Sefton Council Children's Services welcomes first international social workers

Sefton Council Children’s Services has gone global this week as it welcomed the first cohort of international social workers. The social workers from Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa were warmly welcomed into the Social Work Academy by their colleagues who will give them all the support they need to make a difference to children and families in Sefton.

Working with recruitment firm, Morgan Hunt, who have a proven track record of sourcing and supporting recruitment from other countries; a total of 23 permanent, qualified social workers will be joining the workforce over the next few months with the first 7 arriving yesterday.

Historically, legislation in Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa is based very strongly on the legislation in the UK which greatly supports the transition for the new cohort of social workers. Before arriving, they have registered with Social Work England and have been undertaking training on all elements of UK family life, pressures, problems and culture to ensure they feel prepared to practice in the UK. The new cohort will start their Sefton journey gently in the Social Work Academy where they will learn how Sefton works and work with fewer families to get into the swing of social work in the UK.

This initiative is part of a wider drive to increase the number of social workers in Sefton to improve stability for families and reduce burnout in the workforce; giving teams the tools and the breathing space to improve practice, improve our offer and build those crucial relationships with children, young people and families.

Dr Risthardh Hare, Director of Children’s Services said:

“This initiative has huge potential to support our improvement journey and make a real difference to children and families in Sefton.

“It is so important for families to have stability and time to build relationships with their social workers and that social workers themselves have space to continuously learn, adapt and improve their practice and this increase in our workforce will allow this space and time.

“My senior leadership team interviewed each social worker personally and were highly impressed not only by their level of experience and professional expertise, but also the commitment they have for supporting and helping others. I can’t wait to see our new recruits out there making a difference to our children, young people and families.”

Cllr Mhairi Doyle, Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care said:

“The recruitment of social workers from overseas will make a real difference to our teams in terms of capacity and their ability to spend more quality time with families.

“We have great momentum in Children’s Services right now as we continue to drive our improvement journey along. We are seeing new teams, new ways of working and new initiatives like this one that make a real impact on our ability to improve and deliver better services and outcomes for our children, young people and families.

“We still have challenges to overcome but as each new initiative comes forward; we are starting to see some progress for our children, young people and families which is what we all want to see.”

More new social workers will be joining Sefton from overseas later in the year and making Sefton their home.

If you are interested in joining our Sefton family, we have vacancies in a range of different teams at all different levels, please take a look: Sefton Council - Children’s Services Careers (jgp.co.uk)