The neurodivergent social worker brings you another series, this time specifically for social work leaders. Social work leaders are present in all levels of social work systems – the macro and the micro.
A social work leader could be a social worker who has influence over a macro-level system, structures and policies. Such as the director of children's services, managers, principal social workers, advanced practitioners, assistant team managers, or equality, diversity and inclusion champions. However, leaders we also encounter implicit leaders in our day-to-day practice on the micro level. For example, a social worker who champions best practices with neurosparkly clients, who mentors newly qualified social workers, or who advocates for their colleagues etc.
This series is not limited to current social worker leaders, if you are a practising social worker you might find discussion points useful for your own reflection and activism. The questions and reflective points could help you: reflect on how you feel in your current workplace and what change you need to see; advocate for yourself and your individual needs, and inform a campaign in your own immediate team.
Conversation starters for social work leaders was inspired by Radical Recruitment’s online event Radical Talks: Neurodiversity, My Employer & Me. The event was led by neurodivergent living/ed experience experts and employers to encourage business leaders to hire diverse teams. It provided a space for neurodivergent employees to share their experiences and enabled business leaders to share how they have changed their organisational practice and culture to support neurodiverse teams.
Conversation starters for social work leaders aims to inform, educate, and inspire positive change in social work. Each episode will provide bite-size reflections and questions to start a conversation between social work leaders within and across social work organisations. Social work organisations can be universities, research companies (such as research in practice), non-government organisations (NGOs), local authorities and charities etc.
I hope the series will support social work leaders to reflect on the need to make impactful, meaningful and purposeful changes to support neurodivergent social workers.
Each of the following five episodes is written through my professional living experience lens as a white female dyslexic and dyspraxic social worker with a chronic/disabling health condition. Therefore, reflective questions and discussion points do have their limitations which need to be considered. The series cannot, for example, provide a reflection on, or examples of lived experience on the important intersections which can impact a social worker’s access to and experiences of work (for example, race, sexual identity or criminal history).
Social work leaders can therefore use this series as a guide in conjunction with other resources that provide evidence-based advice and resources on facilitating equality and equity in access to work and within the workplace for minoritized groups.
The following five episodes of Conversation starters for social work leaders will focus on asking a question for you to reflect on, whilst also providing points for them to consider.
Here is a sneak peek of the questions which will be explored over the next five weeks:
What do neurodivergent social workers look for in employers?
Why do leaders need to change recruitment processes to encourage neurodivergent social workers?
How can leaders encourage reasonable adjustment requests?
How can leaders address bias
How can leaders inspire change?
So, if you are a social worker leader or front-line social worker and the series introduction has piqued your interest, join me weekly. Get in touch to join in on the conversation.
If you would like to see a certain topic covered by the Neurodivergent Social Worker, or if you would like to contribute something to the series/blog, please get in contact!