Michelle Hayden-Pepper, director of local delivery at Essex County Council, is having a busy week. On Monday she was in the head office in Chelmsford. Yesterday she was in Harlow. Today she’s at home. “It’s incredibly varied,” she says. “I oversee children, young people and families – some of which are high-risk. I consider whether [children] should come into care, and deal with crisis work.” As well as observing social workers and overseeing about 150 members of staff, most of her job is to do with decision-making around children. “It’s a big responsibility. It’s about doing the right thing at the right time, and ultimately keeping children safe.”
Every week is different at Essex County Council. Frontline social workers do everything from visiting children and families, giving evidence in court, spending time at home writing assessments or attending child protection case conferences, to driving across the country for visits and days out with children or dealing with a family in crisis.
Is it nine to five? Often not. “You often can’t see children until after school, so visits can be in the evening,” says Hayden-Pepper. Working in social care is demanding and Essex County Council understands this. It is committed to making it an attractive career that people want to stick at.
“We’re just doing everything we can to keep caseloads at a reasonable level and we have a really flexible working approach,” she says. It operates a nine-day fortnight to give enhanced work-life balance to frontline teams. Is it working? “Absolutely,” says Hayden-Pepper. “We trialled it for seven months before we implemented it and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. You’ve got a better work-life balance, and you’re being acknowledged for the difficult work that you do.”
As well as showing that the organisation cares, the introduction of a nine-day fortnight is also about staff retention. Since Covid, many people have made different decisions about work and some jobs allow people to work from home all or some of the time. Although that’s not possible in social work, as people need to be out seeing children, Essex is successfully making the roles appealing in other ways, and it’s paying off. “Comparatively to the rest of the country our staff are staying with us,” says Hayden-Pepper. “They are building relationships with families and they really do want to work with the most vulnerable in society. Like any public sector job, they have that drive to make a difference.”
A lot of people are leaving the social work profession, but Essex is changing the picture on this. It’s the second biggest local authority in England, after Birmingham – and it has a low turnover of staff. Whether people have come via apprenticeships, studied social work at university or joined via a postgraduate programme, the aim is to try to keep them in the county. There are lots of roles for people to try to find what’s right for them. For instance, there are support teams in which members of staff work with families alongside the allocated social worker.
There is also real room for progression. “One of our directors came in as a call handler,” says Hayden-Pepper. “It’s absolutely possible to progress to the top and many people have been here for a very long time.” With a local authority this size, she says, there are so many different jobs and things you can do without leaving the organisation.
You also get the chance to work as part of a real success story. Essex has been rated outstanding in all areas by Ofsted and it is also supporting other authorities that are struggling. “Our staff really enjoy seeing what’s going on in other areas, and regardless of their Ofsted rating there is always something to learn. It’s really good for the development of staff.”
Wellbeing is high on the agenda and social work has changed a lot since Hayden-Pepper joined the profession. In the past, she says, people were just expected to get on with it, but Essex is working hard to change this and understand the impact of the work. Supervision is absolutely fundamental in social work and is something that is not offered in equally busy professions, such as nursing and teaching. “Our staff have regular one-to-one and group supervision where they talk to line managers about the children and families they work with, and the impact they’ve had on them. We do away days and we have clinical support where needed.”
For new employees, there is a huge amount of support available through the Essex Social Care Academy. Whether you’re a postgrad or switching from another career, everyone goes into the academy when they first start. Cohorts are grouped together and they have a buddy system. Many people come into the roles straight from university and they can be very young. “We work hard to build their resilience and offer support as they may not have experienced the kind of issues some of our families are facing,” says Hayden-Pepper.
There is also a lot of shared decision-making, and bigger decisions are taken at senior level. “If things go wrong it’s about learning and not apportioning blame,” she says.
To choose such a high-stakes line of work is often what sets candidates apart from other people. A good candidate is someone who is committed to the job. “In interviews, we’ll always ask: ‘Why social work?’” says Hayden-Pepper. “We’re always curious about that.”
Ultimately, what makes it different from other careers with similar pay is that you’ve got to love it and enjoy spending time with families and children. “People here want to make a difference and help others who are more vulnerable in communities. I don’t know anyone who’s done social work because they don’t know what else to do.” For Hayden-Pepper, it’s more than a job. “I didn’t envisage I’d be doing what I’m doing now, but I think I’ve got that passion for social work.”
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