Rowena
Social Worker, Children with Disabilities Team, South & West Devon
What does your role involve?
I have a caseload of children and young people who all have some sort of disability. The work involves providing support for the young person and their family and finding ways to provide respite for the carers. Respite is important because it is often the thing that keeps families together. I really love spending time with children and young people. Spending individual time with them is often so important and I try to do as much direct work with the young people as I can. We support children throughout their life and help them through the transition to adult services as they get older.
I also help to support parents through the educational statement process and liaise with the schools to do this. Quite often cases 'cross-over' into other areas, like child protection, so you find yourself working with members of different teams and professionals from a variety of other agencies.
How did you become a Social Worker?
I have only been a qualified Social Worker for the last year, my background is actually in sales and marketing in London! When I moved to Devon I ran a riding school for toddlers and young children with disabilities. I was also a Homestart volunteer and it was doing these jobs that raised my interest in working with families. I began working as a visitor at a children's home with a friend, and from there I got a job as Carebank staff at the home. This was very intense one to one work with young people who had very challenging behaviour, and needed help to rehabilitate back into their community. I really loved this job, but due to family circumstances I needed more regular hours. I applied to work with children with disabilities team and while I was there I heard about the opportunity to study to become a qualified Social Worker.
What keeps you working for Devon County Council?
I work with a nice team and I have really good management support. There are many areas of work in Children and Young People's Services and during my training I was able to spend time in Education Welfare, working with teachers in schools, which I really enjoyed. I am also a foster carer and a volunteer with a Youth Offending Panel and am very interested in Youth Offending work. Because I have been able to get experience in these areas there are opportunities for me to move into a different role in the future.