The Social Worker of the Year Awards 2025 is open for entries.

Eighteen category awards are up for grabs this year, for practitioners, teams, leaders, organisations, students and educators in England.

There is one new award this year, for international social work, which has replaced the approved mental health professional (AMHP) gong, which was presented in 2023 and 2024.

The Social Work Awards Ltd, the charity which runs the scheme, said the new award was for “a team or individual who can demonstrate a significant impact in the field of social work on a global scale”.

AMHPs will be eligible to enter the mental health social worker of the year award.

Entries are open until 27 May 2025 and must be submitted through the awards’ online entry system, with submissions judged by a panel of former winners, social workers, leaders and experts by experience.

Shortlisted entries will be announced in August and the winners revealed at a ceremony in October, where one of the category victors will be crowned the overall social worker of the year.

Self-nominations and third-party nominations are permitted and entries must be endorsed by a senior manager or relevant professional to indicate acceptance of the entry rules.

The Social Worker of the Year Awards 2024 winners were unveiled at a ceremony in London last week.

The judges selected 18 gold award winners and 19 silver award winners from the over 90 practitioners, students, teams and organisations shortlisted for this year’s prizes.

The overall winner’s prize, along with the children’s team gold award, went to Norfolk council’s people from abroad team, a specialist social work service that supports citizens of other countries, including those with no recourse to public funds, and British nationals returning from abroad.

Organising charity the Social Work Awards said the team’s work in recent years had included supporting families from Afghanistan and Ukraine to settle in the area. Practitioners had also developed their learning, with three social workers qualifying as registered immigration advisers, a role that involves providing people with advice and support on issues such as asylum claims, residence and deportation.

‘They practice with compassion and without judgment’

Sherry Malik, vice-chair of the awards’ board of trustees, said: “The people from abroad team provide a vital service for families and individuals fleeing their own countries and arriving here in circumstances none of us could ever imagine ourselves in.

“They support them to rebuild their lives, step by step – from accommodation to language needs, from schools for the children to getting to know the area and to settle in the community. They do it with compassion, kindness and without judgment and in creative ways with diminishing resources. Their work truly deserves this accolade.”

The team said: “We love what we do because the people we work with are amazing, they’ve overcome adversity, and it makes us go that extra mile for them.

“We see people at their most vulnerable and we work to get them to a point where they no longer need us and can fly the nest. What is most important to us is empowering people to gain their independence and we know that we’ve done our best and we’ve made enough change that they won’t come back into the service.”

The lifetime achievement gold award went to Susan Banyard, who retired recently from her role as a social worker in children’s services at West Sussex council after a career in the sector lasting more than 30 years.

Social Worker of the Year Awards 2024 lifetime award gold winner Susan Banyard, pictured with Vava Tampa (left) and Janati Champaneri (right), from headline sponsor BASW England, and journalist and awards presenter Ashley John-Baptiste (credit: Social Work Awards)

Posthumous award for lecturer-practitioner

The approved mental health professional of the year gold award was given, posthumously, to Dr Matt Simpson, who was senior lecturer at Bournemouth University and an AMHP for Wiltshire, who died in January this year.

He was described as “a much-loved colleague, manager and teacher” and “truly an exemplary AMHP”, said the Social Work Awards.

Other winners included the Anti-Racist Movement (ARM), a collective that provides a dedicated space for black female practitioners to discuss their experiences of social work, including in relation to racism. The group won the gold award in the social justice advocate category.

A safe space for black female social workers

In an article published on Community Care earlier this year, its founder, Shantel Thomas, said: “Women, especially black women, tend to hold on to their trauma internally and there wasn’t a safe space to express that without having to explain and apologise or try to compensate.”

New this year was an award for practitioner-led research, open to those who had carried out research or helped build a research culture within their organisations.

The gold award for this went to Anna Bouch, professional education consultant in Brighton & Hove Council’s adult social care team, who, according to the judges, “truly embodies the qualities of an outstanding social work researcher

Also new was the technology-enabled lives and innovation in practice award, for which the gold winner was TACT Connect, an online community for care experienced young people and adults currently or previously fostered through the agency TACT.

