Newly Qualified Children’s Social Worker of the Year

The judges described Zahraa’s entry as “excellent” and said that she is making a contribution to the profession that would normally be associated with more experienced colleagues.

Zahraa is a member of the Children in Care Specialist Team working with unaccompanied asylum seeking children, in addition to other groups. She is a passionate, innovative and creative practitioner and is using all of these traits to successfully engage with service users.

Throughout her first assessed year in practice, Zharaa has demonstrated her professionalism and reliability and continues to grow in confidence. The judges were particularly impressed to hear of an instance where she identified a difficulty in matching unaccompanied asylum seeking children with foster carers. She addressed this by reaching out to her own community and engaging them with fostering.

Zahraa is committed to enhancing her knowledge of the psychological, social, cultural and physical influences on her clients and takes full advantage of further learning opportunities which she applies to her practice. She managed an increasingly complex case load during her ASYE year, including a high profile adoption case where her written report was commended by High Court Judge, Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division of the High Court. He described it as a “long, detailed and impressive document”.