Newly Qualified Adult Social Worker of the Year

Supporting young people to transition from children’s to adult services is a difficult area of social work practice but newly qualified practitioner Elizabeth has faced the challenges head on.

After just a few months in post, Elizabeth was assigned a particularly complex case involving a service user who had sustained life-limiting injuries in a fire caused by another family member. By providing extensive emotional and practical support, Elizabeth helped the service user regain confidence, return to college and obtain a direct payment that would meet her personal care needs. Elizabeth’s colleagues described her handling of this case as a “testimony to the dedication and support she provides to all individuals on her caseload”.

Elizabeth’s commitment to improving practice standards also made her nomination stand out. She has utilised research from her dissertation – which looked at the gaps in transitions services for young people with special educational needs – to inform her practice and also gave a successful presentation on the transitions model to an audience of over 50 professionals.

Elizabeth’s ability to manage complex cases really spoke to the judges and they praised her for demonstrating “real leadership skills” at such an early stage in her career.