Each Year CCP play host to Student Social Workers for their work placements, from a variety of Universities. This year for the first time, we hosted a Student from Oxford Brookes: Lynnet. Here's Lynnet's reflection on her placement...

My placement was in a Supported Accommodation for 16-25, for young people who are at risk of homelessness. My placement started with a very informative and empowering three days online (zoom) induction training, which included legislation, policies, theories, and approaches, which are all relevant to social work practice. This training allowed me to gain an understanding of the organisation and clients I would be supporting, especially when we discussed landmark cases and trauma informed care.

I have been able to apply my learning from the training to my work; by practising a person-centred approach, where the person is placed at the centre of the service or care, and treated as a person first. The "Strengths Based Approach" was one of the approaches from my training. I have applied this while conducting 1:1s, to identify what a client’s strengths are and what they are good at.

I have managed to meet my learning objectives during the placement as I have

• developed my knowledge and skills in communication, particularly verbalising my views in meetings, for example in Multidisciplinary Team Meetings. I have improved on my listening skills when engaging with service users and other professionals as I have been conducting welfare checks and 1:1s directly with clients.

• I can identify and apply polices and law, including legislation, which impacts on the working processes of CCP, and show an awareness of how these influence on individual service users’ experiences and outcomes. I have learnt about the referral process, how service users’ needs are identified and supported, the intervention used, and how to apply them in practice.

• I now understand and can apply principles of human rights, inclusion and social economic wellbeing in practice. I have achieved this by supporting clients with their universal credit applications, and conducting budgeting assessment. I have improved on my critical reflection of the service I provide, as I apply feedback from supervisions to my work, which I have been receiving from my onsite supervisor every two weeks during my placement.

I have been able to meet The Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) 9 Domains.

I have found the experience of working for CCP positive and felt supported by my on-site supervisor (Verity Wakeham) and the rest of the staff who welcomed me and made me feel at home right from the start, hence why I have decided to stay on as sessional worker. CCP is a large organisation and I feel staying on will allow me to work with varied clients, which will enhance my knowledge. I also feel I have transferrable skills from my previous work that I can use while supporting clients within CCP.