she found most rewarding was the volunteer work she was doing for Manchester Rape Crisis, supporting women who had been through a traumatic experience. That prompted her to give up her job, go back home to Coventry, and take a master’s degree in social work at the University of Warwick. As part of the course, Bhambra undertook a placement at Coventry children’s services department, and loved it so much that she applied for a job there. Ten years later, she’s still at Coventry, and is now the team manager of the social work academy, which offers six months of support and mentoring to newly qualified social workers, guiding them towards becoming fully-fledged members of the children’s services team.
Coventry children’s services went through a tough time after an Ofsted inspection in 2012, but has moved mountains since then in its determination to improve. One of the significant changes it made was to set up, in 2014, the multi-agency safeguarding hub (Mash). Bhambra was involved in the process as a temporary team manager. “That was the first time that we had agencies sitting together looking at the front door and starting to think about which professional is best placed to be supporting children and families and meeting their needs. So it was a significant step forward,” she says.
From there, she joined the referral and assessment service as a permanent team manager. “It was busy,” says Bhambra. “It was energetic. It was responsive. I really enjoyed the team atmosphere there. I enjoyed the support that colleagues offered each other – the advice, the expertise in that service.”
In January 2018, Bhambra launched the social work academy, an initiative she feels is making a big difference. “It’s been great that the council has recognised that newly qualified social workers need a protected space to really embed what they’ve learned and to transition from student into professional practice.”
She was lucky, she says, to receive a lot of support in setting up the academy. “I’ve worked very closely with our principal social worker and even with our director, who both really listened to what I had to say and took it on board. I feel very valued in terms of the feedback.”
The academy is now on to its third cohort of newly qualified social workers, and is in the process of recruiting the fourth and fifth cohorts. It plays an important role in introducing new social workers to the Signs of Safety framework, an approach embraced by Coventry as enabling social workers to build strong relationships with both parents and children in cases where child abuse is suspected.
Bhambra has found her new role personally fulfilling, too: “I see newly qualified social workers grow and flourish over the six months that they are with me,” she says. “I see their confidence grow in terms of using Signs of Safety, and on a personal level I’ve been able to develop my understanding of recruitment and retention. I’ve been able to contribute and use my knowledge to shape the provision of the service within the academy.”
This determination to put the child at the heart of the service has made Coventry a great place to work, says Bhambra. The thriving youth council supports the children’s services department when it’s recruiting, and its members talk to newly qualified social workers. Giving voice to young people who have been through care has “helped us to shape our services so that they’re responsive”.
She has also benefited, she says, from the opportunity to progress and to engage in continued professional development, including a recent firstline leadership course in York that enabled her to think about how she might not just manage, but lead.
Bhambra very much enjoys being back in her home city to live and work. It’s an easy place to get around as a social worker, she says; you can travel from one side of Coventry to the other in 30 minutes, which makes it easy to respond quickly to children and families in need. The city centre office, where she works, offers plenty of access to car parking for staff, and faces a number of “new and interesting” restaurants. The city itself, which will be the UK city of culture in 2021, is undergoing a facelift to make it more “spacious and light”.
No one would say that social work is an easy field to work in, but Bhambra has found a lot of support from colleagues. “For me, laughter is always my resilience builder. I’ve always found people I can laugh and joke with while also getting my job done – and making sure children and families are responded to and supported in the way they need to be.”
