The best advice for social workers: ‘Take care of yourself first – it’s not selfish, it’s necessary’

At Community Care Live, a panel of experts discussed the role of learning and development in attracting and retaining early-career social workers. As part of our Choose Social Work campaign, we asked each of them for the best piece of advice they would give to new social workers.
Sophie Gilbert, head of learning academy, Birmingham Children’s Trust
For me it would be: don’t stay put.
Know yourself in terms of your areas of interest and what brought you into this. But also, it’s