A Day in the Life of a Social Worker - Part Four
A Day in the Life of a Social Worker - Part Four
As Social Work Week is coming to an end this is the last of our ‘A Day in the Life of a Social Worker’ blogs. We have really enjoyed getting to know our Social Workers better and we hope you have as well.
The last direct worker we interviewed was a CAST Team Manager based in Farnborough.
Can you describe what a normal day in your role entails?
A typical day as a Team Manager consists of LOTS of virtual meetings, squeezing in report sign downs and Team Manager oversights, telephone catch ups with most social workers and lots of chit chat in our virtual group chat to keep morale up! Oh and ‘4Ding’ my e-mails constantly (Delete, Delegate, Do or Defer).
What challenges do you face as a social worker?
As a Team Manager and things being virtual at the moment, the biggest challenge is feeling connected as a team, but this is achieved by regular team meetings, supervisions and informal catch ups over Teams.
What do you like most about your job?
That I work with a team who really care about the young people they are working with and their main focus is on safety and permanency for children.
Have you faced additional struggles due to the Covid-19 pandemic?
Making sure social workers feel safe and listened to being balanced against the need to physically see our most at risk children during a pandemic has been difficult, but the social workers in my team really do have the welfare of the young people they are working with at the heart of what they do so this is something they are committed to and it really shows.
What do you do outside of work to wind down?
I always make time for non-screen related activities like cooking and cleaning, and I always try to start the day off with some exercise in case I end up working late so I feel I’ve achieved something for myself each day!