Social Workers Samantha Cartwright and Alison Price and Team Manager Leanne Broxton were nominated by colleagues at the City of Wolverhampton Council to be named Amazing Social Workers by the British Association of Social Workers.
Samantha was nominated by Principal Social Worker Jennifer Rogers. She said: "I nominated Samantha because she goes above and beyond for the children and young people she supports, advocating for and championing them.
"Samantha is passionate about the social work profession and supporting learning, as well as improving outcomes for families. She is always the first to offer support, helping at social work recruitment fairs and talking to student social workers about her own experiences as a newly qualified social worker to help them in their development.
"She has offered support and mentoring to our Step Up to Social Work students, providing advice from her own experiences of the Step Up programme, plans to become a practice educator because of her passion for passing on knowledge and developing the next generation of social workers.
"She has a can do, solution focussed attitude and has helped senior managers think about how services and support could be improved for families. Samantha is thoughtful and considerate of others, demonstrating social work values in everything she does."
Samantha said: "I’m extremely grateful to be nominated for this accolade. I work in a fantastic team who truly hold our young people at the heart of what we do. I work extremely hard to make sure their voices are heard and the recognition for this is wonderful."
Alison was nominated by Team Manager Jade Lawton who said: "Alison practices with absolute professionalism and integrity and is an exceptional colleague to work with; she continually goes over and above.
"She is inspiring not only in her practice but as a highly thoughtful member of our team, always offering support to help others. Despite her brilliance Alison is very modest, but her kindness, compassion and skill always shines through in her work. I’m proud to know and work with Alison, she is amazing!"
Alison said: “I feel very proud to have had such a long social work career. I have learned so much from the many families, children and young people I have had the privilege of working with.
“I’ve also been fortunate to have worked with amazing colleagues all of whom have contributed to the great work we do in Wolverhampton which goes from strength to strength.”
Meanwhile Leanne was nominated by social worker Kimberley Tayler, who said: "Leanne is such a good manager; she advocates for us all as a team and has a 'we can do this!' attitude which is infectious. She provides solutions to problems; there is no such thing a silly question which provides a safe space to learn and grow as a team and as an individual.
"The output of the team has improved greatly as Leanne champions us all to do better and work smarter. And she promotes learning, development and training opportunities and checks in and ensures her team are not burnt out and can work to the best of their capacity."
Leanne said: "I am overwhelmed by the nomination and very happy, I love the team I have and they all work so hard – it’s because of them we are the team we are and I’m proud to be part of that."
Their achievement was profiled on the British Association of Social Workers’ website and social media channels as part of its Amazing Social Workers campaign which ran throughout World Social Work Month.
Councillor Chris Burden, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “Samantha, Alison and Leanne are a credit to the social work profession – we have always known that they are amazing social workers, and it's great to see that the British Association of Social Workers agrees. I would like to congratulate them both."
Lindsey Bates from the British Association of Social Workers added: "We’d like to say a heartfelt thank you for your selfless dedication to our profession and the people we support – for being an Amazing Social Worker."
