I have always found meeting and speaking with people easy which I believe was due to my father having been in the military and I had moved from country to country, house to house and school to school throughout my younger years.
This taught me lots about people’s values, cultures and identities and made me inquisitive of people’s lives and their family narratives.
My father always used to tell me to keep out of others business and concentrate on myself and my life whilst reiterating their lives had nothing to do with me - he may have insinuated I was a little nosey.
I was the kind of person who friends and family alike would lean on for support, whether that was for a cup of tea and a chat, a cry and cuddle or to talk through something they were facing and finding tricky.
I had worked administrative jobs from leaving college and enjoyed them but always felt something was missing.
It wasn’t until I began an administrative post in a children’s centre back in 2007 that I began to recognise the difficulties families were experiencing and how they built relationships with the family support workers and I saw the positive changes that families made with a little help, understanding and someone to have the time and listen.
I felt I had some skills I could use and always took time to listen to people and began exploring how I could change my career path in to such a role.
My journey began in 2009, I studied a Certificate in Health and Social Care. Once I had that qualification, I applied to University to study a Bachelor Honours Degree.
I choose Children’s Inter-professional Studies as this covered working with children from 0-18 years old in Health, Education and Social Care.
I became like a sponge and wanted to learn and know more and more.
I got my degree in 2014 - first one in the family to get a degree - and thought what next? I wasn’t done learning, I found the Social Care element within my bachelor’s degree was what drove me further to want to learn and understand more about children, young people, and their carers.
Safeguarding children was what really ignited my passion, the rights of the child, ensuring their needs are being met and that they feel safe and loved and they have someone in their life that champions everything they do.
I enrolled on to a master’s degree, at which time I remember thinking what are you doing? You were lucky getting a bachelor’s degree never mind attempting a master’s degree!
I was married, had a family, worked in the community supporting people remain in their homes at that time and took a deep breath and applied.
I was offered an NHS Bursary and commenced the master’s degree in 2014, qualifying in 2016.
From qualifying as a Social Worker, I have worked in 2 Local Authorities within several positions.
I began in a long-term safeguarding children’s team and completed my ASYE, I then worked for an agency for a period as I wanted to explore other areas of social work.
I gained a position in an assessment team for 6 months and then was offered a fixed term position within a Child Looked After Team.
I continued working in the Child Looked After Team until I returned once again to agency social work and back into an assessment team.
I was offered a position within a locality team as agency and accepted the position in 2019, I have remained in the same locality since and moved from agency to permanent senior social worker and then progressed to advanced social worker within the locality team.
I have recently been offered a Practice Educators role within the Social Work Academy and am super excited and feel privileged to be able to meet many new students, newly qualified social workers and qualified social workers and continue not only my learning journey but also support theirs in helping them to achieve whatever their dreams and aspirations are.
In my own free time, it is all about family. My children are nearly all grown up now but all still live at home, despite my efforts to move them along. Seriously though, the time with my family is super special and whether it’s a movie night, a trip to the seaside, a family holiday or just relaxing in the garden having a barbecue together it’s quality time together.
There is no feeling like it, knowing you belong and for the children and young people I work with this is what I hope to help their carers bring for them.