Built from practice.
Named for impact.

Why Pebble exists

I’ve worked in children’s social care for over 20 years. I started as a support worker and worked my way through different roles into management. So Pebble didn’t start because I wanted to build a tech company. It started because I knew the job.

I don’t think there was one massive lightbulb moment. It was more years of little moments that kept adding up.

Finishing a visit and knowing there was still an hour of writing waiting for you. Sitting in the car making sure you hadn’t forgotten something important. Trying to find the right form, the right resource or the right bit of guidance while everything else was going on around you.

And then getting to the end of the day feeling like you had spent more time servicing the system than actually doing social work. That was the bit that bothered me. Because the reason most of us come into this profession isn’t to complete forms. It’s to work with people.

I started wondering why the technology we used couldn’t make some of that easier. I didn’t have a big team behind me. I was still working full time. I just started building around the things I knew frustrated me and the people I worked with. That became The Social Work Way, and eventually Pebble.

Pebble still comes from the same place. It isn’t about putting more technology into social work for the sake of it. It’s about taking away some of the unnecessary work around the edges so practitioners have more time and headspace for the bit only they can do.

The social work.

What I was trying to fix

A lot of Pebble comes from things I was already doing myself. Keeping things in my head. Writing notes to come back to later. Searching for a direct work tool I remembered using years ago. Trying to find the latest form. Going back through notes after a meeting because I knew something important had been said. Writing up visits and meetings when the actual conversation had happened hours earlier. Moving information from one place to another because two systems didn’t talk to each other.

None of these things on their own sound massive. But when you are carrying a caseload or managing a busy team, they add up. That’s what I wanted Pebble to help with.

Capture the information properly. Make useful tools easier to find. Make forms easier to complete. Help organise information. Reduce some of the repetitive writing. Give people a better starting point instead of a blank page.

But there was something I was very clear about from the beginning. I didn’t want the technology doing the social work. I didn’t want it deciding what risk means, what threshold has been met or what should happen to a family. And I still don’t.

Technology can help us organise, record, understand and reflect on information. The judgement has to stay with the practitioner. The relationship has to stay with the practitioner. And the responsibility for the decision has to stay with the practitioner. That line is really important to me.

Pebble should take some of the admin off your shoulders. It should never take the profession out of your hands.

Why the worksheets are free

Direct work has always been one of the bits of social work I enjoy. Sometimes the best conversations with children don’t start with a clever assessment question. They start with a drawing, a worksheet, a scale, a game or just something that makes it easier for a child to explain what is going on for them.

Over the years I’ve used loads of different ideas with children and families. I’ve seen social workers in my teams create their own resources. I’ve seen practitioners adapt things because the worksheet they found online didn’t quite work for the child sitting in front of them. That’s where a lot of the thinking behind the Pebble resources comes from. Real practice.

I decided to make the worksheets free because I don’t think a social worker should have to think about whether they can afford a resource before using it with a child. If something can help somebody start a conversation with a child, understand how they are feeling or help them explain something difficult, I would rather it was being used. There doesn’t need to be a paywall around everything.

We will keep developing them, listening to practitioners and creating resources for different ages and different situations. Some will be simple. Some will be more detailed. But they should all have a purpose.

They should help you do the work, not just give you another sheet of paper to complete.

Browse the free worksheets →

What happens when you get in touch

If you fill in the contact form, it comes to me. There isn’t a sales team sitting behind Pebble. I built it, and I’m still working in children’s services alongside running Pebble. So sometimes my replies come early in the morning, in the evening or around the day job. But you will get a reply from someone who understands what you are talking about.

If you’re from a local authority or organisation and you want to know whether Pebble might work for your team, the first conversation is normally pretty straightforward. I’ll want to understand what you’re currently doing, what is taking up people’s time and what you would actually want to improve. I can show you the platform. You can tell me what you like and what you don’t. And if Pebble isn’t right for what you need, I’ll tell you that as well. There’s no hard sell.

A lot of the platform has developed because someone has contacted me and said, “Could it do this?” or “We have a problem with this process.” Those conversations are genuinely useful.

So whether you want to talk about using Pebble, running a trial, suggest something we should build or just ask a question, send it through.

I’ll come back to you.

Get in touch →