Surrey Children’s Services

I am Rachael Wardell, Executive Director, Children, Families & Lifelong Learning. I am delighted to welcome you to Community Care Inform Children. This resource has been an important contributor to professional development across the directorate as our practice goes from strength to strength, and I hope that you too will find it helpful in your everyday practice and to support your continuous professional development.

Surrey Children’s Services are committed to supporting you to make a difference to children and young people and their families. We want our children and young people to be safe, healthy and to aspire to be the best they can be!

Through the Surrey Children’s Academy there is a Learning and Development Programme offered to support all our staff. This starts with student Social Workers, Newly Qualified Social Workers and Social Workers across all roles and teams and continues throughout your career. We are proud of our Learning and Development Programme and confident that it will positively support and develop you, helping to consolidate your learning and provide you with experiences of Social Work that help you to progress. All this in a stimulating working environment which will enhance your professional knowledge, skills, confidence, and capabilities.

We know that we can support you to reach your potential to be the best practitioner you can be and develop fully in your chosen career.

Support for career progression is so important to me. I see the value in it for individuals, for teams, and for our children and families. We all have our own professional path in life, and I’m hoping you will use all the resources available to develop your own personalised career progression, in a way that is most suitable for you and for your personal aspirations. These resources can support you with opportunities to develop the necessary skills and learning in order to grow, not only into your current role but also in preparation for future roles. There are many exciting opportunities for you in Surrey.

I hope this learning resource – alongside the others available to you – helps you achieve your personal career ambitions and, in turn, supports better experiences and outcomes for Surrey’s children and families, whenever they need the involvement of our services.

Rachael Wardell, Executive Director, Children, Families & Lifelong Learning