My name is Anna Mitchell
and I am a Family Link Worker with the Coastal Collective. I am extremely excited to get started in my new job role and am looking forward to meeting all of the schools’ staff.
I qualified as a Social Worker in 2015 and since then have worked for Bolton and Blackpool Councils in the Safeguarding teams as well as my last job being a supervising social worker in the fostering team for Blackpool Council. I have also worked in the charity sector as a School Social Worker. Within my child protection roles I have been a lead professional within child protection proceedings and followed child protection processes from child in need to child protection/ PLO and unfortunately removal of children. I have also recently worked supporting foster carers and so I have a good knowledge of supporting looked after children and their carers in the local area.
As a school social worker I mainly worked with children in schools, within one-to-one sessions. I supported children with issues such as anxiety, bereavement, self-confidence, self-esteem, difficulty managing emotions as well as supporting those children who had experienced abuse or trauma. I also ran groups with children using Relax Kids, which used play, mindfulness, visualisations and affirmations to reduce anxiety and build resillience, and also ZAP! which was a programme to combat bullying.
I have also facilitated workshops such as NSPCC PANTS and transition to high school workshops with whole classes of children. Within this role, I have also supported families at an early help level, I completed home visits with families to complete assessments and offer practical support.
I also sourced material support from benevolent organisations and signposted to community resources. Within schools I also worked more flexibly with parents and school staff experiencing any personal difficulties such as family breakdown, providing support and a listening ear. I also co-led a parenting group in Incredible Years and completed the facilitators training course.
I work in a non-judgemental way with families and try to be solution focussed and work in partnership with them to empower them to contemplate, achieve and hopefully maintain change. I am very flexible in my work and happy to adapt my role to suit the needs of the schools and the community and willing to research and train if there are elements of work that I have not yet had experience in.
I would like to become part of the school communities and work closely with school professionals. I am keen to work with the children directly to understand their lived experiences. I would also like to set up a peer support group for carers, including SGO and private fostering arrangements and adopters.