Case study
Barbara, Service Manager
Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council
"Before qualifying as a social worker, I was a police officer.
When I originally came to the council, I was a generic social
worker for a while, before becoming a team manager. I then
specialised in children services including child protection. After
that I became training and development manager, before progressing
to manage the provider services for adults and older people.
Finally, I became service manager with responsibility for
assessment and provision.
I am currently responsible for two of the three areas of the
borough and my job involves the following: financial management;
human resources and performance mangement; ensuring the service
works within legislation and council/department policies and
procedures; management of the carers grant; playing a part on them
integrated health and social care management team.
A typical day might include: monitoring attendance of all those
in my teams; looking at progress within current action plans;
working on the modernising care management project or the new
technologies project; end of year finance, invoicing, budget
monitoring and grant monitoring; dealing with health and safety
issues; interviewing staff about performance and absence; staff
professional supervision; dealing with correspondence, complaints
and compliments; attending meetings such as divisional management
team, updates with partner agencies, or the carers management
committee; dealing with vulnerable adult abuse investigations;
recruitment and selection of staff; dealing with disciplinary and
grievance proceedings; providing advice, direction and support to
my management team.
To do the job you need a social work qualification, plus
management experience and/or qualification, an understanding of
legislation and guidance relating to social care, good
communication skills, budget management skills and an ability to
see and make links with partner organisations.
The thing I love best about the job is the huge variety of work.
The most challenging thing is meeting all the demands, for example,
keeping to action plans when a new priority comes along."
You may also be interested in an interactive resource produced
by the Open University exploring a day in the life of a social
worker:
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/social-care/social-work/try-day-the-life-social-worker
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