Katrine has been a Social Work Assistant (Band 4) for four years and works in a Family Support and Intervention Team in Coleraine. She is employed by the Northern Health and Social Care Trust (NHSCT).
Social Care Journey
Katrine began working in the social care sector in December 2020. Prior to this, she worked as a Personal Assistant, supporting a family member with complex health needs. This role, funded by the Direct Payments scheme, lasted six years. Before that, she worked as a florist for over 20 years, until she found the role physically challenging as she got older.
In February 2020, Katrine applied for a Social Work Assistant position with the NHSCT and was successfully appointed. The team she works with includes a team lead, a social work practitioner, four social workers, and two social work assistants. Her role involves a wide range of duties, including:
- Responsibility for several family support level cases, which she manages under guidance from her team leader.
- Collating essential information about children and families and reporting this back to the social worker/team manager to assist in assessments of the family's circumstances and needs.
- Assisting children and/or parents with practical tasks such as transport to appointments.
- Providing advice and guidance in relation to parenting tasks, general information, and services, and signposting to more appropriate services as required.
- Assisting in the delivery of contact services, including supervision of contact arrangements as directed.
- Completing delegated tasks such as; coordinating family support, diversionary and respite services, sourcing appropriate family services, and other resources.
Katrine’s role also involves risk-assessing home conditions, explaining to parents why the home may not be acceptable, and supporting them to improve conditions over a period of months or longer. This work is vital in supporting children and families and requires building trusting relationships with parents who may have previously refused help or been too embarrassed or afraid to seek it. This work requires a high degree of sensitivity. Families are often on very low budgets and may be unaware of additional benefits or support services. Katrine advocates for both children and parents, helping them access financial support and other relevant services depending on their circumstances.
Katrine loves her role, particularly the variety of tasks and the opportunity to work directly with children and families to improve their home conditions, access services, and develop parenting skills.
Learning and Development Journey
Katrine has completed all mandatory and refresher training required for her role. This includes:
- Safeguarding
- Fire Safety
- Dealing with Personal Information
- Cyber Security
Additional training completed in recent months includes:
- Graded Care Profile (6 & 12 November 2024) – Delivered in person, this training helped Katrine better assess home conditions, the emotional warmth between parents, and the physical health of children. It supports her in completing home risk assessments and in helping parents make improvements.
- Children’s Safeguarding (20 November 2024) – An online course that enhanced Katrine’s ability to identify vulnerable children, recognise signs of abuse, report effectively, and communicate better with children and parents.
- Sexual Abuse and Its Impact (4 December 2024) and Child Sexual Exploitation (20 February 2025) – Delivered online, these courses deepened her understanding of the signs, impact, and risk indicators of sexual abuse and exploitation. The exploitation training focused on online dangers, platforms used by children, and how to educate and support parents in keeping their children safe.
- Solihull Approach (15 January 2025) – This in-person morning session introduced the Solihull approach and provided evidence-based resources to support Katrine’s work with children and families.
- Domestic Violence (24 January 2025) – Delivered in-person, this session helped Katrine understand healthy vs. unhealthy relationships, the nature of domestic abuse, and its impact on children. The course also explored the violent and non-violent relationship wheel.
- Think Family (11 March 2025) – An in-person session that covered the impact of mental health and substance abuse on parenting. Topics included ACEs, parental substance misuse, the developmental impact on children, vulnerable children, The Family Model, and the PERCS conversation tool. This training supports Katrine’s ability to conduct educative work with parents and have difficult conversations with families.
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (28 March 2025) – A full-day, in-person training introducing ASD and neurodiversity, providing evidence-based resources to support work with affected children and families.
Katrine has regular supervision sessions with her manager, who is very supportive. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss learning, development, and career goals. Katrine can also request training via the staff portal.
Since part of her role involves delivering educative work with parents and caregivers, the courses on domestic violence, sexual exploitation, and substance abuse have equipped her to deliver training in these areas. She is able to explain the impact abuse and trauma can have on children, both now and in adulthood.
“Through continuous learning and development, you gain more knowledge, supporting you to be able to deliver more knowledgeable educative work with families.”
Katrine achieved a First-Class Honours Degree in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Ulster, completed in 2015. She had left school with just a few qualifications due to a poor school experience, but later completed an access course and obtained her Maths GCSE through night classes. Completing her Access Course rekindled her love of learning.
Katrine feels there are currently no other relevant qualifications available to support her role, aside from a Degree in Social Work, which she does not wish to pursue. However, she is interested in additional relevant qualifications and would consider progressing to a higher-grade role if the opportunity arose.
Care in Practice (CiP) Framework
Katrine had not heard of the CiP Framework before her interview. However, after reviewing the information she received, she believes it is a very useful framework for social care practitioners to support career progression and continued learning and development.