Miranda – I became a social worker because…
Written by Miranda Johnson, Strengths-Based Social Care & Research Team Manager, Birmingham City Council.
I chose social work because it is a profession that is constantly evolving to meet the needs of society and the people that it helps. Social work is always varied, it’s challenging, it allows for creativity and requires a vast amount of transferrable skills all while helping people and making an impact on their lives.
I undertook my social work training in the USA and in my previous life I was a hospice inpatient unit social worker. While hospice care will always hold a special place in my heart, I travelled to the UK where I am now a strengths-based social care and research team manager. My role involves managing 2 non-statutory teams that work across the whole life course at the individual, group, and community level as well as holding responsibility for collaborating in and contributing to social care research.
These are exciting times for social work, we are seeing the profession evolve here in the UK right now with the passing of the Care Act 2014 and the on-going adoption of strengths and asset-based approaches to practice. Recognising the strength of the profession there is also now a new focus on working beyond the confines of the traditional statutory sector. This shift is opening more opportunities for social workers to place themselves in positions where they can apply their professional values, ethics and principles to ensure better joined up systems and enacting system wide change.
Social Workers are everyday leaders
Social Workers quite often downplay the impact and importance of the work that they do. I have on more than one occasion heard, “I am just a social worker, not the _____” enter in whatever their manager title is. Social work is being able to work with individuals, groups, and communities, understanding human behaviour, and recognising power differentials. Social work is multi-disciplinary; seeing things from various perspectives and consensus-building. Social work is political, respecting diversity, understanding hidden agendas, and helping others to develop and succeed.
Social work training could be valuable for leaders in many different fields as the working values of a social worker are often the same qualities that you find in good leaders. It resonated with me when I read once that, ‘Some of us may be called to lead from the front and others as a member of a team, but neither form of leadership is less important than the other, they are just different.’
I am a Social Worker
Social work has not only provided me with the opportunity to work internationally, but it has also enabled me to affect large-scale change and advance social work values and principles within other practice areas. I love being a Social Worker!
“If we, as social workers, do not step into the fullness of our potential as leaders, others will take the place we have chosen to forfeit, and the gifts that each of us bring to the role of leader in our work, team, community, and society will be sorely missed.”
Karen S. Haynes, PhD, MSW, is president of California State University, San Marcos.
Tell us your social work story at stories@socialworkawards.com telling us your name, job, contact details, and social care number (just so we know you’re a social worker, we will keep it private).