Celebrating Practice Month at St Helens Borough Council
September marks Practice Month here at St Helens Borough Council - a dedicated time for our Children's Social Care and Youth Justice teams to come together, reflect, and grow through a wide range of learning and development opportunities.
Throughout the month, colleagues are taking part in training sessions, observed practice, and health checks for social workers. There's even a competition for children to get involved, making Practice Month a collective celebration of the work we do together for children, young people, and families.
Back to the floor - learning together
Paula Swindlehurst, Director of Children and Young People, shared her enthusiasm for the initiative:
"Our objective is to bring everyone together - senior leaders, managers, and our lead elected member, Councillor Charlton - to observe practice. It's all about back to the floor for managers, and a real opportunity for the whole team to reflect on their work, practice, and most of all: grow together and learn from these opportunities."
Paula also gave her thanks to everyone who worked hard behind the scenes to bring this month to life:
"A huge thank you from me to everyone involved in planning the activity for Practice Month because I know an awful lot of hard work has gone into it."
Seeing practice in action
Councillor Nova Charlton, Cabinet Member for Children & Young People, also took part in observed practice, joining a social worker to visit both a young person in a school and a family.
Reflecting on the experience, she said:
"Practice Month is a great opportunity for our social workers to showcase how, as a council, children and young people are our number one priority.
I had the opportunity to go out and observe practice with one of our social workers. We went to visit a young person in a school setting, and we went to visit a family. It was a great opportunity for me to see firsthand the hard work that our social workers do and it truly made me recognise that when Ofsted - on rating our Children's Services as 'Good' with 'Outstanding' features during their most recent inspection - highlighted that 'social workers know their children and families' they really, really do."
Councillor Charlton ended with a heartfelt message of appreciation:
"I'd like to thank all our social workers for the hard work they do in the true spirit of our council mantra - working with you, for you."
Practice Month is about more than just learning - it's about celebrating the dedication of our staff, building stronger connections across teams, and keeping children and young people at the heart of everything we do.