Currina is a Fostering Social Worker with Sheffield Council and has been working to support children and families in Sheffield for over 44 years. She spoke with us about the long-term rewards of working in fostering, why she loves living in the city she works for, and how a diverse social work workforce is crucial to make sure children get the support they deserve.

“When people apply to become foster carers, my role is to support them and do some training, run support groups, and make sure they’re able to meet each child’s emotional and physical needs. I do monthly visits to check everything is ok, and to support the carers and their families emotionally as well.”

Supporting foster families goes beyond training and setting up placements for children. A key aspect of Currina’s role is around supporting foster families throughout the time they spend together. Often, it can be an emotionally challenging experience for foster parents as they learn some of the backstory of children they care for. While it is usually a sign of trust when a child is comfortable enough to open up about their past, support from professionals is on hand to help the family to process any disclosures.

“Once a child has moved into foster care that’s often when all their issues and problems come up. Often they’ll only start really talking about how they feel as children and what’s happened to them in the past when they feel safe and comfortable.”

One of the benefits of choosing fostering as an area of specialism is the opportunities for longer-term relationships with children and families which come with supporting foster placements. For Currina this is one of the most rewarding aspects of her role:

“You do build a bond with these children. Some of them I’ve known for ten years or more. There are a couple of children I’ve looked after who have left care now and I still see them. I bring food to them, keep in touch, go for a coffee. You carry on doing it for the rest of your life almost.”

As someone who always wanted to work with young people, Currina spent time working on a voluntary basis at the Northern General Hospital before working in residential facilities for children with disabilities. While these roles affirmed her passion for helping children and young people to realise their potential, she found that there were few clear pathways to the qualifications she needed to become a social worker. The “grow your own” approach was less well-established at this point, so she had to push to be allowed to pursue a social work diploma. Currina’s persistence paid off as she became one of the first to enrol in the Diploma in Social Work at Sheffield Hallam University. Now a highly experienced practitioner, Currina considered a management role, but ultimately opted to remain in a frontline position to maximise her time with young people. Recently, she has made the move to a part-time way of working, which has enabled her to work more flexibly.

In a city as diverse as Sheffield, cultural considerations are a very important part of the fostering and adoption landscape. In an area of practice where creating a nurturing environment is critical, being able to provide children and young people with familiarity and help them to engage with their heritage can make all the difference. For Currina and her team, this may involve doing some research or speaking with colleagues with similar backgrounds.

“If it’s a different culture to mine, if their background is in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Poland, or somewhere completely different, I will research it. I’ll ask friends, colleagues – I’ll find out as much as I can. We can’t just say “I don’t know” and leave it at that. That’s not good enough.”

An example of how this approach works in practice is the work Currina has been doing to build her colleague’s understanding of working with Black children and young people. Along with her manager, Currina recently delivered a talk on Black haircare, skincare and their role in identity, to their colleagues:

“People thought it might cost too much to do but we said “No, we’ve done that already, we’ve got children, we know what to do just from our own life experience!” So that’s what we did. People enjoyed it so much, we’re going to do it for other teams!”

As someone who has always lived and worked in Sheffield, Currina believes the authority’s workplace culture, and the wider culture of Sheffield itself, is particularly welcoming to new faces. This is reflected in the support that social work colleagues can count on from the rest of their team:

“We’ve got a good team here. Sheffield’s a good place to work. Like anywhere else, there are ups and downs, but I’ve got a great friendship group here, my work friends. I know I can call if I need anything and they’ll be there for me, or I’ll be there for them.”

For Currina, children’s social work matters because it has allowed her the chance to be a positive influence at crucial times in the lives of children and young people:

“I always think that if I can make a difference to one child’s life, that does it for me. I like to think at this point I’ve had more than one!”