‘Highlighting social workers’ achievements in difficult times’

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England was the headline sponsor for this year’s awards.

National director Maris Stratulis said: “We know that the social work profession faces many challenges with increasing pressures felt by the diverse and unique communities we support. During these difficult times, the role of social work is ever more critical, from upholding rights and challenging injustices, to advocating for fairness and promoting wellbeing.

“That’s why it’s important that, through these awards, we highlight your individual and collective achievements, recognise the exceptional services you deliver for children, families and adults, celebrate the diversity and intersectionality of our profession, and shine a well-deserved spotlight on exceptional social work practice happening across the country.”

“It’s a real honour to highlight the inspiring accomplishments of both individuals and organisations in this often-underappreciated field,” said Peter Hay, chair of trustees at the Social Work Awards. “Congratulations to all of our finalists and winners, and a heartfelt thank you to our sponsors for making these awards possible.”

The finalists for the Social Worker of the Year Awards 2024 have been unveiled.

Over 90 practitioners, students, teams and organisations have been shortlisted across 18 categories for the annual awards, which are designed to celebrate high-quality practice, practice education, leadership, teamwork, innovation, research, teaching and advocacy within social work.

They were chosen by a panel of judges independent of the organising charity, the Social Work Awards Ltd, including previous award winners, social workers, sector leaders and people with lived experience of social work.

‘Inspirational achievements of an over-looked profession’

The chair of the Social Work Awards, Peter Hay, said: “This year we received hundreds of entries which goes to show how passionate organisations and individuals are to shine a light on the inspirational achievements of an often-overlooked profession.

“We would like to thank all those who took the time to nominate a friend, colleague, or team for an award this year. To our finalists, we’d like to say congratulations! Being nominated for a national award, whilst supporting others during very challenging times in a year of big changes, is a remarkable achievement of which you should be very proud.”

The category winners, along with an overall social worker of the year, will be announced at a ceremony in London in November 2024.

Social Worker of the Year Awards finalists

Social work student of the year 

University social work lecturer of the year

Newly qualified adult social worker of the year

Newly qualified children’s social worker of the year 

Practice educator of the year 

Team of the year, adult services (including multidisciplinary teams)

Team of the year, children’s services (including multidisciplinary teams)

Supportive social work employer 

Team leader of the year, adult services

Team leader of the year, children’s services

Technology-enabled lives and innovation in practice award

Practitioner-led research award

Social justice advocate award 

Mental health social worker of the year

AMHP (approved mental health professional) social worker of the year 

*Dr Matt Simpson has been nominated posthumously. He died in January 2024, after a short illness.

Adult social worker of the year 

Children’s social worker of the year

Lifetime achievement award 

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

For our 50th anniversary, we’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by either:

• Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
• Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

In 2023, Jane Dunne was named the children’s services team leader of the year for her work with the Coventry and Warwickshire family drug and alcohol court service (FDAC).

This was not her first award since becoming manager of the then Coventry FDAC in 2016, with the team winning the public sector children’s team prize at the 2018 Children & Young People Now awards.

In 2021, the service’s success led to its expansion to cover Warwickshire.

Speaking to Community Care, Jane discussed why she believes FDACs are a better alternative to standard care proceedings, her approach to leading a multidisciplinary team and the risks to FDAC teams from constraints on public spending.

How did you become involved with the FDAC service?

Jane Dunne with the rest of her FDAC team / Photo by Jane Dunne

The service started in October 2015, and I joined in March 2016. I’d always been interested in the interaction between substance misuse and volatile relationships, and how that impacts on an individual’s mental health.

Then a secondment came up for six months to manage the Coventry FDAC service, because we only had temporary funding at that point.

I haven’t looked back. I remember thinking, “My goodness, I only had this for six months and now I’m here eight years later”.

