Zoe Paseda: Why I like working in LCC’s children’s services

Zoe Paseda is a social worker at LCC children’s services who graduated in 2020. Her ASYE placements were in perinatal mental health and in Lincolnshire’s FAST team. 

My strengths are in communicating with with different people. I am good at building up relationships with young children, their parents and professionals, and being able to understand what language to use and where.

Probably the biggest thing for me is being able to break things down and help families understand what our main concerns are and what the impact is likely to be.

LCC is a great place to work at. LCC looks at my qualities and takes an individual approach to my professional growth. The authority identifies the key strengths of its staff and understands that it takes an individual approach – and that involves building that key relationship with your supervisor and having those open and reflective discussions.

LCC’s Signs of Safety approach fits in with the style of social work that I want to practice. Signs of Safety is very strengths based. It looks at the positives and looks at how a family can eventually support themselves moving forward.

The first contact you have with parents is not just about you telling them what to do. For me, it is about building up their ability to make decisions so that if they are hit by another challenging period, they have developed the tools and networks (through family and friends) to meet those needs themselves.

We are professionals but we don’t live the lives of the families and children we support everyday – all day. What we see is just a snapshot, so it is important to build the trust and networks.

I was supporting a mother and her 16-year-old daughter, who felt let down by her schools. We were able to rebuild that trust so much so that when the 16-year-old was at risk of exploitation, we were able to stop her from joining a gang in London.

Moving forward. Nineteen months post-qualified and I have already had three cases that escalated to court proceedings, and I have two more pending. These experiences really benefited me in terms of my personal development. I am now in discussions with my supervisor for practice educator training.