Transcript

JUNE SADD:

I think, to support newly qualified social workers to develop their emotional resilience as practitioners, there are two solutions I think, and one of them is peer support. There need to be opportunities created for newly qualified social workers to meet, to support each other. It’s called peer support. It’s quite a fashionable word ‘peerness’ now but I think it’s really important. So, if time can be set aside and structure set aside whether it’s newly qualified social workers can meet together to discuss and to think through strategies, and I think the other thing is actually that they are offered opportunities – this doesn’t really always fit in with the agency’s agenda – but offer opportunities to meet together in alliances so that they can challenge. But if you can support people to come together in alliances, maybe with others in their profession, maybe with other newly qualified social workers, maybe with people outside the profession, maybe wonderful as it would be alliances with service users, to challenge, then, that would be a wonderful thing, and I think that could promote and help the emotional resilience of newly qualified social workers.