One of the things that stood out to me was that it was a multidisciplinary team. We had a clinical lead, two substance misuse workers, a parenting officer, a children and family worker and three social workers, including a domestic abuse practitioner.

Everybody had their own expertise, but when I joined they were working in silo. I wanted to have a sense of identity as a team and to centre that around improving outcomes for children.

We did a lot of team development and broadened our knowledge and skills. We’ve all learned so much these last few years.

What makes an FDAC a better alternative to standard care proceedings?

In normal proceedings, when a case comes to the court, various assessments are ordered. But the results usually come in closer to the end of proceedings.

So if the hair and blood tests come in and they’re high in alcohol levels, then there is nowhere for the parents to go to demonstrate change because that’s their evidence. And they are expected somewhat to do everything on their own.

FDAC provides that level of scaffolding at a time when they need it. We offer an initial assessment with the experts – and we’ve got all the experts, so they don’t have to join long waiting lists.

The work is trauma-informed, it’s relationship-based. So everybody in the team tries, from the minute you meet the parent, to make them feel as comfortable as possible and build a rapport to support them.

We’re a consistent team. We see [the parent] two or three times a week. A children’s social worker might see them once a week for a parenting assessment in usual proceedings.

At the beginning of the trial, we do a peth test for alcohol consumption and an overview hair strand test of all six drugs [cocaine, cannabis, amphetamine, methamphetamine, opiates, benzodiazepines] because we know that parents are often frugal with what’s going on for them. They might say [they’ve taken] a little bit of cocaine and then when you get the hair and blood tests back it might be crack cocaine.

And then throughout the trial, we will do alcohol breath meter, oral swab and urine tests every time we see them. It helps parents reflect that they might have had a difficult week, because we don’t expect them to be progressing straight away. We want to discuss the triggers, thoughts and feelings around that and what we can put in place.

Alongside that, we’re looking at their parenting and their child’s needs, we’re running support groups and doing specific interventions. We try to understand what’s happening underneath and get to the root of the problem, to create long-lasting change.

We also build long-lasting relationships with them. A male parent who’s had his daughter in his care for four years now pops in for a cup of coffee every now and then. We talk about lifelong links for children but, if a parent has opened up to a group of professionals about their difficulties and were supported on their journey, it’s powerful to continue that relationship.

If they’re in a crisis in the future, they’ll need somebody to reach out to and some people don’t have anybody.

We are also looking at a permanent plan for the children. Reunification is what we are working towards, but where that is not possible, we look towards care with family or the possibility of reunification in the future.

FDAC has more reunification than in usual proceedings, although it takes a little more time to get there.

What happens within your service if reunification is not possible?

Even if children aren’t reunified, there is an opportunity for parents to still work on their recovery and their parenting.

If a child is put up for adoption, no matter how painful that is, if the parent can understand that they’re not in a position to care for their child, they will often say, “I consent to my child being adopted because I know I can’t meet their needs. It’s not because I don’t love them.”

And they get a lot of support with that within FDAC – it helps change the language of the negative stigma around not being there for your children. We also offer some post support, and, later on, people can still call us for advice.

For example, a young woman we worked with last year contacted me recently and said, “I’m in a new relationship, I’m pregnant, and I need to demonstrate that I’m sober”. So we were able to give her some advice.

What is your approach to managing a multidisciplinary team?

Jane Dunne during a visit to Westminster / Photo by Jane Dunne

I think it’s about shared values, and understanding our limitations and knowledge.

I was terrified of managing the substance misuse worker because of my limited knowledge. I thought I knew quite a lot about drugs and alcohol, but when I came here, I [realised], “Oh my gosh, I know nothing”. It prompted me to study more and get a diploma in substance misuse and addiction.

I’m learning as much from [workers I manage] as they’re learning from me. I wouldn’t say it’s been an easy process – but it’s about furthering your understanding. For example, I developed my learning around cognitive behavioural therapy and trained in motivational interviewing.

