We spoke with Gemma and Mandy, two social workers who have built their careers in Barking & Dagenham.
Gemma and Mandy chatted about the profession’s balance between chaos and rewarding breakthroughs, and discovered how the right support can give social workers a nudge to the next step in their career.
Barking & Dagenham take pride in supporting staff to develop and grow their social work careers. Progression is supported by the leaders within the borough; both Gemma and Mandy noted the importance of senior colleagues in influencing and encouraging their career development pathways.
Gemma
Gemma has spent her career working in Barking & Dagenham. Her current role is as a Consultant Social Worker in Corporate Parenting, where she works to supervise leaving care advisors as they support young people through their transition from adolescence into adulthood.
Like many social workers, Gemma spent time working in social work adjacent roles, before deciding to pursue a social work degree. Gemma studied an Open University social work degree course whilst continuing to work as a family support worker focused on children with disabilities. Encouragement and support from her manager at the time played an important role in her thinking:
“I was really encouraged to look at doing my social work degree. Each step that I’ve taken in my career has been through people believing in me, because I’m not always great at believing in myself. I didn’t do university the first time because I thought I wasn’t academic enough. It turns out I’m not bad!”
Gemma
Mandy
Mandy has been part of Barking & Dagenham’s team since 2020, initially joining as a Senior Social Worker. She subsequently progressed onto a Consultant Social Worker post and then her current Team Manager role in the Family Support and Safeguarding Team.
Mandy excelled in her original role and took any new responsibilities in her stride. This made Mandy a good candidate for progression into a more senior role; the borough’s management team supported her to explore options for progression:
“I was essentially doing what Team Managers would be doing, just not carrying the same level of responsibility. I was happy being a senior social worker to be honest. I had no plans really to progress. When we'd have supervision or just informal chit chats with the manager, they'd be like, “Okay, so where do you see yourself going? You know, there's a Consultant Social Worker role coming up - could you see yourself doing that?” they start off quite gentle in terms of how they plant that seed."
Mandy
A positive community of social workers
One thing Mandy and Gemma were both quick to highlight is the supportive workplace culture and community atmosphere in Barking and Dagenham. This has played a big role in their decision to stay with the borough long-term. Both feel that there are always opportunities to learn from and network with colleagues in other teams, or even to look into changing specialism if another area of practice caught their eye:
“To be honest, it’s about the people. It’s always been the teams that have kept us here. Even down to our director, April, knowing everyone’s name and saying hello to everyone. You feel welcome when you walk into a meeting. We’re not all in the office as much now, so I really like that we encourage teams to network and know people from other services.”
Gemma
“I’ve always stayed within Family Support and Safeguarding, but I like that there aren’t any barriers preventing me from pursuing a move to other teams if I wanted to do that.”
Mandy
Gemma highlighted that although disability social work may seem like a specialist role from the outside, it offers a chance for practitioners to get a solid grounding in multiple practice areas. This experience has set her up well for future progression:
“I started as a disability social worker and that’s always going to be where my heart is. A disability service is its own assessment team, its own care management, its own Looked After Children team, its own court team. They do a bit of everything, so I’ve had a really good mix of experience dipping my toe into all the different areas of practice.”
Gemma
Although social work can keep you on your toes, the rewards that come from building genuine personal connections and making a demonstrable positive impact is what makes the job worthwhile:
“I really like the long-term work we do; you can really go on a journey together with the families you work with. Things like getting a text message with a picture of their child on the first day of school makes you feel genuinely proud and happy to share such experiences with the families. You’re always happy to get that kind of engagement.”
Mandy
“Honestly, I just love working with young people. Sometimes, as with all teenagers, they can drive you absolutely crazy! I’m not a behind-the-desk manager. I’ve met nearly all of my hundred-odd young people and for me that’s the best, I really like that connection we have.”
Gemma
Gemma and Mandy enjoy the variation that comes with social work. Both feel that flexibility and the capability to embrace changing situations is crucial to the role of a frontline social worker. It may sound like a cliché that no two days in social work are the same, but it is absolutely one that is rooted in truth:
“You can’t be married to your to-do list, it’s better for your own mental health and wellbeing to be more flexible because it’s easy to get too caught up in what you haven’t achieved, without realising that things can change from one hour to the next.”
Mandy
“We have superstitions – you’re not allowed to say ‘Oh, Duty’s quiet today!’”
Gemma
For anyone aspiring to become a social worker, Mandy and Gemma both had some useful advice based on their experiences in the sector:
“You don’t need to start out with a massive amount of confidence. Sometimes outside of the social work arena I’ll think to myself “If I was at work and I was challenging a parent there would be no issues!”, but outside of social work I can be less confident. So, you don’t need to be the most confident person in the world to be able to do this role.”
Mandy
“There are so many facets to social work, I would say anyone should think about it. You do have to have a passion for it because it can at times be a 24-hour thing. For me though the hardness of the role and the chaos is balanced by the rewards.”
Gemma
Find out more about working with Mandy and Gemma in London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, and view their current roles below.