天美mv

What I love most about my career in social work

This #GoodNewsFriday, in honour of Social Work Week, we hear from Soyeb Aswat about what he finds most rewarding working in social work within NHS mental health.

I came into social work many years ago, and now I have many more grey hairs than I did back then – perhaps in part from the eventful times I’ve had in my career, but after all these years I continue to have passion and love for my profession.

Working as a social worker allows you to have the privilege of meeting some wonderful people from all walks of life and from a range of diverse backgrounds. I have learnt so much from all those that I have met and worked with and there are not many professions where you yourself have the ability to have a positive impact on people’s lives and be paid for it.

A large part of my career has involved supporting students and newly-qualified social workers (NQSWs).

And I must say how much students and NQSWs have supported me in continuing to have passion and energy for the profession, along with keeping my skills and knowledge up-to-date.

I was involved with setting up the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme in one of the organisations I worked in; it was a NHS mental health setting and not many non-local authority organisations provided the ASYE programme.

We faced many hurdles and challenges but with support from some fantastic colleagues and staff from 天美mv, we now have a successful ASYE programme in both our adults and children services.

I was also one of two social workers within the NHS where I worked to support social work students on placement, and I have found this aspect of my work so rewarding. The first student I supported is now a deputy manager in mental health and I’m sure one day she’ll be managing me. And she does a much better job than I have ever done.

Students and NQSWs have been key to raising awareness of NHS mental health social work and they bring the social work perspective and challenge to the medical model. They have also supported with growing the number of social workers we employ in the NHS.

We now have some fantastic links with universities and teaching partnerships, something that we’ve developed and grown over the years. Last year we played a key part in ensuring that a new social work module has mental health as part of its module teaching programme as well as ensuring students are able to learn about culture, religion and spirituality and the need to consider this in day-to-day practice.

There’s also been a focus on neurodiversity and social graces this year which has really made us align our practice back to working in an anti-oppressive and person-centred, strength-based manner.

We have set up a community of practice (COP) and I’m hugely grateful of how they’ve supported me when needed. The COP have had two social work events where we’ve had over 100 NHS social workers attending and planning how we can grow the profession. The community of practice have allowed us to advocate for NHS mental health social work with a stronger voice and push various initiatives forward,

We have some fantastic social workers within NHS mental health and they work with so much passion and enthusiasm within a sector where the role is not always understood and recognised. They also provide energy, motivation and passion to continue working as a social worker. Each one of them bring the social work perspective to the areas they work in and because of the social work influence we’ve seen how staff within the teams have benefited but also the positive impact this has had on those that access services. For example, quicker discharges from inpatient settings as inpatient social workers have intervened early to meet needs around housing, Care Act referrals, assessments and such.

The social work role also allows us to be creative and innovative, we have set up a Research Forum, various specialist interest groups and managed to work on which will hopefully have a positive impact for staff and those that access services, see blog: We’re also currently doing a scoping exercise on social work identity.

Additionally, we’ve looked at how we can modernise social work and considered developing relevant social work theories and models that align to the current climate and times, including looking at the use of AI.

We now also have a National Network of NHS Social Work leads, along with them and with support from NHS employed social workers in mental health, we have really focused on social work identity and reignited aspects of human rights, social welfare, social reform, social justice, anti-oppressive practice and passion for the traditional social work as it was originally created from.

NHS mental health social work has been and is growing at a fast pace and it’s really exciting to see how things will develop over the coming years, and the positive impact we will hopefully continue to have.

If you have a good news story to share email us marketing@skillsforcare.org.uk

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