Career progression: how a London borough is investing in its social workers

Newham is unique. It is the most diverse borough in London with 104 languages being spoken – and this is part of its attraction.

Jane – a practice development social worker

Jane, a practice development social worker, says: “It’s a really interesting place to work. You get exposed to so many different cultures and ways to view the world, views about family, so it means you’ve got a real variety around your work.

“There’s a genuine commitment to tackling poverty so you really get social justice as a sort of theme running through every bit of the council.”

Centre of excellence

Jane is just one of many social workers, 47 since 2020, whom Newham Council has funded to pursue higher education in family therapy or systemic psychotherapy.

Through its Social Care Academy, all social workers who start at Newham undertake a five-day training programme in systemic practice and can then go on to apply for further qualifications or an MSc degree.

Newham’s practice framework, Circles of Support, which is centred around relational and anti-racist practice, promotes not only the idea that families and young people should have a circle of support around them, but the idea that social workers should also have a circle of support that enables them to practise effectively.

The circle is constructed through six words, each word representing core practice idea and approach.

Director of clinical practice Dave Tapsell explains that the framework gives social workers anchors from which they can locate their practice and purpose behind some of the techniques they use.

“A systemic model of practice gives you permission to believe that you have a model of change, enabling social workers to see themselves as active participants with families in constructing change. I think that’s something that is often missing in a social work organisation context,” he says.

The Circles of Support practice model has been nominated for a Municipal Journal award in innovation.

Director for children and young people’s services, Tim Aldridge, has also been nominated for corporate director of the year after the authority achieved an ‘outstanding’ judgement by Ofsted for leadership and management.

Career progression

Jack, a systemic psychotherapist, has been at Newham since he was a social work student. But what has kept him at Newham for nine years?

“I’ve found that I’ve had lots of opportunities to do different roles, different jobs, to develop, get promoted, earn a bit more and just develop my career from a student social worker to newly qualified to where I am now.

“There was flexibility because there’s a desire to keep permanent staff and that gave me an opportunity to make requests to move to other teams.

“The main thing that has kept me here is that every time I’ve wavered, or thought should I try somewhere else, there’s been an opportunity – whether that’s training or development and that’s kept me. And a big part of that was Newham supporting me in doing systemic psychotherapy, which is four years of training.”

As well as Newham paying for his full MSc, Jack was given weekly study days to help him manage his workload.

“Social work is a complex and rewarding job,” says Dave. “One that should be supported both by good training and a clear career developmental pathway. Through a sector-leading social care academy, social workers are supported to both develop their skills and practice, while being offered opportunities to enhance their careers.”

The whole role was far broader and much more dynamic than I had anticipated. I think I had no idea of the breadth and extent of the work that social workers do.

Practice development

Clare has also been at Newham since she began her social work career five years ago.

After being in the intervention team for many years, Clare became a practice development social worker in late 2022.

Practice development social workers are experienced social workers with a strong grasp of the practice framework and systemic ideas. Their role is to work alongside others to support them in developing their knowledge and skills and to achieve their career ambitions.

Clare’s fondness for frontline work saw her progress from student to newly qualified to advanced practitioner, all within the intervention team.

She says a key aspect of retention is allowing social workers to have some pathway or progression.

“When vacancies came up, there was a lot of support and assistance to ensure I felt confident. I was very encouraged to apply for things, there was no obstruction.”

Within children’s services, 37 vacancies have been filled by internal candidates over the past two years, and they were all promotions.

Like Jane, Clare is also doing an MSc in family therapy. Being promoted to practice development social worker meant she could devote time to the degree, which she felt she could not do being in a full-time child protection role.

She loves Newham for many reasons and recalls her time in the intervention team.

“I was given a lot of autonomy – I really liked that. It felt that there was trust and I was given responsibility. It allowed me to develop many more interpersonal skills as I was going into situations which were very novel and unusual.

“The whole role was far broader and much more dynamic than I had anticipated. I think I had no idea of the breadth and extent of the work that social workers do,” says Clare.

The practice development and clinical practice teams are both part of the Social Work Academy.

Beverley Halligan, principal social worker at Newham, says: “We aim to have a pipeline of systemically trained practitioners. But also with that pipeline, we have our MSc students – they are very skilled and knowledgeable to support others who don’t have that level of training. So we’re constantly offering into the system in a variety of ways that doesn’t rely on just a single social worker.”

Click here to find out more about a career at the London Borough of Newham.

Read the latest Ofsted report here.

Find out more about Newham:

‘I feel like, as social workers, our voices have been listened to’

Podcast: Newham reshapes practice in its improvement journey