Essex County Council

Essex County Council is extremely proud to sponsor the Championing Social Work Values category.

At ECC, we’re serious about social work and our approach centres on supporting, nurturing, empowering and improving the lives of our residents to ensure they benefit from positive outcomes – the outcomes they want.

Through our relationship based social work, we help families identify their own solutions to problems and empower them to achieve resolution where it is safe and appropriate to do so. We’re also supporting individuals to live more independently – helping people to help themselves – by encouraging them to connect with communities and local solutions.

The diverse communities that make up Essex mean social workers across our adult and children’s social care services are well-versed in thinking creatively and are often pioneers for new ways of working; no two people or families are the same and this requires our social care colleagues to build relationships and work with individuals, not impose things on them.

Our social workers listen to people, find out their aspirations and support them by working collaboratively with partners across the health and social care landscape. As we continue to join up services, we’re focusing more on changing the perception that ECC delivers traditional social care, to the idea that it forms part of a new, joined-up, community-based ‘system of support’ which helps people to get on with their lives.

We give our social workers the time to deliver direct relationship-based social work with the people we serve and ensure they have the tools and support they need through the Essex Social Care Academy.

We strive for excellence at ECC, not only for the people that live in the county, but for our social workers who demonstrate passion, commitment and dedication every day.