I wanted the whole team to take that approach, so we provided training for them. We did a course on foetal alcohol syndrome and foetal alcohol disorder together because, although you’ve got that discipline, you need to layer up your knowledge and skills base – whether you are the children and family worker, the team manager or the clinical lead.

They also know they are safe to come to me; I’ve got their backs. I think most of my team are comfortable reaching out if they’re struggling.

As a manager, if I need to do casework because we’re struggling, then I’ll do that. But I’ll also do the supervision, the advocacy in the court, the strategic stuff.

I don’t see my role as just being one thing. It’s whatever it takes to keep the service going so that families have the best experience and that people feel safe to work.

Does the limited number of FDAC teams put pressure on you?

We have 13 FDAC teams now – we recently lost Kent and Cardiff – and there is an awful lot of pressure around funding and continuing the service.

We’ve been in a very fortunate position, where Coventry could see the benefit of this model and the cost avoidance. Although it might be expensive to set up and deliver, there is an acute saving in the long run.

But local authorities are under a lot of pressure. Many of my FDAC colleagues up and down the country have really struggled, hence the closures.

The judiciary really appreciates this model. They’d like to see it in every court, so it’s not just a postcode lottery and that’s fantastic. But it’s not funded.

Currently, funding comes from different sources. Our current expanded team was setup through a Department for Education grant and is currently funded by Coventry and Warwickshire local authorities.

We are fortunate to have the domestic abuse social worker role funded by the West Midlands Police & Crime Commissioner, but overall the funding is reviewed every two years for the team.

Other teams may have health or public health funding too; it depends on how it was set up.

So what I’d like to see is core funding, so that managers can focus on the service delivery and not worry about whether our service will last another six months or two years. That’s the fragility and reality of it.

What are your goals moving forward?

My goal is to secure the funding for this service moving forward and improve on the offer that we give parents within proceedings and post-proceedings. Because at the end of the proceedings, when children are reunified, parents need support. It’s a time that might test your recovery and your parenting.

The best way for that is through having robust support around them, but also peer support. So that’s families and parents that have been through FDAC problem-solving together, having a community where they can support each other.

My hope would be to have that as part of the programme because many other sites do, but we’ve never had the funding. We manage a graduates’ group, but this is on frugal basis.

What has been a highlight of running this service?

The “graduates”. I think it’s such an achievement when parents come through proceedings and successfully reunite with their children.

We do a little graduation ceremony. We invite them back and they get a certificate and a card from us and the FDAC judge to say, “Well done”. We often buy or make cakes and we have a little celebration.

One parent, who I knew as a child when I was a social worker and was quite a challenging man and had a whole life of criminality, said in his graduation ceremony, “Wow, this is an achievement. I’ve always sat in court. I’ve never been invited to a court.”

For him, it was huge.

Sue Williams, the mind behind the family safeguarding model, has been recognised for her outstanding contribution to children and families in the second annual Frontline Awards.

Her award was presented by chief social worker for children Isabelle Trowler, who described Sue as “a leading light in bringing change and innovation to children’s social care across England”.

“Her incredible tenacity, intellectual clout, creativity and commitment to the sector has made a huge and lasting contribution, not just to every practitioner she’s influenced, but to every child and family that they in turn have supported,” she added.

Sue, now programme director of the Centre for Family Safeguarding Practice, conceived the model in 2015 when assistant director of children’s services in Hertfordshire council. She secured funding from the Department for Education’s (DfE) innovation programme to test it in the county.

Family safeguarding involves teams of children’s social workers and specialist adults’ practitioners using techniques such as motivational interviewing to tackle the root causes of adult behaviours that increase concerns about children, particularly domestic abuse, substance misuse and mental health difficulties.

It reduced the number of children going into care and onto child protection plans and was seen by parents as “participatory, supportive and empowering”, found a 2020 evaluation for the DfE, which has subsequently supported its rollout across the country. It has so far been adopted by 23 areas in England.

