Nina is a Social Worker with Rotherham Council. We chatted with her to find out what inspired her to become a social worker and what it’s like to work on a Locality Team.

With an initial background in counselling, Nina has always held an interest in supporting people and understanding interpersonal relationships. Originally from Nigeria, her interest in supporting children and families in particular was sparked by a desire to support children with disabilities. Nina found that much of the social work practice locally was undertaken by charitable organisations and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and resolved to train as a social worker abroad. A long-term ambition for her career is to be able to apply her professional experience in Nigeria to help develop more centralised social work practice and advocate for better infrastructure around children’s services.

After studying in Sheffield, Nina applied for a role with Rotherham. An advantage to Rotherham’s approach was the flexibility they offered; Nina was able to start work in a family support role while waiting for her registration paperwork to come through, before taking on a full Social Worker position.

Nina has found that work in her current locality team suits her, with the longer time frame of support allowing her to develop more sustainable relationships and trust with the children and families she supports:

“I found I prefer long-term work because you get to know the children and families you support, rather than just doing an assessment. In Locality, there’s more of a relationship to build and you are able to build trust.”

Locality work is not without its challenges. Often, the source of friction between practitioners and families comes down to a lack of understanding around the reason for social workers’ involvement, so this tends to be the first hurdle to overcome in building a positive relationship:

“The most challenging part is usually when families don’t understand the reason you need to be involved, so they’re not ready to work with you. If the parents don’t share your concerns, they won’t engage and it’s harder to get them to recognise the risks.”

As a practitioner in the early stages of her career, the reflective support from colleagues and management in Rotherham has been particularly useful. In social work practice, there is no room for a “one size fits all” approach, and every family’s situation will come with a unique set of circumstances.

“With each case, you have more things to learn. If you have two cases where domestic abuse is present, the way you practice with Family A might be totally different to what you do with Family B.”

Like many social workers, for Nina one of the highlights of working with families is often the point where her help and support is no longer required, and they are able to sustain positive changes independently:

“The most rewarding part for me is when you get a family who engage and understand the reason we are involved, they make the necessary changes, and you get the opportunity to close them to social care.”

The potential for social work to have a transformative impact on children and young people is the reason Nina was inspired to become a social worker, and this is still the reason children’s social work matters to her:

“We have children out there whose basic needs are not being met appropriately, or are at risk of significant harm. Social work lets us make the changes that can ensure that that they live in a safe and peaceful environment, free from harm.”