Chief social worker visits Sheffield

Lyn Romeo is charged with championing social care services nationally for users and professionals.

Last week she was guest of honour at an event in Sheffield where she spoke to those on the frontline and addressed an audience of key social workers, practitioners and managers.

Sheffield’s Deputy Lord Mayor Denise Fox and Professor Gill Valentine, pro-Vice Chancellor of Social Studies at the University of Sheffield, also spoke at the launch of the South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership scheme.

It is one of only four in the country and involves Sheffield City Council, Rotherham and Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Councils, Doncaster Children’s Services Trust and the University of Sheffield.

It will test and refine new and innovative approaches to delivering high quality training for social work students and practitioners.

The vision is for South Yorkshire to become a nationally recognised centre of excellence at both the qualifying and post qualifying levels of social work.

Courses for post graduate students will be geared around what the daily expectations for social workers are with the idea that the more mature students will be able to sustain the pace.

Councillor Jackie Drayton, Sheffield Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “It is brilliant to have Lyn Romeo here in Sheffield, giving national recognition the work we are doing as a council in children’s and adult services, alongside our partners across South Yorkshire, to recruit and retain the best social workers we can.

“It is without doubt one of the hardest jobs there is, but at the same time it can be one of the most rewarding.”