‘I chose South Glos for the opportunities’ says Louise, a Team Manager in one of our locality teams at South Gloucestershire Council. 

‘I was quite happy in my job with another Local Authority, but I’m the type of person who is always looking to stretch myself and I’d heard that if I wanted development and challenge, South Gloucestershire was the place to go.’ 

Initially it was the chance to manage a bigger team and to experience a broader range of cases which appealed to Louise, but having worked at South Gloucestershire for three years now, she has realised what opportunity really means when you’re working in children’s social work. 

‘Being put forward for Firstline was a fantastic experience. 

‘It’s a brilliant course and I learnt so much from spending time with children’s services managers at other councils, but beyond that, all of us at South Glos who have attended have built a really strong bond between us. We’ve formed a ‘managing from the middle’ group, which meets every month to talk cases, to bounce ideas around and just to be there for each other when we need support.’ 

 ‘Earlier in the year as a group we discussed if there were ways we could make our service more inclusive to better support young people from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background. One of our fellow managers had a few ideas and senior managers have encouraged him to spend time investigating how we take this forward. 

‘South Gloucestershire has been a great place for me to develop myself personally, but more importantly than that, it’s fantastic working for an authority where you know that the investment in you will make a real difference for children and young people.’