“It’s about creating a safe environment that every pupil, regardless of what has gone on in their life, has the same access to their education.”

Charlene Hill decided early in her working life that social work was a career she would like to explore. After working in nursing homes and supporting summer schemes, she realised she was drawn to supporting people and went to Scotland to complete her degree at the University of Stirling. Following a 10-year career in social work in Scotland, she returned to Northern Ireland in 2019 and began working for Belfast Health and Social Care Trust where she specialised in family intervention work. Then Charlene heard about a new role at St Ronan’s College, Lurgan, as a school social worker.

St Ronan’s is one of a small, but growing, number of schools who are employing a social worker as part of the school staff team. St Ronan’s principal, Fiona Kane, recognised the contribution that a school social worker could make to providing wrap-around support services for pupils, their families and the wider community. Particularly post-COVID, the school had to think about how they could support pupils in a different way. Recruiting a social worker to engage with early intervention work meant the social worker could bring their professional skills to support the entire school, from pupils and their families, to teachers and other staff.

“When I saw the role I thought that this could be my way of getting back to doing what I enjoy the most – direct work with young people,” Charlene says. “I enjoyed my work within the Trust but I missed this direct work. I was delighted to get the position and to have the opportunity to work with young people, building relationships with them and their families.”

A varied and integral role in the school and wider community

“Initially, the school weren’t really sure what they wanted me to do as they had never employed a social worker before. They knew that my skills could give their school community support around pastoral work and that there was a need for more. My role has continued to evolve; I am now responsible for supporting pupils from care-experienced backgrounds, those engaged with social services or those who need support for the health and wellbeing to get the most out of their education.

“I monitor these pupils through their educational journey, offering check-ins, liaising with their parents or guardians, attending multi-agency meetings designed to coordinate safeguarding and support, case conferences and compiling the school reports for those meetings. I act as a consistent point of contact for external agencies and the school.”

With a background inworking with families, the transition to school social work was a quick adjustment for Charlene, with the primary learning curve being understanding the school environment and learning how a school works.

“There was an initial adjustment with me asking more in-depth questions that perhaps an educator or school administrator may not ask, for example wanting to understand more about a pupil’s home life and how they are feeling during parental meetings. But by working together we have developed an understanding of how those outside factors could affect a pupil’s wellbeing,” she says.

“Using my skills to communicate with young people and parents, I can facilitate some difficult conversations alongside the teaching staff. Nothing comes to me as a shock, which is a positive because you’re more able to put people at ease, take the time to really listen and talk through things, no matter how tough they may seem. That just comes from my experience in family intervention and having to do those things day in, day out.

“I see my primary role as helping to ensure equal access to education for all pupils – what a great reason to come to work,” she says.

Another part of Charlene’s work is early support for pupils and their families to avoid situations reaching crisis point, particularly as a support between them and social services. “Taking a more proactive approach, I work closely with our Pupil Services Team and our key stage directors in the school to find and identify any issues that could have a possible detrimental impact on the educational attainment of any child.”

In her time at St Ronan’s, Charlene and the wider team have developed a toolkit of around 20 different educational programmes to address areas of need including: “Friend or Foe” about navigating peer relationships, “All about Me”, which is about supporting young people who have low self-esteem and confidence, and “Aware”, which focuses on school avoidance, anxiety and well-being. These programmes develop and change based on what is going on in the local community or in media at different times and ultimately what might affect a pupil at the school.

“The role that I carry out can be a mix of one-to-one work or group work, and I also oversee safeguarding within the school. I don’t replace a teacher’s role in safeguarding but compliment it by contributing to assemblies for pupils about safeguarding and how the children can safeguard themselves and their peers in the school. This will also include how to report a concern as well as carrying out the training for school staff, advising how to support a young person if they have worries about what will happen next.”

A bridge between school and the wider community

Reflecting on her role in the community and beyond the school gates, Charlene highlights her engagement with the families, parents and guardians of pupils and the wider community which includes home visits to support pupil attendance. She also works as a bridge with families new to Northern Ireland and to the school to help educate them about the legalities and expectations of school attendance.

“A majority of parents and guardians in the school have been really open to working with me, despite the potential stigma of engaging with a social worker. Given my role in the wider Pupil Services team and the work we have done to introduce me and the benefits of a school social worker to the wider community, parents and young people have been really open. In some instances, I have been able to begin some of the groundwork at home to help pupils feel safe and comfortable before getting them back in to school after a period away. I quite enjoy this work as engaging with the wider community is important to me.”

Charlene believes the work she is doing is helping to ensure students do not ‘slip between the cracks.’

“Through home visits and carrying out initial assessments, I am able to help bridge the gap and with my previous experience am able to link in with our local statutory and community support teams to ensure pupils are getting the help they need. I get to see these children every day, and I can build those relationships. I think some of that early intervention work, in many cases reduces the need to make referrals to statutory teams in the long run.”

Creating a safe space at school

Two years into her role at St Ronan’s, Charlene is a passionate advocate for more school social worker roles being implemented across Northern Ireland.

“School social work in Northern Ireland is relatively new, with only five or six schools with school social workers in post at this point. When I began this role, it was a completely new experience for me, but with my background working in a Health and Social Care Trust and with family intervention, it was a natural progression,” says Charlene.

“I think having that one social worker that you can access in school for consistency has been positive. I am not timetabled like a teacher and can therefore be more accessible to our community teams working externally and to families.

“We’ve sought feedback about the work I am doing and pupils are saying that they have felt safe in school – and that’s what this work is about. It’s about creating a safe environment so that every pupil, regardless of what has gone on in their life, has the same access to their education.”

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