Allyship in the ASYE programme

Emily Gwynn, National Professional Lead (RPW) Workforce Delivery, Skills for Care discusses why allyship matters in the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment for social workers (ASYE) programme.

Allyship – actively supporting and advocating for people from marginalised or under-represented groups and using your own privilege to help create a more equitable and inclusive environment – is a key part of social work practice.

The Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) provides fertile ground in which assessors, newly qualified social workers, and senior leaders can both practice and develop their ability to be allies to others. This includes assessors and managers becoming strong allies for the newly-qualified social workers they work with.

Foundations of allyship in the programme

The ASYE programme itself supports the development of allyship for the newly-qualified social worker through several aspects such as regular, structured and reflective supervision, collaborative development planning, and ongoing feedback and support. Assessors hold a vital role here in ensuring they create a psychologically safe space for a newly-qualified social worker to be open and honest about their own personal experiences as well as their practice with adults and/or children and families.

Things that can help foster allyship between assessors and newly-qualified social workers include:

• Prioritising and protecting reflective supervision sessions to allow deep thinking and effective learning opportunities
• Using reflective supervision models and tools to promote a learning partnership
• Sourcing effective mentorship from colleagues who will be able to guide and help to support the newly qualified social worker
• Jointly reflecting upon our own privilege, vulnerabilities, and need for allyship using tools such as the Power Flower (link) or Social Identity Wheel (link)
• Assessors providing continual feedback through open dialogue to create a supportive relationship which aids the newly qualified social worker to grow
• Attending peer reflective supervision sessions and forums for assessors to develop their own reflective practice and to enhance their ability to support newly qualified social workers
• Establishing clear roles and frameworks for accountability, as outlines in the guidance for assessors regarding advocating for the newly qualified social worker’s support needs
• Providing transparent communication and collaborative problem-solving, rather than punitive methods of addressing concerns, helping to maintain trust and psychological safety.

Challenges in allyship between assessors and newly qualified social workers

While the ASYE framework can enable a supportive and transformative relationship between assessors and newly qualified social workers, it is not without its challenges.

Perhaps most importantly, assessors must recognise, acknowledge, and address their dual role in both supporting and evaluating. This, combined with organisational pressures and the emotional intensity of early-career social work, can often lead to tension in the assessor and newly qualified social worker relationship.

Assessors must therefore utilise the training and support available to them, so they feel empower and equipped to manage this delicate balance. Skills for Care provide regular opportunities for assessors to meet with one another for peer support through assessor forums and training.

Allyship in action

Before joining Skills for Care, I worked with a newly-qualified social worker to build a safe space for her to engage in reflective supervision. We used tools to identify and discuss openly the different privileges and areas of marginalisation we both experience. We openly identified the inherent power dynamics in the relationship and both the conscious and unconscious biases we may hold.

She was newly-qualified; I was an experienced social worker and responsible for assessing her work. I was white British; she was black Nigerian. She was neurotypical; I have dyslexia. She was older and had several years of relevant work experience before becoming a social worker; I was younger and had limited work experience outside of social work.

Through both of us recognising these aspects of our own identities, as well as how these could interplay with our professional practice, we were able to build and maintain a working relationship characterised by allyship. It required a willingness from both of us to feel uncomfortable when our norms were challenged and to sit with those feelings to find a way forward, rather than maintaining the status quo. It enabled me to advocate for her, when needed, and to provide the best possible foundation to her social work career.

Final thoughts

Allyship is a journey that is not always easy and often takes time, however, the rewards of getting it right are significant. The ASYE programme supports assessors to become allies to the newly qualified social workers allocated to them and, as I know from personal experience, there is nothing better than seeing someone you have advocated for go on to do amazing things. Creating a more inclusive and equitable social work profession can only create a more inclusive and equitable world for those who draw on care and support – allyship is how we get there.

Find out more about the ASYE.

Find out more about allyship.

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