We asked Lucy, a Senior Practitioner with Stockport Family about how her career led her to her role with #TeamStockport & what she loves about her job!
How long have you been at Stockport/in your role?
I started as a Social Worker in 2017 and progressed to become a Senior Practitioner after about a year and a half after that.
Where did you work before joining the Stockport Family team?
I worked as a social worker in a Local Authority outside of Greater Manchester and then moved to Stockport in 2017
Why did you become a Social Worker?
I always knew I wanted to work with people but wasn’t sure in what sense. I completed various different courses and then settled on wanting to do a Social Worker degree. I wanted to help people achieve the best that they possibly can and get better outcomes for children and young people.
What do you love about your job?
I love meeting different people day to day – every day is different and you don’t ever get bored. Meeting different people from different walks of life, different cultures and backgrounds is really interesting.
When something works well, you see the positive changes that it makes for young people and families around you, I love the satisfaction that you get from the hard work and effort you put in.
I enjoy working with young people and building relationships over time – becoming a trusted person is heart warming and there’s a lot of pride. It’s a privilege that someone puts that trust and belief in you that you’re going to help them.
What drew you to apply to this role? Why did you choose Stockport Family?
The reputation that Stockport has as a good employer – whenever I spoke to people from other local authorities there was always positive feedback about Stockport.
Once I started working in Stockport, I realised what the job should actually be like. There is so much available for Social Workers to be able to help families that isn’t there in other local authorities. You never feel stuck – there is always another service to turn to get help for the families. In other Las, resources are sparce and the area is so vast that services could be miles and miles away, whereas in Stockport everything is quite local.
I had heard that Stockport was very supportive – Service Leads are really close, you never feel like you have to book time in with people as people are just there for you. You’re never left alone with a situation.
Training is always available and support to progress – if you’re not feeling confident with an area you can improve it. There are always other areas and people you can go to for support – I haven’t experienced this before.
What do you think makes Children's Social Work at Stockport Council so special?
The culture that Stockport has. There’s always somebody around to help – you’re never left to deal with anything on your own. Everyone wants the best for children and young people – nobody is here just to do a job.
Things happen quickly – if you identify a need you’re not waiting too long.
There’s no blame culture or bureaucracy – everyone works together. If something arises it’s always owned by everyone – how do we sort it out together.
As a Senior Practitioner there’s an acknowledgement of career progression and training and support available to get to where you want to be in the future if you want to progress further. Supervision is used really well for this and we’re encouraged to gain any additional experience that we want to. There’s always opportunity to support managers to give the experience you need to get to that next level.