‘Challenge your biases’

Helena Oatts (photo by Frontline)

The outstanding contribution gong was one of two new additions to the Frontline awards line-up, the other being participant of the year, which recognises a trainee on the charity’s fast-track social work course.

This award went to Helena Oatts, who was praised for being a “fierce advocate for children and families and practising with empathy and passion”.

“I love every moment of [being a social worker] and to be recognised for doing something you enjoy is absolutely amazing,” she said of her win.

“I’ve always been someone who has loved people, I think there’s something in everyone that we can all resonate with.”

Helena’s piece of advice for future social work students was to always believe in themselves but also challenge their biases.

“We all have biases, but you have to be open to challenging the views that you have about the world and about yourself. Keep an open mind. When you’re meeting families, you might have a slight idea of what could be going on, but keep challenging yourself, there could be multiple truths and possibilities.”

‘It’s important for young people to feel seen, loved and wanted’

Addy Siwko, Annie Whitley, and Artur were selected as winners of the award for young people.

Addy Siwko (photo by Frontline)

Addy, who lives with cerebral palsy, set up his own car wash business to raise money for a charity raising awareness for the condition and, more recently, wrote a song, ‘I Can Do Anything’, about his disability not holding him back in life.

Annie has led a consultation on making care experience a protected characteristic, secured a household living fund for care leavers and helped review, reshape and relaunch children’s residential care in her area.

Artur is the chair of a children’s active involvement service and, for the past five years, has worked to improve support for care leavers. He has set up a food and toiletry bank, lobbied for suitable housing for care leavers and managed to increase care leaver allowances from £1,500 to £3.000 in his area.

Speaking to Community Care, he called for better funding towards allowances and housing placements for care leavers and said he would continue to advocate for a “better service so that young people have the best and easiest experience”.

He advised practitioners working with children to do everything “with their hearts and mean it”.

“A young person can always tell when a social worker means what they say,” Artur added. “Social workers do kind of take on the role of a parent so it’s really important for the young people [they support] to feel seen, loved and wanted by them.”

Big night for Islington

Kenneth Atigah (photo by Frontline)

The London Borough of Islington saw two of its practitioners go home with an award – Celia, who won the leadership award for her commitment to improving social work practice, and Kenneth Atigah, who won the award for practice.

Celia has helped deliver multiple initiatives, including the edge of care service, which provides prevention support for children and young people at potential risk of needing to become looked after.

Kenneth left Ghana for England in 2008 and has spent years caring for his autistic cousin, whose social worker inspired him to join the sector.

Other winners included Kasey Thompson, who won the fellowship award for being “an integral part of Frontline’s racial diversity and inclusion steering group”, and Darlington council’s Staying Close team, which won team of the year for their work supporting 22 young people transitioning from children’s homes or supported accommodation to independent living.

‘When we respond to sexual exploitation, we need creative approaches’

The final award, for innovation, went to Jo Ritchie for her decade-long work on sexual exploitation, including setting up ‘Night Light’ with Avon and Somerset Police, which sees professionals partnering with sex workers to support and identify children at risk.

“This award is very much shared with the women. They’ve been so instrumental and we couldn’t do Night Light without them,” she said.

“I think so often sex workers are criminalised, demonised and totally misunderstood. The women I know and love have the biggest hearts, are the bravest people – they keep on surviving. And the fact that they’ve got the strength to safeguard children, it’s phenomenal.”

She said that in the last few months, her team has responded to 12 children and gathered “lots of information on other children at risk and customers that can be dangerous”.

Her advice to professionals working to safeguard young people from sexual exploitation is to be creative in their approaches.

“We need to think about where the gaps are and how we can intervene in a way that will meet people where they’re at and make a difference. I think sometimes the more traditional responses don’t work, so it’s about being creative.”

‘Making space to ‘celebrate social workers’ brilliant work’

Introducing the awards, Lord Tony Hall, Frontline’s chair of trustees, said: “At a time when children and families are experiencing more complex issues and worsening living conditions, it is so important that we make space to celebrate the brilliant work that social workers do day in and day out.

