Our Principles
Right social work service for every family
Families are diverse and require a unique, flexible and responsive approach to their problems. The way in which we work is informed using best evidence alongside family views and experiences, and is delivered by highly skilled professionals from multi-disciplinary backgrounds.
Always a systemic approach
Children, families and organisations do not operate in a vacuum. Whenever we work with families, we always consider the influence of the wider contextual factors such as the social and political climate. We will always attend to these in our assessments and in our offer of help.
An ethical, humane approach to child protection
We will always hold the views of parents and families with regard and respect, whether social work involvement is high authority intervention, or preventative therapeutic work. Our wish would always be to keep children living at home but even where this is not possible, the family’s views will continue to inform our approach.
We never talk about severance
In a minority of cases children are unable to be safely cared for within their family. We will never recommend severance and will always develop a permanence plan which meaningfully involves birth families.
The social work relationship is the cornerstone
The relationship between the family and the social worker is instrumental; we believe that this can be the key to family change and growth. Trust, transparency and stability are vital to this process.
Our training programmes uphold our principles
Our students will develop awareness of the contextual and ethical dilemmas embedded in social work, particularly the power imbalance that exists between professionals and clients. We support students to be thoughtful about engagement and goal setting, particularly with non-voluntary clients.
