Alternative advent calendar: 13 December

Our advent calendar celebrates a dozen people or teams who have inspired us this year

Olly Swann, Director (Children’s Services), writes:

I had the honour of presenting the ‘Team of the Year’ award to these fabulous people at the Social Worker of the Year Awards in November.

It is clear that the team is achieving some stellar results. One that particularly sticks with me is that 71% of their care leavers go on to further education or employment. Some who left school with no qualifications are now thriving at university or in apprenticeships. To me, that really proves the levels of commitment, expertise, and empathy shown by team members.

No wonder that Ofsted rated the service ‘outstanding’ this time last year. The team have put their success down to ‘getting the basics right and really understanding what works’. Simple stuff – but absolutely fundamental. This makes perfect sense to me as a way of explaining why they have been so successful.