“The endless commitment and support that they give to children and their families can help to provide both the essential tools and hope for a brighter future.”

You can read more about the other nominations and winners on the Frontline website.

The Social Worker of the Year Awards 2024 have opened for entries.

Eighteen categories are up for grabs this year in the England-based scheme, alongside the overall social worker of the year prize.

New this year is an award for practitioner-led research, which is open to social workers and managers who have carried out research or helped build a research culture within their organisations.

Organising charity Social Work Awards Ltd has also replaced the previous digital transformation in social work category with one for technology-enabled lives and innovation in practice.

This is for social workers, teams or local authorities who have sought to improve the lives of people with lived experience through the use of technology.

Meanwhile, the charity has dropped the previous supporting children in education prize.

Entries are open until 12pm on 3 June, after which entries will be shortlisted by the awards’ judging panel of social work experts, people with lived experience and former winners.

You can enter the awards here and read the entry rules here. The full list of categories is below:

• Children’s social worker of the year
• Adult social worker of the year
• Newly qualified children’s social worker of the year
• Newly qualified adult social worker of the year
• Team of the year, children’s services
• Team of the year, adult services (including multidisciplinary teams)
• Team leader of the year, children’s services
• Team leader of the year, adult services
• Mental health social worker of the year
• Approved mental health professional (AMHP) of the year
• Social work student of the year
• Practice educator of the year
• University social work lecturer of the year
• Practitioner-led research award
• Technology-enabled lives and innovation in practice award
• Supportive social work employer
• Social justice advocate of the year
• Lifetime achievement award

At last year’s Social Worker of the Year Awards, Omaid Badar won both the children’s practitioner and overall winner’s prizes, with one judge describing him as “everything the profession is about when it’s at its best”.

The 29-year-old Kirklees Council social worker has overcome more than most on route to those accolades.

Omaid was born in Afghanistan, then ravaged by civil war, became a refugee and, aged 14, made a perilous journey to England, enduring extreme hardship in pursuit of a safe haven.

In an interview with Community Care, he opened up about his journey from being a young boy in Afghanistan to a social worker in England, his approach to working with children and how he handles those difficult days.

You made a very daunting journey at age 14 from Pakistan to England. What was your experience like of being a refugee?

You first need to understand that I was born in 1994 in Afghanistan, a war-torn country. I was a month old when we lost our dad. I don’t even know if he held me because, as a one-month-old, what could you possibly remember?

That situation forces you to leave your homeland, become a refugee. We travelled to Pakistan, where we lived in refugee camps and areas that were so dangerous the police were not allowed in.

It got to a point where my mum was really worried for my safety [and decided to send me away]. At the time, I had lost many people and I didn’t want to lose her too. I was going out, seeking a safe haven, but was I going to see my mum again? Was I going to be able to hug her again?

And it wasn’t a pleasant journey. Most of the time we weren’t told where we were going. We would be stuffed in cars, inflatable boats and vans, sometimes 80 people, squeezed in together, one on top of the other. There was no room to breathe.

At times, we would be walking at night so the border police wouldn’t see us, because they would shoot at us. It’s not an easy journey, you have to accept that you might not make it to the next day.

There were days when we had no food and survived just on water. And when they did bring food for us, it would be stale bread that would be so hard to crack we would dip it in yoghurt to break it.

I travelled that way to Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy and France, and eventually reached Bradford, England.

I had been told to seek a police officer the moment I arrived, but I can’t say my first encounter was a good one. They did speak to an interpreter and understood why I was here, but then they put me in a cell.

It was so cold. My shoes and clothes were all ripped and the only thing they gave me was a blanket full of holes that didn’t keep me warm. But in the morning, a social worker came in.

I still remember her name, Lucy. As soon as she saw me, she hugged me. I think that was the first time I felt emotional warmth and I just cried.

