Adult Social Worker of the Year

Joanne has spent 15 years as a social worker in Birmingham, working across a variety of specialisms including dementia care, mental health and for the past 12 months, learning disabilities.

When Joanne joined the learning disabilities team there was a long waiting list of service users awaiting assessment. Many of the cases were incredibly complex but, utilising her background in mental health, she focused as a priority on finding suitable placements for one of the most vulnerable groups, the long-stay patients in psychiatric units.

Prior to her involvement, some psychiatric units had not discharged a patient for three years. Joanne turned this around and facilitated the discharge of five long-stay patients into the community within 12 months.

Joanne is an extremely innovative practitioner – despite strains on budgets she strives to achieve the best possible outcome for her clients in the most cost effective way, often negotiating with care providers to ensure the needs of her service users are met within budget. This practice has led to a revised model of working for social workers in Birmingham.

After 15 years, Joanne’s passion and enthusiasm is unwavering and she continues to go the extra mile to improve the lives of her service users.