Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock
Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone who has inspired you in your career.
In this entry, Tony Mushrow celebrates his manager, Sarah Humphray, and her work within Sefton’s Team Around The School initiative, a collaboration between schools and a range of professionals focused on delivering early help to families.
Dear Sarah,
I have today nominated you for My Brilliant Colleague for several reasons. All jokes aside, I think you have been brilliant with Team Around The School (TAS).
You have worked tirelessly to improve this new service and bring in changes that will benefit the children and families we work with across Sefton.
We know this has not been easy and you have had to manage pushback from both schools and partner agencies.
You have led on several new initiatives and had a hand in everything – from the logo and the referral process to creating a handbook for families, schools and partner agencies that explains our work.
I came into post a couple of months after you joined and, although busy with your own role, you found the time to support me, taking me out to meet staff, involving me in meetings and being there for me when I struggled with understanding this new structure and service.
You always find the time to help and support both the staff on the team and those in partner agencies.
Your organisation and presentation about TAS to the new cluster was brilliant.
There were a couple of hundred people in that room, including local councillors, senior managers, the head of service and the director of children’s services. Yet you remained confident, informative, relatable and personable throughout – all the things you need to be a brilliant communicator.
At 59, I have been in social work for 25 years and, to be honest, was feeling quite burnt out and flat about my old post.
But working with you and witnessing your enthusiasm, dynamic energy, focus and drive has definitely inspired me to work harder and do better.
I want to learn more, do more, and help and support you to transform Team Around The School into an even better service for the children and families within Sefton.
Thank you, Sarah. Keep being the brilliant you.
How to nominate a colleague
You can nominate anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.
Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
*Despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry.*
If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com.