She took me to social services and then shopping at ASDA for clothes. She quickly found a temporary placement for me and then I moved to a children’s home and my schooling was arranged.

What was your time in care like? How has it informed your practice?

My experience in care had its ups and downs. I faced bullying and discrimination but also received support and care from some staff members. These experiences shaped my approach to social work – respecting cultures and being honest and committed to the children I work with.

Lucy wasn’t my social worker for long. After her, there were a few temporary ones for a few months and then I didn’t have a social worker for a long time, probably because I wasn’t creating problems.

But, at the same time, I realise now that you’re supposed to see your children once every six weeks.

I do that for the children that I work with. And if they need to see me more, I will make time and go visit them again because they need that.

I never got the answer why a social worker never came to see me. I am grateful to Bradford, but I would advise social workers to be committed to their children, to be open and honest with them.

Tell them if there’s something you can’t do, tell them that you’ll go and see if you can find alternative ways, but don’t promise them because children hold you to those promises. And then if you can’t fulfil that promise, they won’t trust you.

What inspired you to become a social worker?

My key worker, Jerry Phillips. He’d always find me and speak to me when he was on a shift, bring me books to read, come to my school meetings and review meetings.

He was patient with me, made me understand that nothing should be taken for granted. ‘Today you have support, tomorrow you won’t, so make sure you learn how to be independent,’ he’d say.

He taught me how to cook and was my go-to person. He always used to talk about school, education, standing up for your rights. But if you do anything wrong, put your hand up and say that. There’s always a way out.

When he asked me why I wanted to be a social worker I said, ‘What you did for me, I want to do for every kid out there, because you changed my life’.

He made me believe in myself, had faith in me, was committed to me. He was open and honest with me. I want to be that role model for the children out there. To this day, I still see him. He came to my graduation and he was proud.

What is your approach to social work?

I have just completed my fifth year as a children’s social worker and I’m loving it. I come to work and I’m always in a good mood because I know I’m here to help change families’ lives.

My approach is to always explain what my role is – because there are misconceptions about what a social worker does – and have an open mind.

On paper, a person can look like a monster, but when you visit them, you realise they might have never been given a chance. And change doesn’t happen overnight, it takes us [social workers] being committed.

As a social worker, my values are to be committed to the people I’m working with, to be honest and open with them and to create an environment where they feel comfortable talking to me, they feel listened to and not judged.

I think clarifying that you are not here to take the children helps; [I] explain which plan they’re going to be on and whether it’s consent-based.

I say to them: ‘There’s nothing we cannot work on. But we need to communicate and work around it. If I can’t do anything in my power, there will be other services that can come on board and help you. I’m here to support you and help you get to where you need to be because you don’t want social workers to be involved in your life all the time.’

They’ll naturally be worrying about what’s going to happen. You need to reassure them so they feel that you’re working together – involve them in decision-making and ensure you’re doing things with their consent, not without.

I think because I’ve been through it, I can also relate to the children more. I can understand what is happening to them, provide them with what they need from me and work with them using a restorative approach.

How do you handle difficult days?

After a difficult day, I always take a step back and reflect.

If I’ve tried everything and it didn’t work, let’s get another fresh pair of eyes to see if there are other ways to deal with the situation.

For me, supervision is like therapy. Whenever we miss a [meeting], I will put on another date straight away. You have to be accountable, you can’t just leave everything to your manager.

There, you can challenge your hypotheses, make informed decisions, identify other forms of support. There are things that you might not know that your manager might know and give you advice. Peer supervision with your peers, formulation meetings and multi-agency meetings [also] help.

What also helps me is that when I go home, I’ll start cooking. Cooking is therapy for me. I’ll cook my favourite dish or go to the gym and just try to switch off because, even when I’m going on holiday, sometimes I keep thinking, ‘Oh will that child be safe?’.

My team also helps a lot. If someone is struggling with a case, we share responsibilities to take some pressure off.

Working this way means we don’t have many people going on sick leave or stressing over caseloads. I’ve been in practice for five years and haven’t taken a sick day.

