A CHARITY which provides training for social workers has reopened applications for a training programme.

Frontline, which runs the largest social work training programme in the country, has reopened applications for its 2020 Leadership Development Programme and is calling for people in the North-East to transform the lives of the most vulnerable children and families in the region.

Frontline has partnered with councils in the North-East who have been in great need of social workers since 2016, with 35 participants from the 2019 cohort working across ten of the region’s local authorities – including County Durham, Middlesbrough and North Yorkshire.

The charity said there are more than 11,000 looked-after children in the region, and there is an urgent need for more professionals. Due to increased demand, applications are now open for a limited time only for additional participants to join Frontline’s 2020 cohort.

Dean Stamp, Frontline participant in Gateshead, said: “ Frontline has given me the opportunity to find out what social work is, who I am as a social worker and how I can be that person in order to do what is right by the families I work with.

“I have been able to expand beyond my role, into my interest of domestic abuse work and develop a different way of working, alongside my social worker role, that I would not have been able to do without the backing of Frontline’s drive for us to be leaders in the field.

“I believe that anyone who has a passion for change should consider social work through Frontline. It’s an opportunity to do something different with the skills and knowledge you already have in order to effect real change for families in need.”

Frontline, an independent charity, was set up in 2013.

The programme qualifies graduates as children’s social workers, and equips them with the skills necessary to become leaders in social work and broader society, training one in 10 new social workers each year.

To date, more than 500 participants have qualified as social workers through the programme.

You can find more information on Frontline’s website: https://thefrontline.org.uk/our-programmes/frontline-programme.