Type=image;ImageID=4042;ImageClass=left;ImageTitle=Sarah Norman, Isabelle Trowler, Nikki Lindley, Jaspreet Bhambra;TitleClass=strong;
Isabelle Trowler met psychologists and frontline social workers from Wolverhampton City Council's Children in Need and Looked After Children services during her visit to the Civic Centre. They discussed the role of the social worker, and the skills and attributes that are needed in people who work with children and families.
Isabelle said: "As the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families I am passionate about ensuring that social workers do everything they can to support families and protect children.
"My visit to Wolverhampton gave me an opportunity to meet frontline social workers who do highly complex work and to discuss how we can design systems that help social workers flourish, so that they can be at their most effective and dynamic to support children and families."
Andrew Campbell, Head of Wolverhampton City Council's Children In Need and Child Protection services, invited Isabelle to see how the council's social care services are provided after attending a Social Work Masterclass she hosted at Birmingham University earlier this year.
He said: "At the masterclass, I discussed the way psychologists are supporting social workers in Wolverhampton to help children and their families - and how our model of practice had been inspired by the model Isabelle co-founded in Hackney.
"We are very proud of the way our Children in Need and Looked After Children teams operate in Wolverhampton and so I was delighted when she asked if she could visit us to meet and spend time with our social workers."
During the visit, practitioners highlighted the benefits of psychologists working closely with social workers to help determine what sort of help and support is appropriate, and discussed the knowledge and key skills that social workers need to do the job well - which will help the Government determine a nationally agreed description of the role of a social worker.
Andrew added: "I'd like to thank Isabelle for sparing the time to come to Wolverhampton and hear first hand from our social workers and psychologists - we hope she found her visit useful and was impressed by what she saw."
- released: Tuesday 27 May, 2014