With fresh approaches to working with some of its most vulnerable young people, an open, inclusive culture and excellent opportunities for career development, Barnet has fast become an exciting and rewarding place to be a social worker. What’s more, realistic caseloads and supportive, approachable managers mean it’s somewhere those who take up opportunities in the borough want to stay.
The borough is particularly proud of the way it’s been collaborating with the voluntary sector on innovative methods of engaging hard-to-reach young people at risk of being sexually abused or exploited by gangs. “We’re being really creative and adopting some of the voluntary-sector principles around meeting young people in their own spaces,” says Tina McElligott, the council’s operational director for family services.
“It might be that a young person texts, WhatsApps or rings a social worker they’re working with and says: ‘Where are you? We’re here’, and we’ll nip out. If they’re at the bus stop, if they’re on a street corner, if they’re hanging out in a block of flats, we’ll go and meet them where they’re at. We’re not expecting them to come to us or to sit in a clinic or office. We’re delivering important interventions but in a much more informal, relaxed way.”
These approaches are part of a drive to put children and young people’s voices first, encapsulated in the “It’s all about me” slogan Barnet uses to explain its family-friendly vision. “It really is about getting young people to lead and be part of their planning and assessments, helping them to tell their story in the way that they want to say it, and making sure that we use their own words and empower them to be the narrators of their own stories,” says McElligott.
“We’re not doing to; we’re doing with. We are really starting to put children and young people at the heart of everything we do. These are individual, tailormade plans and interventions that put their needs first, rather than ours.”
In addition, Barnet’s multi-agency response to tackling exploitation benefits those working on the frontline as well as service users. Its specially created REACH initiative, for example, brings together family support workers, family therapists, clinical psychologists, education and health workers and police, enabling social workers to broaden their knowledge and skills through close collaboration. “They’re learning from other professionals and they’re not having to chase them around constantly,” says McElligott. There are also further opportunities for professional development available, thanks to a programme delivered through Barnet Practice Academy, the Institute of Family Therapy and the North London Teaching Partnership.
With one of the largest child populations in London and ever-increasing diversity among its residents, Barnet is committed to being the most family-friendly borough in the capital by 2020. Its children’s services department is already making positive progress in all areas.
John Brackenridge, who joined the duty and assessment team as an agency social worker in August 2017, has been impressed. “All I’ve been seeing is improvement. They’re improving things that help social workers improve. They’re not just telling us: ‘You’ve got to do things quicker.’ My manager is very supportive. She wants us to get through all our cases and she tells us this, but she provides support while she’s doing it; she’s giving us suggestions and good supervision.
“You can tell there is money being invested in the services we refer to,” continues Brackenridge. “They’re bringing in professionals to work within the service that we can access.” This includes practice-development staff who run group supervisions and offer one-to-one sessions to help social workers develop plans for the children we work with.
As a result of his experience, Brackenridge recently made the decision to become a permanent member of staff. “I was always thinking of going permanent, but it had to be with the right kind of authority. [In Barnet, managing caseloads] feels achievable, which I’ve never really had before.”
He’s been impressed too by the way the heads of service sit within the social work teams, making them easily approachable. “If you need urgent decisions, or urgent advice, you don’t have to wait for a meeting, for emails to be answered – you can just go and speak to them and they’re very happy to help,” he says.
Brackenridge has already found opportunities for career development: as part of becoming a permanent staff member he’ll complete a practice-educator course so he can supervise students joining his team. He’s also pleased to see that there could be chances to take on specialist roles in the future.
“In a couple of authorities I’ve worked in previously, the opportunities for specialist roles were very limited because they were the first things to be cut with budget cuts, so you were limited in your career progression,” he says. “Here, there are definitely options.”
For McElligott, the feedback from frontline social workers is very encouraging. “We’re seeing a real change in culture here in Barnet and there’s a renewed enthusiasm for what we’re doing,” she says. “People come here, and see it, and feel it, and want to be a part of it. So many of our staff say: ‘I’m really excited by what you’re doing; I want to stay here.’ For us as practice leaders, that is the best thing we can hear.”
