Eighteen years after qualifying as a social worker at Medway council, Melesha Devine is still full of enthusiasm for the role. Now a senior practitioner, she’s part of a multidisciplinary team – made up of different specialists – to provide coordinated support for families where there are issues of neglect.
“My motivation is being able to help families and being able to see the change,” says Devine. “This is definitely the job for me and it always has been.”
Medway’s children’s services have been undergoing a process of change and restructuring in the past three years after an “inadequate” Ofsted rating in 2019. Inspectors have since recognised improvements in some areas. The changes aim to reduce children’s caseloads and provide a service focused more closely on the needs of children and families.
This has led to the creation of separate, dedicated teams, including a team focused solely on children in care, as well as a specialist multidisciplinary team that is piloting a new way of responding to neglect. Medway has also adopted the signs of safety model – an approach that emphasises the importance of professionals building relationships with families to protect children.
Devine’s team was created earlier this year and includes family support workers, domestic abuse workers and drug and alcohol workers. She says this mix of skills means “we can go in and individualise our work to meet the needs of that family”.
For example, the team has recently supported a family with a long history of domestic abuse. The children’s mentors worked with them in school to develop their understanding of healthy relationships to prevent the cycle of domestic abuse, while the independent domestic violence advisers worked with the mother to help her make better decisions to protect the children. In another child’s case, the team developed a relationship with a parent to support her to be more honest about her drug use and offered her specialist support to help her reduce it.
Families no longer have to access separate support for different problems – members of the multidisciplinary team can visit them as appropriate, and as often as necessary. In situations of crisis, team members might visit a family three or four times a week.
The team has had positive feedback from parents and also from colleagues. Devine has found it an invigorating experience: “This team is about focusing on trying to stop concerns with families escalating further, so we try to support them over a period of six months, to work towards stepping down services, for example from child protection to child in need. We offer intense support around all the different things children need to be protected and enjoy healthy development.”
If a parent is experiencing an emotional health crisis, for example, the team can visit every day, working with them to improve their mood and ensure they have the correct support, and minimise the impact on the children. They also help parents establish routines, educate them about how to deal with challenging behaviour and support them to stop their alcohol or substance misuse.
The experience of working alongside colleagues with expertise in other areas has helped Devine’s own professional development and her skills are continually refreshed.
Nicole Hobbs joined Medway council for her social work placement in 2018, and joined full-time after graduating. A member of the children’s social work team, her job entails working with families who are under child in need or child protection plans. The role is focused on “keeping children and young people safe, providing support to them and their families, and also meeting the children’s needs”. Much of her work involves visiting families, collaborating with schools and mental health professionals and paying visits to court.
She finds the job immensely fulfilling, and the support she has received from colleagues and management has enabled her to flourish: “I’ve had such an amazing team and manager,” says Hobbs, who was recently promoted to the role of experienced social worker. “The nature of our work is quite challenging, and that support is what keeps you going.”
The opportunity to work flexibly, introduced during the pandemic, has continued, which means she is able to work from home as well as in the office. Devine likes being able to balance caring arrangements with work, and has benefited from the ability to work from home: “When you need to write a court report or an assessment, that quiet time is invaluable.”
Both Hobbs and Devine were born and brought up in Medway. They enjoy its location close to the seaside and idyllic Kent countryside, as well as its relative proximity to London. Housing is more affordable than in the capital: Hobbs has recently bought her own house.
Social work will always be a demanding, challenging profession, but it can be rewarding, too. Devine recalls supporting a mother whose two children were taken into care; the mother gave birth again, and through Devine’s help she was able to make changes that enabled her to keep her child.
Despite the stresses of the work, there is a lot of “humour and fun” in the team Devine’s in, and they support each other through the challenges and the successes: “I enjoy sharing the positive moments because being able to achieve something for a family or seeing the progress they made is really wonderful.”
Find out more about the social work opportunities in Medway children’s services. #MakeitMedway
