De Andrae

Social Worker Degree Apprentice

De Andrae - Social Worker Degree Apprentice at Enfield CouncilEnfield is where the passion is, and people really care. From my personal experience, I am a past care leaver and Enfield Council really supported me on my journey as a young person, so I made a very firm decision that I wanted to work for the Council.

The Leaving Care Team initially supported and signposted me to an organisation, which helped me secure a Level 3 Apprenticeship in Business Administration. Following my apprenticeship programme, I moved into the Business Support Team where I had a wonderful manager. I explained to her my aspirations were to become a social worker and that I aimed to start the social worker apprenticeship in two years’ time. However, my manager told me, that based on what she had seen and heard about me, that with support I would be ready to start the apprenticeship in a year. I started in the Business Support Team in March 2022 and started my social work apprenticeship in March 2023. From our director to my manager, Enfield have 100% supported me on this journey to ensure that all my aspirations are being met.

Being open and honest is definitely one of the core values that I’ve seen fostered in the teams I’ve worked in. Being in social work, we need to be very clear about expectations and how we are engaging with each other. One of the biggest things that we focus on is the person centred and strengths based approach, we work on engaging with families to ensure they take the lead in deciding what is the best outcome, as they are the experts in their lives.