Meet our team
When you join Clifford House, you’re joining a small team of professionals based in the Midlands who share a dedication for nurturing children and helping them to thrive. An essential component of that team are our Social Workers, who work closely alongside our foster parents to achieve the best outcomes for children.
What is the role of a Supervising Social Worker?
The life of a Social Worker is a challenging, ever-changing job role, which requires skills such as flexibility, great communication skills and a strong ability to emphasize and understand how others are feeling. Safeguarding children and supporting families is the key role of social work.
There are many different types of social work, but as a foster parent you’ll work closely with a Supervising Social Worker. The children in your care will also have their own Social Workers allocated to them by their Local Authority. Your Supervising Social Worker is employed by Clifford House, and it’s their job to support you on your fostering journey.
Let’s take a look into the sort of roles and responsibilities which make up a typical day in the life of a Social Worker, and how they do all they can to support our foster families each and every day.
What does a Supervising Social Worker do?
A Supervising Social Worker’s job is made up of lots of different parts, but at the heart of their role is ensuring the safety, security and happiness of children and the hardworking foster parents who take care of them. Your Supervising Social Worker will support you along every step of your fostering journey. You can approach your Supervising Social Worker at any time with any questions or concerns— they’ll always be willing and able to help.
We asked our team of Supervising Social Workers how they would describe their role here at Clifford House:
‘My role is to help foster carers to support children who come into care. I do this through monthly supervisions and support groups, ensuring all our foster parents have the tools and support they need to provide therapeutic care.’
-Natalie, Supervising Social Worker
‘I provide guidance and support to foster carers to help keep children in their care safe, and to thrive and reach their full potential.’
-Lisa, Supervising Social Worker
5 ways Social Workers will support you at Clifford House
1. The fostering assessment
When you first become a foster parent, a member of our team will visit you and your family at your home to get to know you and help you through the first stages of the fostering process. This could be one of our Supervising Social Workers or another team member.
You’ll then have several visits from an Assessing Social Worker who will complete a ‘Form F’ assessment with you, getting to know you and supporting you all the way to your fostering panel. After this, you’ll meet your dedicated Supervising Social Worker, who will be your point of contact and guide throughout the matching process and beyond.
2. Supervision sessions
It’s important to build a strong bond with your Supervising Social Worker. As a foster parent, you’ll have regular supervision sessions with your Supervising Social Worker. Supervision sessions are a great opportunity to reflect upon your progress, triumphs, and any challenges you’ve encountered while looking after the children in your care. You’ll also be able to get help with any difficulties you may be facing.
We asked Louise, our Principle Social Worker here at Clifford House, what supervision is all about:
‘There’s two main parts, really,’ she said. ‘We want to look at how the young person is doing in terms of their health, their education, activities that they’re involved in and their general holistic well-being. Then there’s the element of how our carer household is doing; where our carers are emotionally, and areas that we can look at upskilling our carers in to meet the needs of the children.’
3. All-around support
‘We have so much support here at Clifford House,’ says Jade, our trainee Social Worker. ‘Including carer forums, trauma informed training, and a 24/7 out-of-hours service which means you’re never on your own.’
We ensure that our foster parents are supported in everything they do, and tailor our support to the needs of every family who fosters with us. Our Supervising Social Workers are involved in hosting support groups, organising excellent activities and events which your whole family can enjoy.
They also take care of lots of paperwork, including completing your annual review report. Your Supervising Social Worker will check in with you regularly to make sure you and your family are doing well, and whenever you need their support or even just a friendly chat you can be sure that they’re only a phone call or email away.
4. Attending meetings
As a foster parent, you’ll likely have many different meetings with professionals, including educational specialists, therapists, your foster child’s Local Authority and our team at Clifford House. Your Supervising Social Worker will be on hand to support you during these meetings, which might include personal education plan meetings and care team meetings.
You’ll also have the support of an Assessing Social Worker when you attend your panel meeting during your assessment phase. The panel meeting comes at the end of your assessment phase and is the final step to becoming an approved foster parent. Some people find this nerve-wracking, but there’s no need to worry— your Assessing Social Worker will be by your side during your panel meeting to support you in answering questions and help you out if needed.
5. Our Buddy Scheme
‘One of the ways we look at supporting our carers is asking our more experienced carers to Buddy up with them,’ says our Principle Social Worker, Louise. ‘This way our foster parents aren’t always social work-lead… day and night, there’s a carer at the other end of the phone who they can offload to and have advice from.’
As a foster parent, it’s so important to have a friendly network of support to rely on. Your Supervising Social Worker will arrange for you to take part in our buddy scheme, where you’ll get to know a more experienced foster parent who you can turn to for chats and guidance. This is a fantastic opportunity to make friends and support one another.
‘I love the social aspect,’ says Jennifer, one of our foster mums. ‘We’re involved in the carer forums and participation groups. I am also a buddy/mentor for the other foster parents… it’s a great interactive agency where we all feel part of something.’
Become part of the Clifford House family
Want to learn more about how social workers work to support families, or about how you can get started as a foster parent? Check out our guide to becoming a foster parent, or get in touch with us via phone on 0800 369 8515. You could also get in touch by filling in our online enquiry form.
Our team will be more than happy to help you in any way they can, whether that be answering your questions or helping you to begin your fostering journey.