Aimee Peel, Advanced Practitioner at Leeds City Council

My previous career in catering couldn’t be more different to the job I’m doing today. Catering was something I’d fallen into after college but I’d always wanted to work with children. So I decided in my mid-twenties, to train as a teaching assistant before moving into various senior support and outreach roles at a local Sure Start children’s centre. But much as I loved my job I felt I’d progressed as far as I could and was ready to take the next step.

The part of the job I enjoyed the most was working alongside the children’s social workers. Through their work with the children and families, they’d effectively sold the profession to me and inspired me to look into children’s social work as a career. They encouraged me to get my Social Work degree and this only reconfirmed to me that this was my calling and absolutely what I was meant to do.

In my current role as an Advanced Practitioner, specialising in child protection and safeguarding, I mentor, support and train newly qualified children’s social workers. But my role is still also very much hands on and I usually work on cases involving children who are at risk of neglect, abuse or child sexual exploitation that are more complex or high risk, as well as those involving court proceedings.  

Whenever a child is referred to us, we work closely with them to assess their needs and where necessary, come up with a plan, always making sure their wishes, feelings and voices are heard throughout. It’s imperative that a child has an understanding and some ownership of what’s happening to them because this impacts their life. They are very much at the heart of what we do because this is about them. 

Our absolute main aim is to keep families together, and the parents we work with understand this. We place a lot of value on the knowledge, experience and strengths that parents have and encourage them to identify the risks to their child so they can come up with a plan themselves. This restorative approach, which involves family-led decision making, helps to create long-lasting, sustainable change and ensures that we’re not just doing things to a family, but rather with them. 

Where necessary, we also involve various healthcare and educational professionals, the Police, charitable organisations and family support workers, to name a few. Having the right people at the right time for a child is also crucial in improving their outcomes.

I feel that children’s social work is something of an unknown profession, which might be in part due to the confidential nature of our work. But I think it’s also because, unlike other agencies such as health and education, most people won’t need to come into direct contact with children’s services during their lifetime. Because there will always be children in need and a high demand for our services, it’s important to raise awareness of what we do and the huge benefits this brings, so that more people can understand it and choose it as a career.

Sometimes, the emotional strain of dealing with other peoples’ traumas can be challenging, but my managers take a genuine interest in my well-being and there’s a focus on self-care too. But what makes my job worthwhile is knowing I’ve advocated and done my best to help a vulnerable child. We receive many thank you cards and emails from parents and children who tell us how vital our support has been and the difference this has made to their lives, which is also hugely rewarding.

There’s a clear progression route in children’s social work and scope to specialise in many different areas, including child protection, looked-after children, care leavers, or those with complex health issues and disabilities to name just a few. Despite having started out in a completely different profession, I made the decision to make the move into children’s social work. I’m so glad I made that change because I’m now doing something I love and wouldn’t consider doing anything else.

Even as I approach my five year milestone, the variety in my job is such that I’m continually learning because every case is different.  So my advice to anyone who is thinking about a career in children’s social care, is to go for it.