Hi, my name is Shyanne and I am an Apprentice Participation Worker in the VSK Participation Team.
On Tuesday the 28th of February, I had the opportunity to shadow Sarah Hammond who is the Director of Integrated Children’s Social Work Services. Sarah’s role is to continually develop the service and make decisions that ensure all staff have the tools and training to deliver an exceptional service for young people and their families. She told me that her main priority is to create an environment and set of strategies that enable Kent County Council staff to be the very best that they can be. A normal work week/day of Sarah Hammond consists of a variety of meetings including Cabinet committee meetings, leadership meetings and many more.
On the Tuesday, I arrived at Canterbury Christchurch University in the morning where I attended a business support hub consultation with Sarah. This meeting was all about making changes to improve ways of working across different business support services in Kent County Council.
After this meeting, we went to County Hall in Maidstone where I attended a Divisional Management Team meeting. These meetings are made up of Directors and Service Managers from across Kent; they come together to discuss what is going on in their area, what good practice is taking place and where there are differences between areas.
In the afternoon, I got to see Sarah’s office, which is also based at County Hall. Sarah told me all about Kent’s Social Care Academy. This is a teaching training partnership; together with Kent County Council, they will be delivering the first roll out of Social Worker Apprenticeships starting in September. This meeting was interesting for me as I’ve always wanted to be a Social Worker but didn’t want to attend university so instead chose the apprenticeship route. I think this is a fantastic chance for people who want to take this path to be a Social Worker, so look out for amazing opportunities in the future.
Throughout the course of the day, it was a pleasure to get to know Sarah. She told me that she enjoys working with her colleagues to improve the lives of vulnerable young people and those who have additional needs. However, the only downside is that she doesn’t get to see our children as much as she would like to as she is always in and out of meetings and making things happen from behind the scenes.
To wrap up my day of shadowing, I had a 1 to 1 chat with Sarah in which I asked if she has any words of encouragement for her colleagues and young people in Kent County Council. She said her mantra is, “It is never too late to do something you want to do, so never give up.” As Director of Integrated Children’s Social Work Services, Sarah advised that there are lots of exciting opportunities across the county and that we should all use this to our advantage and grasp these when we can.
posted by Mark Butcher