“I am a ‘grow your own social worker’ all the way from the very beginning” — meet Emma, Assistant Team Manager in our Hospital Discharge team

Hi Emma! For those who aren’t familiar, what is the Hospital Discharge service?

Hospital Discharge is about facilitating people when they leave their hospital care. We assess clients and support them with their onward journey — for some people, that means staying at home with a longer-term package of care, and for others, that means moving on with their lives to a different way of living. In every instance, it will involve support of some kind, whether it’s just advice, guidance and signposting from us, or being advocates for them.

The Discharge South and Central service work with hospitals all over the country because our job is to support Buckinghamshire residents wherever they are. So, if you are minding your own business on your holiday in Cornwall and you have the misfortune of falling over and breaking your hip and you live here, you’ll get someone like me on the end of the phone trying to sort out bringing you home.

What was your career path before you joined Buckinghamshire Council?

When I joined Bucks, I went into the Home Care division after working in accountancy, believe it or not! I knew that [accounting] wasn’t something I wanted to do for the rest of my life — as cliché as it sounds, I wanted to do something helping people.

By that point, I was an adult living an adult’s life, and I couldn’t afford to go straight back to uni. So, I decided to work my way up, and that’s exactly what I did. I was there for about two years, then a job came up in the Discharge North team, as it’s now known — it was called the Stoke Mandeville Hospital Discharge Service at that point. It was part of the Care Management team back then. I was a Social Work Assistant, effectively — at the time, the idea was to do it for a couple of years until I had the required experience level and then go for the apprenticeship. But they stopped offering apprenticeships for a little while, so I moved around a bit within the Discharge service.

I got to know the county a little bit better from a care management standpoint. And then, as soon as they started offering the degree again, I went for it. I qualified as a social worker in 2014, did a little stint in Learning Disabilities and Transitions, and then I went into Continuing Healthcare. That really fit my preferred working style, with health and MDT [multidisciplinary team] working, getting involved with different partner agencies. And from there, I came back to hospitals. So, I’ve sort of ended up back where I started, only at a different end of the county as a Senior Practitioner. And now, I’m one of the Assistant Team Managers.

That’s quite a career journey, especially going from one sector to a completely different one! What opportunities and support have you been given since you joined the council?

I am a ‘grow your own social worker’ all the way from the very beginning. I’ve supported people in their own homes to live as they wish to live and have seen how that actually works all the way through. I’ve been encouraged and supported to take different types of training, and really think about where I wanted my career trajectory to go. Bucks is really good at that, and our Advanced Practitioners are actively encouraged to further their own career and CPD [continued professional development], whether that’s by gaining a BIA qualification, a degree, or something else. One can go in a variety of different directions, whether that’s progressing upwards through the management structure or sideways to a different team or sector. I think we are excellent at providing those opportunities here.

Can you tell us a bit about your team?

We’re a very, very friendly team. We’re very diverse geographically, there’s a mix of experience levels, genders, ages, and races. Everybody is really supportive, and we can all learn from each other, which is lovely. It’s really nice to have those differing viewpoints and experience sets — there are some people that have a background in mental health, community services, and even children’s services. There’s a melting pot for all of us, including managers, to draw from. I’m honoured and privileged to be a part of it. It’s genuinely quite special, and I like that the people who work here do so because they love their job, not just because it pays their mortgage.

Although we rely quite heavily on our virtual team and stay in touch via our team chat and email, we have set office days, so no one is ever in the office by themselves. We make sure that the offices are frequented by a mix of people — there are a lot of ‘water cooler’ chats that go on now, which is nice because it’s bringing back that feeling of working together in a building!

Finally, why is it a good time to join the Hospital Discharge South & Central team?

This is an exciting time to join us because we’ve got a chance to work closely with our Bucks Health Trust colleagues and build something that benefits the people of Bucks — all of us. Everyone that I’ve spoken to has got into this line of work to make a difference and we have that opportunity now, and that’s something really exciting to be part of. So come along for the ride!

We’re seeking dedicated, caring people to join our Hospital Discharge team. Click to find out more and apply:

Social Work Assistant: https://bit.ly/3uZaW5M

Newly Qualified Social Worker: https://bit.ly/3hBXTo2

2 x Advanced Practitioners: https://bit.ly/3YBAq6Q