‘Your down-to-earth approach has made us feel like a family, not a service’

For Community Care’s 50th anniversary, our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career.

In this special entry, several practitioners from Birmingham Children’s Trust have nominated Diane Partridge, their assistant director for practice improvement and development, for creating a positive and supportive work environment that has made them feel like a family.

Dear Di,

We think you should be highlighted to others in social care because of your amazing leadership style. You really uphold our practice model and make every connection count.

You bring every conversation back to the children and families we serve. And, despite being really busy, you always make time for your colleagues and the staff you are responsible for, helping us think through those wicked problems that crop up.

We are a stronger team because of your support and guidance. When you challenge us, it makes us better practitioners, and you demonstrate kindness and empathy and trust while doing it.

Each of us has a story about how you’ve helped us grow and develop. Sometimes, senior leaders in organisations don’t accept challenge, but you encourage it – actively seeking new ways of thinking about social work. It creates a really positive working culture. You make us want to work harder.

We know how seriously you take your role and the crucial decisions you have to make about children and the workforce. And you do so with thought and care, and role-model this to our team.

Your extensive knowledge of social care practice, guidance and law is almost as formidable as your tea-drinking capacity and yet you make it a point to further your knowledge.

In supervision settings, you are so good at providing containment and direction. For some of us, you have been there during the most difficult times in our personal lives and careers.

You have taken the time to get to know us, on our best days and our worst, and adapt your approach accordingly. To quote one of your favourite songs (by Fun Boy Three with Bananarama), ‘It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it’. You absolutely embody the values we hold dear in this profession and how we should ‘be’ with the children and families we support.

When we discussed this nomination, we had a number of things we wanted to say thank-you for: your hard work, your humour, your kindness, your acceptance, your courage, your curiosity, your challenge, your support, your diplomacy and your empathy.

Your down-to-earth approach has made us feel like part of a family, not a service.

Adam, Sophie, Marie, Ogee, Rachael, Eileen and James

How to nominate a colleague

For our 50th anniversary, we’re expanding our series My Brilliant Colleague to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by either:

• Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
• Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.

Despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com.