(John Morgan, Director of Adult Social Care)

When you work in adult social care, you make a difference to people's lives every single day.

We are here to make people as independent as they can be so that they are able to live their lives in the way that they want to.

One of the things that I'm most proud about is that Merton pays the London Living Wage to our care workers.

We invest in our staff in Merton. I want to make sure that we've got the training for our staff to ensure that you and they have the skills to be able to do your jobs properly.

And we've developed a standalone apprenticeship post within our services to support unqualified staff that want to progress into qualified positions such as social workers or occupational therapists.

And that's open to anyone in the council to apply for.

We also have a strong internal training offer to all professionals across adult social care and public health, irrespective of your grade or experience.

So why would you want to work in Merton?

You'll be making a difference. Every single day is different and you'll be a valued team member.

I’m Sarah Beveney and I'm a Senior Duty Social Worker, and I work with the Integrated Learning Disabilities Team.

So as a Senior Social Worker, I get to do a combination of the two: the frontline work, which means assessments, and care planning, and going out on visits. As well as a managerial element, which is supervising people, training, and kind of getting into meaty complex work.

It's enabled me to have conversations with people I wouldn't necessarily, and met people and communities I wouldn't have. And I'm really grateful for that. But actually, all I find I do is sow little seeds and you see that little chink of light. But you go and visit. You have that conversation. You enable them to see it slightly differently and the next time you go, she might be willing to, “OK, I'll accept some help.”

Being with the learning disabilities team is a better appreciation of people living with autism. I think it's those little interactions with team members. It's that humour and joy and celebrating what's worked well. It's bringing cakes in and having a chat. It's grabbing somebody who's done a really good piece of work or struggling and giving them five minutes to say, “Tell me about it. Tell me about what you've done.” And we all give that to each other. So that makes a difference.

The thing I love most about my job is that it's varied, it's challenging, no two days are the same.

The team I work in Merton are very supportive, and you get to meet so many interesting people on your visits, speaking to them on the phone, and it's just rewarding.

And, when you've put something in place to support them, maintain their independence, it's job satisfaction.

social care is important because we're supporting vulnerable adults in the community they've been, also safeguarding them, helping them to maintain their independence for as long as they want to, and can.

So, the qualities you need to be good social worker is listening skills, it's so important, so listening, being honest, being open, and just acknowledging that they matter as an individual, they matter.