Working in Hackney

Hackney Town Hall. Our new building is right behind it.

The front entrance.
One half of the building...


The third floor. No wall between floors 1,2,3 and the open Atrium.

A balcony for work/meeting/break on the 1st floor (which is actually the 2nd floor.) The building is Wi-Fi enabled, so with laptops, we can go anywhere to "do a piece of work."

I have often shared the story of how I found this job. "I got frustrated with LUCI, went to Google, and now I'm in London." (For those of you not from Johnson County Mental Health, LUCI is the electronic medical records system.) Well, I have to admit, I've cut off my nose to spite my face with regards to electronic records systems. The system here is WORSE! The record keeping system is overly complicated, with over 2000 categories in which to file information! While the system does have functions for importing emails relevant to clients, there are many extraneous steps to get that email into the system. Not only that, the local authority has purchased a document storage system which provides for extra security of records. Good idea. But, again, it is overly complicated with many extra steps. Add that, the two systems do not work together! So, anytime you create a document, it forces you to save into one of these two systems. It's a minimum of 8 clicks to save any document. (I'm a click counter!) I'[m thinking of suggesting that my current employer talk with Jo Co about purchasing LUCI..... ;) NOT!

Our jobs are typical child welfare work-- like that of DFS or SRS in MO or KS. We work with families with whom someone has expressed concern about child abuse or neglect. The department we work with might be akin to Family Preservation. Families have been through an extensive assessment process, and it has been determined that there is some level of risk of harm to the children. We work with the families to try to keep them together. Sometimes, families either can't or won't make the changes needed to keep the children safe, so we have to begin legal proceedings to take the children into care.

The philosophies in the work here are very similar to those in MO and KS.

There are, however, some huge differences. We work in the London Borough of Hackney. It is one of the most diverse areas of London, with over 100 languages spoken in the area. There is a very large Muslim population. The predominant ethnic groups are Turkish and Afro Caribbean, with a significant part of the population coming from various parts of Afria (and each having it's own culture and language.) With this, comes abuse issues we don't see in Kansas, related to religious beliefs or traditions.

One of the things that attracted us to this particular job is the model that this borough is promoting. They are basically bringing the multidisciplinary team concept into child welfare work. They refer to these teams as "Social Work Units." Each unit has a Consultant Social Worker, who acts as a team leader, with both management and direct care responsibilities; a Social Worker, who focuses on traditional case work; a Child Practioner, who does both traditional case work and individual work with children (many people in this position are social work students, working toward a Bachelor's or Master's in social work); a clinical practitioner, who completes clinical assessments and provides therapeutic intervention with children and families; and a Unit Coordinator, who completes administrative tasks and keeps us all organized. David and I are both Consultant Social Workers. As with our team work in KS, a well functioning unit is like a well oiled machine. When it works, it works very well. If some parts are not functioning well, it doesn't work. David and I have had very different experiences with this. My unit is comprised of people who have a lot of varied experience both in London child welfare, and in other social work arenas. Additionally, we "clicked" right away. David's unit has had to work at figuring out their " machine," but they have all committed to working on it, and things are moving forward and becoming much better.

One of the traditional conflicts that has happened in units is a tension between the Consultant Social Worker and the Clinical Practitioner. Unlike the US, social workers here are not trained in clinical intervention. Many of the therapists here started their careers as social workers, and went on to get further training to become therapists. However, most of the Consultant Social Workers are very experienced and clinically skilled, though they may or may not have had formal training. Then, they bring in us Americans who are essentially dually trained. You can imagine some of the turf wars that occur. The deal is, the Consultant is solely responsible with what happens with every case, and has the final decision with regard to the plan of intervention. I am very lucky in that my clinician understands and values that my training and skills are very similar to hers, and she isn't threatened by that. David's is working on it.

If you haven't caught on, social workers here are not qualified to do therapy or diagnose! They are traditional, case manager-type social workers! There are many avenues to get a qualification do be a therapist, and they have to do with completing training in a specific therapeutic school. So, you can be trained in psychoanalysis, and become a qualified psychoanalytic practitioner. Or, you can complete a training program in Systemic Family Therapy, and become a Qualified Systemic Practitioner. (These seem to be the two predominant approaches, though my therapist is trained in CBT.) Each approach has it's own training program, so therapists are trained in only one school of thought, but can also get trained in more than one area and be qualifed in more than one. David and I could probably get grandfathered somehow, but we haven't looked into that.

