The role of a Supervising Social Worker can be both challenging and rewarding at times.
At Compass, our social workers are an essential, valued part of our community. They embody our ethos, committed to making a lasting and lifelong difference to the lives of the children and young people in our care.
That’s why, for World Social Work Day 2022, we wanted to take the time to celebrate the positive impact that our social workers have within our community.
Throughout their fostering experience, our foster carers and foster children have access to constant support and guidance from their personal supervising social workers. Our social workers are committed to their work, helping to calm nerves, soothe anxieties, find solutions to problems and advocate for the overall wellbeing of their foster carers and children.
One of our Compass foster carers, Shani, explained to us how her supervising social worker helps her and her foster child to feel ‘very supported.’
With her supervising social worker, Shani says she feels safe to ‘discuss any issues that may arise and discuss the progress of how (she) is getting on, and how the children are getting on.’
‘It feels like there’s always somebody there that you can talk to.’
Our social workers receive a range of training to ensure they can provide holistic emotional and professional support for our carers, young people, and children.
Each of our social workers is highly skilled, possessing a variety of unique strengths, knowledge and experiences that help them in providing tailored support. This support begins from the moment our foster carers start their fostering journey with Compass.
Rehana and Peter have been fostering with Compass for some time now. Yet, when they first became foster carers, they were anxious about the impact that fostering might have on their birth children and family dynamic.
However, Rehana explained how their supervising social worker ‘put (them) at ease’, helping to ‘put aside the anxieties (they) had for (their) children,’ and aiding family in feeling settled and at ease when welcoming their first foster child.
We know that the issues that social workers deal with are seldom straightforward or easy-going. Many of the children and young people in our care have experienced trauma and instability throughout their lives. This means they may suffer from a range of issues, including attachment trauma, complex behavioural issues, depression, or neurological conditions like Autism and ADHD.
These issues require specialised care and support from both foster carers and their social workers. An important part of being a supervising social worker is providing foster carers with the information they need, signposting carers toward the right help, training, and guidance.
One of our foster carers, Sara, describes her Supervising Social Worker, Steph, as ‘an encyclopaedia of information.’
‘Her existing database in her brain is phenomenal.’
Sara’s supervising social worker, Steph, ‘gives (her) pre-emptive advice and information’ about the challenges that Sara might face in her fostering journey, all of which is ‘bang on point, every single time.’
For foster carers and foster children, this breadth of knowledge is essential. Our social workers help our foster carers by facilitating their personal development, all while ensuring that their foster children receive high-quality, needs-specific care that caters to their individual experiences.
At Compass, we know that the work our supervising social workers do is invaluable.
For our social workers, supporting foster families through tough times and ensuring that our vulnerable young people and children are safe and well looked after requires a lot of energy, patience, and emotional resilience.
However, our social workers are always committed to providing the best support possible for our community. We are incredibly thankful to all our social workers, for the work they do.
If you’re thinking of becoming a supervising social worker with Compass, or would like to know more, you can find out How to Become a Supervising Social Worker here.
You can also read the day in the life of one of our social workers, Stephanie, here.
Alternatively, if you have more questions regarding fostering, you can get in touch with us here.
