Lottie's Journey

My journey into social work has not always been straight forward, I am fortunate to have had so many opportunities and learning experiences so far, I've been blessed to work alongside some of the most inspirational people.

The Early Days ...

From a young age I was introduced into the world of social work, without any real understanding of what it was! My parents decided to follow their dream of becoming foster carers and our home very quickly became a place of safety for children who had experienced adversity in their lives. It's strange to think of - even though I didn't grow up being cared for by the local authority, I shared my family with many children who were. This has given me lots of insight into the lives of children who are separated from their families. I value the need for everyone to have an understanding of their life story and family history.

Nursery Days ...

When I left school I ventured into the wonderful world of working with children as I signed up to become a nursery nurse apprentice. It took me 2 years to complete all training before I was classed as a qualified nursery practitioner; I worked across 4 nurseries as well as a mobile creche service and cared for children from 6 weeks old - teenagers. I loved being a part of children's lives and supporting them with their learning and development from a very young age. I never thought I would want to do anything else as I absolutely loved my job.

Women's Refuge ...

At 17 years old I was offered an amazing opportunity to do some casual work within a women's refuge as a children's support worker, at the time of starting I had little to no experience or understanding of domestic abuse or what the impact of this was for children. I would go to work for the nursery through the days during the week and would then go to do evening and weekend sessions with children and families at the refuge. I adapted very quickly to unfamiliar and at times difficult environments to offer the best support possible.

NEPACS ...

I worked for a charity that supports families where a loved one is in prison as a support worker for children and families when they would visit and have family days. This role was such an eye opener for me, I was 19 at the time and didn't have any experience of working within the prison environment but what I was fortunate as my dad managed the addiction recovery wing for a number of years, he was able to give me valued advice and guidance of how to do this job safely.

Redundancy ...

Budget cuts were made and it was decided that the nurseries would close, which left me facing redundancy at 18 years old - I felt like my journey was quickly coming to an end just as it had only really started, I was devastated and didn't really know what to do next.

I applied for any job that I could find that linked to working with children and hoped for the best. I ended up with 6 jobs all on casual contracts - whilst it was great to have flexibility i didn't have job security. I was determined to get as much experience as possible in as many fields as I could.

At that time I was balancing the demands of nursery working, supporting children within a women's refuge, assisting with weekend visits in local prisons, volunteering within a school to read with younger children, supply teaching assistant, support worker for adults with a learning disability and also finding time to squeeze in shifts at the local soft play. I was dizzy but loved each role for different reasons!

NHS ...

At 19 I applied for a job with the NHS as an early years practitioner and couldn't believe that out of all applicants I was successful, it was a huge confidence boost and I was very interested in learning more about the health visiting services in the area. I felt out of my depth to start with, having the experience of working with young children really helped but this role consisted of so much more complex work with families. I started off delivering groups within the children centre such as parenting stay and play, dad's group, weaning, speech and language, early days, parental mental health supports, breastfeeding clinics, baby weighing clinics and so much more. I fell in love with every aspect of the role, I was supervised by health visitors and worked within the community.

Social workers joined our team and worked alongside us in the children centre to deliver a more consistent approach for families. I had always had a bit of understanding of social workers through my parents fostering but had never thought about their role - in all honesty I had no idea what social work meant, it was all very vague to me but as time went on I seen first-hand the work that they do and got a good insight into the role that social workers have when supporting children and families. I found myself facing redundancy from the NHS due to funding cuts within their service.

Family Support ...

I set out searching for new opportunities and found a job as a family support worker - this time I felt more confident as the role of an early years practitioner had similar duties but just offered a different perspective for working, my role in this team was to support the educational welfare of children by encouraging school attendance. I was managed by an amazing education welfare officer who gave me a little insight into the legal aspects of school attendance - it was an eye opener!

I had the opportunity to work alongside youth workers and personal advisors. I found that this role led me into working with older children, I had always had roles that were around younger ones and the thought of working with teenagers filled me with dread, I remember thinking "how can I support teenagers when I haven't long been one!" but looking back it really helped me as I had insight into what their world was like from a generational point of view, where some parents didn't like that I was a younger worker it worked in my favour because I found I could strike up great relationships with the children.

Foster Carer ...

At the time of working as a family support worker my partner and I were assessed as a respite foster carers, i was 21 at the time, lots of people had their own opinion of this - good and bad. We offered respite placements for children on weekends and school holidays alongside working full time jobs. Due to our personal struggles with infertility we put fostering on hold to focus on our selfcare.

I signed up to do an evening access into social work course around work, I was hoping that it would open new doors and help me to get into university. I had been told that I was infertile and had 0% chance of falling pregnant naturally, within a few weeks we found out that we were in fact expecting a little miracle! I had a full time permanent post within the family support team and had secured a place in uni to study social work - I deferred for a year so that I could enjoy maternity with my child.

FINALLY! It felt like things were actually going well and were in place for once.

When my son was 4 weeks old I discovered that was in fact facing redundancy again!

After a lot of interviews I found myself redeployed into a new role within the Early Help Team completing Common assessment framework assessments for children and families, I was back running children centre groups and visiting families offering support for expecting parents and parents where they had children under 5.

Early Help Practitioner ...

I then moved into a support worker role offering crisis intervention support for children who were at risk of becoming looked after. I loved it and had such a supportive team manager, he was fantastic at sharing his experiences and knowledge and encourages us to work restoratively and be trauma informed, work restoratively as well as reflecting all of the time.

Edge of Care ...

Social Work Apprenticeship ...

I applied for the social work apprenticeship - for me this route was the best possible option financially and educationally; it was like a dream come true for a change when I found out that I had been successful. The social work apprenticeship journey started and I loved it, I did work based learning 4 days per week and attended university 1 day per fortnight. I think it was on starting the course that I actually realised social work wasn't just for children, I had never given thought to the adult world of social work and loved discussions and learning from others in the group.

I completed a 70 day placement in an adults with learning disability team, I never thought it would be for me because i felt committed to working with children. I feel slightly robbed of the placement experience as it was done at the height of the pandemic and I worked from home throughout - however I learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed it (Who knows I might end up venturing into adults in the future!).

I then had my 100 day placement within a children's assessment and safeguarding team - WOW eye opening, I've never experienced such a rollercoaster of emotions, I unlocked a whole new level of respect for the social workers who are in this role permanently - I could see the reality of burnout and all the complexities of social work on a totally different level.

As part of my final year I had to do a service development project and I identified a local need to share resources and ideas with other workers, hence where Lottie's Toolbox came from. I secured a position within the Assessment and Safeguarding team and will start my ASYE year once I qualify in September 2022!

The Journey Continues ...

I know I have already been on quite the journey already with working with children and families but I know that my journey into social work is only just starting, i am looking forward to becoming a qualified social worker and building on my knowledge and skills further. I am forever grateful for the experiences and support from others that I have had along the way, reflection has showed me just how much I have learned and developed and I just want to create a space to inspire other workers within their practice.