Sonia - Camden Careers

As I’m not from the UK, the encouragement and backing of my work family has been incredibly important to me.

I’m lucky, because I’ve always found the teams in Camden to be helpful, available for conversations, willing to check in with each other – and happy to thrash things out when needed.  This support structure means that Camden’s generally a safe place to work. And that’s really important for me as a social worker, because the expectation is high, and I’m personally accountable for the work that I do.  

I thought I was coming to London for two years, just to have as many weekend trips to Europe as I could. But I got to the end of my two years and thought: “I’m not ready to go home yet, am I?” I realised how much I enjoyed my life here, and working in Camden is a big part of that.  
I still get back to Sydney once or twice a year, especially now my annual leave’s up to 30 days. Camden were really helpful with my visa. There’s a specific adviser who organises the paperwork, signs everything off and gets it all out on time. 

One of the highlights for me is seeing what life is really like for some families in the UK.

Obviously, no one really wants to be given a social worker. They don’t want that knock on the door. But ultimately, my job’s about how I can improve things for the family, keep children safe and actually create change.

I’d say Camden’s values are very close to social work values generally – but the real difference is creativity. There are always restrictions on the help we can provide, so we need to explore new projects and different ways of helping families – especially in the current climate.  

At Camden, we’ve introduced the systemic practice model, where we help families reframe their own thinking and explore their own solutions.

In the years that I’ve been here, I’ve seen a real push towards early intervention. Camden looks at how the community can be supported as a whole, rather than just supporting families in times of crisis. Recently, we invited young people to come and tell us their experience of social workers, too. We’re getting better at listening to the community. 

Camden didn’t offer a golden handshake or anything, but the opportunities that have come up and the progression for my career – that’s what’s made me stay.

I was a little reluctant to go into management at first, because I love face-to-face work with families. But Camden are open to different leadership styles. Now I really enjoy managing social workers with very different experience levels, and I get out in the community as much as possible.