All about your social worker

What it is for

We ask children to tell us a great deal about themselves, usually on a first or second meeting, often while they are frightened. This sheet evens that up slightly. You fill it in — a photo, your name and number, a little about you, what you enjoy, what matters to you, and what you are there to do.

It is most useful before a first visit, at a handover between workers, or for a child who has had so many social workers that another name means nothing. A child who can put a face to the person arriving is starting from somewhere better.

Using it in a session

• Fill it in by hand. A typed sheet reads like a letter from the department. Your handwriting reads like a person.
• Use a real photograph. This is the part children actually use. A photo on the fridge is how a six-year-old remembers who is coming.
• Keep the boundary where it belongs. “Fun facts” means your dog and your football team, not your address, your family or anything you would not say in supervision.
• Be concrete in “here to support”. “I am here to help your family sort things out” means more than “I am here to support you”.
• Give it to them to keep. It is theirs. The contact details on it are often the first a child has had that are not on a letterhead.