Yogeeta has been practising as a Practice Specialist in Wandsworth for the past six months. After six years of frontline child protection work in London and a career that began in New Zealand, her role now gives her the chance to combine direct social work with children and families alongside influencing practice across the wider service.
Yogeeta describes the Practice Specialist role as both frontline and strategic:
“It’s nice because we kind of do wear two hats. So we still work frontline with family members, young people, children… the other part of the practice specialist is that we help influence practice and best practice within the organisation.”
This mix allows her to stay connected to the heart of social work while also shaping the way the service learns, reflects, and grows.
“We support a lot of the reflective space in practice, so group supervisions, consultations, being able to kind of loop in and feedback across the service in terms of where the gaps might be in practice.”
Yogeeta’s social work career began in New Zealand, where she worked in the youth justice system after training at university:
"When I was in high school, I would always struggle to decide what to do… but I just knew I really enjoyed working with people. I studied social work and I really enjoyed it.”
Her move to London brought new challenges and opportunities.
“When I first started off in London, I did feel quite fresh in the sense of learning processes and learning what the expectation was. And to be honest, I felt really nurtured, I felt really supported.”
One of the most important aspects of Yogeeta’s work is collaboration and reflective practice.
"As a practice specialist you can kind of have these pockets of moments with colleagues, and you can kind of really think about your own lived experiences and then talk about dilemmas or challenges you might have as a practitioner and unpack that together.”
She describes Wandsworth as an environment where colleagues support one another openly.
“You can just walk around the office and know that you can kind of approach anyone and everyone’s just so approachable and just so friendly.”
Yogeeta values social work because of its constant opportunities for learning:
“The great thing about social work and the reason why I’ve been doing it for so long, is that you’re constantly learning… you’re learning not just within your team, you’re learning from families, you’re learning from young people and children.”
Her current role gives her space to develop towards future goals:
“If I would like to become a practice educator or go into systemic practice to be a family therapist, I am supported… when I do have supervision with my managers, they’re the ones that are constantly like, so what are your ambitions? What are your goals? How can we get there?”
Despite the challenges of frontline social work, Yogeeta says it is the everyday moments that bring her joy:
“This morning itself, I had a couple of visits to see kids in school, and it’s really just made my morning because we just had such wholesome conversations… sometimes kids say things without thinking, and sometimes you learn a lot of things.”
It’s also about celebrating achievements, big and small.
“As social workers, we can sometimes forget to celebrate our own successes… being able to do that in such a big space like the Social Work Awards was just really nice and it felt really good for me.”
For Yogeeta, Wandsworth is a place where professional practice and personal values align.
“Working in Wandsworth, there’s a huge collaborative space… what I love so much about it is because it mirrors not just me as a person, but how I practice as a professional, that you can’t do social work in isolation... I think that’s what makes each day just a little bit more joyful.”