Chances to work on groundbreaking new initiatives, take on special projects and benefit from inspirational training are all on offer with a social work role in Barking and Dagenham.
“We have a lot of complex cases that keep people active and looking for new ways to respond,” says Ann Graham, director of operations in children’s care and support. “The work is interesting, demanding and diverse.”
Implementing innovation
The local authority is soon to become one of just 16 in England piloting a programme that aims to break the destructive cycle of vulnerable women repeatedly becoming pregnant and having their children taken into care.
A group of its social workers will work intensively with the selected women on problems such as drug and alcohol addiction, domestic violence and mental health issues. Participants on the scheme developed by the charity Pause have agreed to use a long acting reversible contraceptive, so they don’t get pregnant during the programme.
“When we looked at the children we put forward for adoption over the years some of them had the same mothers,” Graham explains. “We want to help them change their lifestyles, so that when they do decide to have another baby they’re able to care for that baby permanently.”
Working with these mothers will give social workers in Barking and Dagenham the opportunity to temporarily move away from traditional practice. Staff returning back from working on the programme will find that their skillset has been enhanced, says Graham.
And staff are already excited about the new scheme. “This is about helping address a real problem that we have, of women who love their children repeatedly having them removed from them,” Graham says. “Women may have five, six, seven children removed, and it’s heartbreaking for them.”
Pause is just one example of Barking and Dagenham’s willingness to invest in innovative social work that will improve social workers’ practice and children’s wellbeing.
Bespoke projects
A reduction in caseloads has freed social workers up to develop bespoke projects which focus on the emerging needs of the young people they work with.
“Recently we noticed that a lot of our older children who had been in care for a long time were keen to go back to their families, rather than leave care and go into their own accommodation,” Graham says.
“But we wanted to make sure that if we did return a child home, that return could be sustained. So we asked one of our really experienced and enthusiastic social workers if she’d be interested in having a small caseload working on reunification with these families.”
Graham attests that the programme has been very successful, with a number of children returning home to their families and benefiting from the intensive support. She mentions a family they worked with, a teenage girl and her father. He’d battled alcoholism and had been homeless, she says, but over some years had managed to find work and accomodation.
“We worked with them both to be sure that his parenting skills were strong enough for her to live with him permanently, and also helped with his accommodation, because they needed more space. She was able to return home happily.”
In training too, Barking and Dagenham is striving to develop fresh approaches that are stimulating and rewarding. This year will see the launch of a series of masterclasses in which eminent academics will speak about their research. Encouraging debate and continual improvement is also a key part of their creative approach to training.
More broadly, Graham’s staff are working on a council-wide innovation: a new way of delivering services called Community Solutions. Residents are given a first point of contact to get help with any issue, from housing to benefits to social care.
You can’t try out bold and different ways of working unless you’re starting from a stable and secure base, Graham notes – and that’s what Barking and Dagenham is offering social workers interested in working in the borough.
“I’m looking for people who want to join teams where the culture is one of supporting each other and being creative to find new ways to do things,” Graham says. “I want people who are really enthusiastic about working with children and families to a high standard, to make a real difference in their lives.”
For more information about working in social care in Barking and Dagenham, click here.
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