Lyn Romeo, Chief Social Worker for Adults at the Department of Health.
As a lesbian, I always enjoy the visibility that Pride Month brings to those of us who are LGBTQ+ and the support it provides for our communities, families, friends and networks. As a social worker, it reminds me how vital it is for social work practice to protect and promote the human rights of everyone.
I am delighted to have a guest blog from my social work colleagues in Bradford and people with whom they work. Together they have made great progress in making sure people with learning disabilities achieve citizenship inclusion outcomes in many ways, but very importantly, through exercising their right to vote.
"It is part of our job as social workers to be intuitively and professionally aware of the needs of those we serve" says Lyn Romeo, Chief Social Worker for Adults. "Carers Week emphasises the theme of making sure carers are ‘visible, valued and supported’, which reminds us of the principles of our practice."
It is with a sense of relief, but also pride in our collective resilience as a profession, that we are able to publish the Chief Social Worker for Adults Annual Report 2021-22 in a world which has, at long last, regained some of the familiar trappings of normality.
This year’s World Social Work Day takes place against the backdrop of another international crisis, this time borne of one man’s inhumanity to an entire nation, rather than an accident of unconscious viral evolution. All the more reason to celebrate the very best of the social work profession.
It seems entirely appropriate, following February’s LGBT+ History Month, for International Women’s Day to make this year’s theme #BreakTheBias’, a call for the further empowerment of women – and of society as a whole.
Chief Social Worker for Adults, Lyn Romeo, has witnessed unprecedented changes in LGBT+ rights over her years as a social worker. Whilst there is still much to do, as we celebrate diversity through the ages during LGBT+ History Month, Lyn reflects on how far we have come as a society.
Continuous professional development in safeguarding practice is essential if we are to serve individuals, families, and communities well. The recently published Revisiting safeguarding practice will support local authority social workers to refresh their knowledge and understanding of their roles and responsibilities in responding to enquiries and concerns.
As this year’s festivities begin, I wanted to take the opportunity to say an enormous thank you to the people who keep things going, social workers, occupational therapists, social care staff in local authorities and everyone working in provider services...
I am so pleased to be writing this blog, celebrating the publication of ‘People at the heart of care’, the Government's adult social care reform White Paper.
Social work and social care values are at its core. This is about valuing people and what matters to them.