The people with whom we work are wonderful. Our managers have been very understanding, supportive and helpful. We are meeting a lot of people from a lot of places! The Social Worker in my unit is from Madrid, and David really likes her accent! My child practitioner is from England, but of Jamaican descent. My Unit Coordinator is from Liverpool. While this is in England, it is amazing how different her accent is from co-workers from London! Our manager is from South Africa, and has been here 9 years now. (She has as much difficulty getting her children into school as we did.)

So, when Jo Co talks about "Diversity," they really don't have much to talk about, compared to here!

Oh my goodness. I can't forget to talk about our "new building." In March, we moved into a new building built by Hackney, designed to house all of the servcies which work directly with "service users." (This is how we refer to our "clients.") So, Housing, Youth Probation, Adults with Disabilities, Parking Passes, Blue Badges (disabled parking passes), and any other service which deals directly with people, are housed in this building. It has space for 2000 people! It is a very modern building, which is full of glass. The Atrium is open all the way to the top floor (it is 5 floors tall), with the work spaces in a U shape around the open atrium. Floors 1, 2 and 3 (the ground floor is 0), have no wall or divider around the outside, so people on each of those floors can lean over the balcony and look down into the reception area that is the open atrium. The 4th floor (which is where we are, in the "Penthouse Suite," does have a glass wall, but we also have a balcony looking out over the reception area.

Along with the new building, comes "a new way of working," as Hackney has said over and over. We now work in an "Open Plan," with "Hot Desking." This means: no offices (or cubicles). Just a very large, open space, with clusters of desks, each desk with a computer docking station and a phone. We are encouraged to feel free to sit anywhere each day we come into the office. (Of course, people are creatures of habit-- we all sit in the same place!) We all have a labtop or tablet, and we dock it and log on each day. We have to log into our phone extension each morning, and log out each night. "The Clean Desk Policy" ensures that whatever desk we use each day is clear, so that we have a clean work space no matter where we sit. (As our department works in Units, each unit has it's own cluster of 5 desks. Other departments may have a collection of clusters in one particular area. So, 40 desks for 50 people.) Theoretically, there are not enough desk spaces for everyone to have a desk, so we are "encouraged" to work from home one day a week. This sounds all well and good, but the connection to our internal systems remotely is VERY SLOW. For now, our department does have enough desks, but we are expected to grow, so we will have to figure this one out. We are not allowed to eat food at our desks if it requires the use of a utensil-- only "finger food." (Makes me want to bring in BBQ ribs!) There are several "break out" areas on each floor, with fridge, microwave, sink and hot water tap. There are tables and chairs and sofas in each break out area. Instant coffee, tea, sugar and milk are provided for our breaks.

Each individual has a locker to keep personal and work supplies (and our laptop), and each unit has a "unit cupboard," in which we keep things we share as a unit. (Stationary, pens, food, games and art supplies for work with children, etc.) Each Desk cluster has dividers, which is actually made of some sort of sound proofing material, so that we can have phone conversations that don't interrupt others at our cluster. The interesting thing is, I can often hear people accross the room better than I can hear people in my own unit, even when we are tryng to have conversations (work related conversations, of course!) The experience has been much more positive than I imagined. It's nice to be able to coordinate accross departments, just by walking accross the room. It can also be a bit of a distraction. That is why the laptops and tablets are Wi-Fi enabled, and there is Wi Fi available in the building. There are work areas in various places if you need to go away to get "a piece of work done," as they say here.

Finally, the benefits are wonderful! The work week is 35 hours, with an expectation of working from home one day a week. We get 27 days of "annual leave" each year. (We call it "vacation time" in the US.) This is in addition to about 10 "Bank Holidays." Bank holidays are the same as federal holidays, and includes days like Christmas and New Year. Each employee keeps track of their own annual leave-- it's an honor system. Also, there seems to be no limit to how much education leave you can take. Just can't leave the unit bare, and have to share trainings across the unit. I am taking a Systemic Family Therapy Course which is equivalent to a semester graduate level course. It will result in a Certification in Systemic Family Therapy, and if I complete the second year, a further certification. This is in addition to all the various child protection oriented trainings. I am actually getting a little tired of training! (Yes, I did just say that.)

Speaking of training-- have an essay to write. I guess this is enough for one post.
Just one more thing: We are still looking for good social workers, and they have now started interviewing by Skype! (Hint, Hint...)