By guest blogger Charlotte Pratt, Social Worker, Family Support Team
Positive professional relationships underpin the aim of our social care Connected Practice methodology to create change through meaningful and helpful relationships with children and families. Charlotte, a Social Worker in Rother Family Support Team, spoke to us about the positive impact a good professional relationship can have on the children and young people we work with.
‘I was working with a 13 year old who was permanently excluded, running drugs, carrying knives and going missing for days on end. He had a deep-seated mistrust and dislike for the police and had been stopped by them on a number of occasions. ‘
‘I worked with a Police Officer from the Missing Person team, who came on some joint visits with me. I was able to demonstrate my relationship with the young man and how the approach I took resulted in a less aggressive and more positive response.’
‘I worked on a plan with the Officer, under the agreement of the MACE (Multi Agency Child Exploitation) board, to deal differently with his missing episodes and risky behaviour. The understanding and trust between the Officer and I was vital for the approach to be effective. By not criminalising the young man, but instead working on a behaviour change model, educating him around repercussions and having clear activities in place, we were able to support him to improve his outcomes. Also, by modelling my positive relationship with the Officer, the young man was able to reflect on his own opinions on the police and start considering the criminal repercussions of his actions.’
‘Of course there were sometimes conflicting priorities between the Officer and me, but through our positive professional relationship we were able to understand each other’s roles and appreciate the knowledge and skills we brought to the table, finding the middle ground to move forward.’
The Police Officer working with Charlotte commented:
‘We had a very open approach in terms of information sharing, which was crucial to building a trusted and positive professional relationship. We made sure we communicated regularly and were open and honest with each other.’
‘The benefit of our joined up approach was that the young man was deterred from his involvement with an older male believed to be controlling him. He also had a more positive outlook on police and our role – eventually he trusted me too.’
‘Understanding the model Charlotte was using further helped me to grasp the complexities of the family unit. I now try and meet regularly with social workers for other cases and encourage a consistent and honest relationship. This seems to be working and I have built up a good relationship with a number of social workers so that the information sharing is quick and consistent, which is absolutely key.’
Social Work in East Sussex Blog 
Excellent work – focussing on the importance of connected practice. It was also some good joined up work.