Dan’s Story – Social Work Apprentice

Since leaving university in 2017 after studying psychology, I began my career working as keyworker for the drug and alcohol service in Herefordshire. The nature of this role was to deliver a continuity of care through effective partnership working, care coordination by delivering structured brief interventions and/or other psychosocial intervention to individual clients with a range of substance misuse backgrounds, whilst managing an active caseload.

In 2018, I made a decision to leave my role as a keyworker, after successful gaining a role working for the local authority in an adult social care team as an Assessment and Enablement Officer. The role primarily focused on assessing and support planning for service users by setting up appropriate personalised and outcome-led packages of support that maximised long-term independence and choice as underpinned by the Care Act (2014).

During 2021, I became a successful applicant in applying for the social work apprenticeship.

The foundation of my working career thus far and my academic learning provided me with the platform to further enhance my problem solving ability whistling promoting human rights and wellbeing of those in society, and working against oppression.

Throughout my apprenticeship journey, I have come to recognise my own life experiences, both personal and professional, aiding the way for a career devoted to addressing social problems, advocating for vulnerable people, and tackling issues of social injustice. The nature of the apprenticeship has provided me the opportunity to further gain workplace experience while studying, allowing myself to develop professional positive behaviours in line with the apprenticeship standard and requirements of the social work regulator. Which has resulted in myself being able to make an active and meaningful contribution to the workplace, developing new capabilities through experience. I am enthusiastic and eager to embark on my social work career and would advocate to others, who wish to enhance the quality of life for people of different ages and backgrounds, empowering them, protecting their human rights and improving their health, safety and wellbeing.

Erny’s Story – Senior Practitioner

What inspired you to become a Social Worker?

My inspiration came from my first employment in Singapore. At the time, I worked as a case worker in a voluntary welfare organisation which specialised in supporting people with cancer and their families. My main job description was to assess our clients’ financial situation and provide relevant aids to support them and their family through their cancer journey.

As a part of completing this assessment, I often encountered clients and families who require emotional supports and even bereavement supports. Though I was able to listen to them and validate their emotions through our conversations, I was not able to follow-up further with this due to my role restriction. When our clients and families required ongoing emotional support, my Social Worker colleagues would take over.

This was when I decided that I would like to become a Social Worker. I would like to be able to support people continuously and provide more meaningful service beyond financial aid. Whenever possible, I would like to enable people to become more resilient and self-sufficient with relevant support.

What inspired you to become a Senior Practitioner?

I always believe that in order to have good Social Workers, we need good leaders. I chose to progress as a Senior Practitioner because I believe one of the ways to improve our Social Work practice is through supporting staff in management capacity.

What is a day in the life of a Senior Practitioner in your team?

As a Senior Practitioner, I start my day with checking-in with my supervisees. Then I check all my emails and voicemails, and response to all of them accordingly. Afterwards, I will start to look at my to-do list from the previous day/ week to complete today and be ready to attend our managers’ meeting, which usually last about 1 hour.

After managers’ meeting, depending on your specific task, for this case, mine is to update DTOC (Delayed Transfer of Care), I start to look at all the cases that require an update and send the update lists to relevant parties. When these are all done, I carry on with my main task to  quality assure the work my supervisees  and look at allocating them new people to support when necessary. Whilst completing all the above lists to do, staff may approach me for advice and direction, which I need to respond appropriately.

Karen’s Story – Shared Lives Co-ordinator

What inspired you to work in Adult Social Care?

My childhood circle of family and friends was made up of people with physical and learning disabilities.  When I moved to London although I worked in the ‘media industry’ again my social circle included people with family members who had learning disabilities/autism.  When I returned to Hereford I was looking for something completely different and was fortunate to take a position with the Community Learning Disability Team which felt like a perfect fit. 

What inspired you to specialise in Shared Lives?

Whilst working within the Learning Disability Team we had a close working relationship with the then Adult Placement Team (Now Shared Lives).  I have always appreciated the model of care that Shared Lives provides to individuals and how important it is to build relationships and provide continuity. 

When the LD Team was disbanded I then moved to work in the City Locality Team, where I worked with individuals with a range of care and support needs providing strength based assessments and co-producing support plans with them. I worked with several individuals within the Learning Disability community and some Shared Lives households but once a piece of work was completed, I would potentially not see them again depending on my case load availability. I really missed the continuity.

