My day starts early because I work in Kent but live in South London. When I arrive I check all my messages. If I see that the out-of-hours person left a message about an incident at 4am my heart sinks a little because very often things that happen in the night are not good, but you would be surprised how often people call at that hour for minor things too.

This morning one of the families I work with had left a message saying that their baby needed a front-facing buggy for medical reasons, so I have spent some of the day scrambling around for the money to buy one.

Once I have checked the message book I take a look at my diary. Some days I will be listed as a duty worker, which means that I go to other social workers’ scheduled meetings if they are called away on urgent tasks. Usually, though, I have my own meetings to attend — everything from child protection conferences through to discussions about the looked-after children for whom I am responsible.

My first meeting today was a really lovely one; I have been working with a child who has been looked after almost since birth and I recently chose the family who I thought would be perfect to adopt the baby. I did a lot of preliminary work and then today I gave a presentation to the adoption panel explaining why I thought they were the right family for the child. Everything went really well so the child and the couple now both have a new family, which is very rewarding.

Later in the day I met all the professionals involved in the case of a child who has a protection plan in place. The family is making significant progress and we are able to move the child into a lower risk category.

Both meetings show just how fantastic this job can be; the work I do is helping to make a positive difference in people’s lives.

Then I had a call from one of the families I look after saying that a child had been hurt. This is always a horrible thing to hear and sometimes it can be a crisis, so I went straight to the school to talk to the child, the child’s teachers and the mother. She had taken the child straight to hospital and brought all the medical documentation into the school so we could see that it was just an accident.

My last task today will be a family visit, which will take 60 to 90 minutes. I will also be able to drop off their new buggy.

Patrice Clark is a child protection social worker at Kent County Council.

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