I even come in on Eid, choosing to give that time to my children rather than celebrating.

What is your ambition as a social worker?

I plan to go into the United Nations and be an ambassador for children. A lot is happening in the world and, as a social worker, I cannot just stay quiet, because my job is safeguarding. It hurts me to see children in the world at risk. It hurts me because I’ve been through it.

I’ve been blessed to have an opportunity to grow and I want to be a voice for the children and families that I work with because their lived experience is all that matters.

All the children out there deserve to live peacefully, to have an opportunity to live in an environment that is free from emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, criminal abuse. Such traumatic events stay with you for a lifetime.

My traumatic events have stayed with me, but I’m fortunate enough to have found resilience in that and have people that I can speak to. But children out there are going through hardship and difficulties without shelter, education, food or financial stability. It’s hard.

I want to be able to do something so they can be where I am.

The British Association of Social Workers is on the look out for ‘amazing social workers’ in its annual awards scheme of that name.

BASW is urging practitioners to nominate colleagues for outstanding contributions to the profession in any capacity, including areas such as practice, education, diversity, policy leadership and innovation.

It is seeking nominations for students, newly qualified social workers, more experienced practitioners, team managers, social work leaders, practice educators and teams, though nominees can be selected outside of these categories.

“All nominations will be judged based on their outstanding contribution to the profession, or within your team,” said BASW. “In particular, we are looking for examples of excellent work in supporting people and nominations that demonstrate outstanding ethical practice in line with BASW’s code of ethics.

Nominations, of up to 400 words, must be submitted online by the deadline of 31 January 2024, and the winners will be showcased on the association’s website through Social Work Month, in March.

Meanwhile, Frontline – the charity behind the fast-track training scheme for child protection social workers – has launched its annual awards, which are focused on statutory children’s social work in England. Nominations for these close on 23 February 2024.

Nominations have opened for the second Frontline Awards, which seek to champion the achievements of children’s social workers  in England.

As with last year’s inaugural gongs, the charity is offering awards recognising high-quality practice, leadership, innovation and teams, as well as one for the achievements of young people with lived experience.

There is also an award for Frontline ‘fellows’ – those who have been through its programmes – and a new category for current participants on the charity’s fast-track training programme.

Comparison with Social Worker of the Year Awards

The scheme is distinct from the more longstanding Social Worker of the Year Awards by covering only children’s social work, being focused on statutory services and having a lived experience award.

Alongside category-specific criteria (see below), entrants should demonstrate a commitment to anti-oppressive and relationship-based practice, improving outcomes for children and families and putting the child at the centre.

Nominations are open until 23 February 2024 and can be made by anyone who knows the nominees. Shortlisting will take place in March, followed by an awards ceremony on 22 May 2024.

The British Association of Social Workers’ (BASW) awards scheme championing high-quality social work journalism has returned for a second year.

The BASW Social Work Journalism Awards 2024 has an expanded list of categories including new gongs for podcasts, drama featuring social work and coverage that gives voice to people with lived experience.

“We want to encourage journalists to create output that shows understanding of our challenging and rewarding sector and that helps develop better public understanding,” said BASW’s chief executive, Ruth Allen.

‘Captivating stories of social work’

“There are so many captivating stories of social work to be told and we want to encourage that.”

Last year’s awards celebrated stories on the harm to children who went hidden during the pandemic, agency social work practices and the experiences of newly qualified social workers.

Among the winners were Community Care’s assistant careers editor, Sharmeen Ziauddin, who won the trade press in-depth features award for a piece on the role of social workers in palliative care.

Our editor, Mithran Samuel, was one of two winners of the outstanding contribution to journalism featuring social work, alongside BBC social affairs editor Alison Holt.

The awards will be judged by a panel including leading journalists, BASW and Social Workers Union officials and members of the association’s experts by experience group.

Entries must have been published or broadcast from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

Anyone can submit a nomination by the deadline of 31 March 2024, using this entry form.