There has been a recent surge in political activity among 18- to 24-year-olds, as witnessed in this summer’s general election, where the youth turnout was the highest for 25 years.
Getting involved in politics is certainly one way of making a direct impact on the lives of those facing disadvantages. However, there are others, and this is where the Frontline charity can help. It offers a route into social work that enables graduates and career changers to work in the public sector and support vulnerable children and struggling families.
For Beth Goldsack, being there for people when they most need help is a key career driver. “There is definitely something about being an agent for social change,” she explains. Goldsack, 22, who graduated in 2016 with a music degree from Durham University, is part of a recent cohort training on the two-year Frontline social work programme.
She says she “always knew” she wanted to work with children, but that social work didn’t become a goal until, while at university, she began volunteering with a summer programme for marginalised young people in contact with social services. She learned something first-hand about the difficulties and barriers they faced: “It was definitely a good thing to take the kids away for a week, but I wanted to do something more than that.”
When a colleague told Goldsack about Frontline, it appealed immediately, because the emphasis from the get-go was on working directly with children and families. Other people’s reservations about social work being too tough or stressful a job, or misconceptions around being paid badly, failed to put her off.
“I have felt supported,” says London-based Goldsack. “I’ve gradually been taking on more responsibilities and I’ve learned a lot.”
Layla Doyle, another current Frontline participant, explains that she initially thought her career path from a degree in social policy and sociology at the London School of Economics would lead her towards policy work and research, but that her “ideas about how to bring about change” shifted.
An awareness of the daunting challenges around poverty, inequality and mental health, plus an interest in children and young people, led her to conclude social work “would be the best way I could make a difference”.
Speaking of her experience with the profession so far, 22-year-old Doyle says she feels “energised” and that working with families on an ongoing basis has been rewarding. “I have not been put off in the slightest,” she says.
The programme’s two-year structure, balancing formal qualifications with practical experience, has been crucial, according to Goldsack and Doyle. Juggling academic work (graduates of the programme get a social work diploma at the end of the first year and a master’s at the end of the second) with supervised on-the-job fieldwork provides a solid foundation moving forward, they believe. Employing an approach that encompasses a family therapy model has also been encouraging, they say.
In practical terms, working alongside senior social workers and their teams within local authorities from the beginning has particularly influenced and inspired both. “You feel part of a team,” says Goldsack, who is based in Maidenhead. Initially shadowing experienced practitioners, before gradually acquiring more direct contact with parents and children, only served to reaffirm her decision to enter the profession.
Doyle says a valuable lesson for her has been the shattering of preconceptions about the reality of the job, including that social workers are always unwelcome in people’s homes. “I think I had the perception that [families] would hate me. That’s not been the case. Even with initially difficult cases.”
With so much being absorbed so quickly in the first two years, it can be difficult to unpick the most important aspects, but there are particular facets that stand out.
Goldsack completed her first year of training in the summer of 2017. For her, a huge learning curve was realising how public understanding of families in contact with social services – including how they are talked about in the press and on social media – is often distorted and might put people off working in the field. “For me it’s been an eye-opening experience,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about the resilience of some people, even in really horrible situations.”
Working on one case involving an asylum seeker and unaccompanied minor has helped provide “a much deeper understanding of what that young person is going through”, as opposed to some of the one-dimensional media depictions of those who need help.
Going forward, Goldsack and Doyle agree that the challenges – professionally and societally – are likely to be formidable. They are also aware that further down the line burnout could be an issue, yet both are confident that with the right training and support this is something that can be managed. Limited resources, such as access to mental health care for children and parents in need of specialist help, also generates concern, but, despite this, both say they are in it for the long haul.
“What’s inspiring is that you can see the micro-changes you make,” says Doyle. “If I went into policy I wouldn’t see that.”