When the opportunity to join the Shared Lives Team arose in June 2022 I applied and successfully gained the role as an Assistant Coordinator. Now I am able to maintain regular contact with the individuals within the Shared Lives households and have the privilege of seeing them grow, develop skills and live their best life.

Did you have any apprehensions about specialising that came true?

No – As I already had a good understanding of the Shared Lives model this role is exactly as I hoped it would be.   

Did you have any apprehensions about the specialising that didn’t come true?

My only apprehension was about getting to grips with the Care Quality Commission regulations but working with such a supportive manager and colleagues who are there to explain or answer any questions means that this has not been an issue.

What would be your advice for other people interested in this career path?

If you have a passion for working with individuals within the Learning Disabilities community:- to be part of their journey and witness them finding their own voice, having choice and control over their lives and living life to the full, then if the opportunity to work within Shared Lives opens up, jump at it.

It is not all sunshine and roses and there are the occasional challenging situations that you will be faced with, but on the whole it is an extremely rewarding role.

Katie’s Story – Occupational Therapy Assistant

I have been working as an Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) for 18 months as a council employee and as part of the ILS team (independent living service). My experience within this team so far has been very positive rewarding supportive and pleasing.

Every day is different and I am always learning and developing new skills to ensure I provide the service user with the best advice and appropriate products to allow them to live independently in their homes – albeit prescribing appropriate equipment or signposting them to outside /internal organisations for other support  

As an OTA we help the service users develop improve and maintain the skills needed for daily independent living.

As an OTA our aim is to improve lives of others, we have to gain their trust and build a rapport, bearing in mind we are dealing  with mainly vulnerable adults and this role requires patience and kindness.

An OTA we work alongside the OT , who will support and guide us on our journey and advise and support us accordingly if cases are identified as complex

The council encourage work/career development and have introduced  internal apprenticeships to become a qualified OT if there is funding available – This is an amazing opportunity for an OTA to progress in their chosen career path to become a qualified OT. The skills required for this role are: good communicator, friendly, compassionate, patient, resilient, empathy, confidence, dependability and if you can go the extra mile then this role may be the one for you.

Rachael’s Story – Senior Social Care Assessor

Cursed with an idyllic childhood growing up in North Yorkshire, in a small market town nestled between the verdant Wold land and stark beauty of the Moors, I grew as all Northern young girls grow; into a formidable woman and replicated that childhood for my own children, here in Herefordshire.  

My career path to Adult Social Care has meandered through various guises…via Education, Sales, Care and Third Sector leading me to where I am currently…as a frontline worker in the City Locality Team as a Senior Social Care Assessor (I know, fancy title hey ?). I have lived experience, both personally and professionally of both Children’s and Adult’s Social Care which means that I am able to put it to good use with the individuals we support and have learned FAR more than I ever thought I could have ever imagined.

Every day is different and it’s certainly not boring. From supporting Clients with mental health challenges, substance or alcohol misuse to live their best lives to facilitating Day Opportunities for people with a Learning Disability or Dementia…finding a forever home for someone…and everything in between.  

We are often the lone voice of dissent championing those who are voiceless to achieve the best outcome possible and maintain their independence for as long as possible.

It’s not a job for the faint-hearted. There will be days when the job subsumes every waking hour; worrying whether you’ve done something quick enough/well enough…whether log-in the following morning will bring fresh challenges…or perhaps more realistically, how many…

I still live with Imposter Syndrome and wonder when someone will realise that ‘I know nothing’ and send me on my merry way…but as a Team, we have each other’s backs…we encourage and share our knowledge…we celebrate the wins and commiserate over the challenges that don’t always have the outcomes we’d hoped for.

We, are AWESOME !  Every single day we continue to try to be the change that we want to see in the world…starting right here in our own little corner of it. 

Sometimes, you may be the only person one of your Clients sees in a week or be the person who can communicate with someone who has been reticent about engaging before, or hear stories about how well a loved one has settled in the placement you sourced and are living their best life. Those are the times when it all seems worthwhile. 

I think we all replied to the question in our interview for the job ‘why do you want this job?’ with ‘I want to help people’…it’s probably written through our core like a stick of rock…it’s what we do.