Curriculum Vitae

 

 

Paul Fitzpatrick

 

BSc (Econ) 1977

Certificate of Qualification in Social Work 1978

Post graduate Diploma in Social Work 1978

 

Recent Training:

 

Good Practice in Risk Assessment: Cafcass January 2009

Kinship Placements, Policy, Practice and the Law: NAGALRO, 12.Nov.2009

Communicating with Children: NAGALRO, 09.Dec.2009

 

Address

 

Weston Cottage, Weston Lane, Corscombe, Dorset DT2 0PB

 

 

Telephone: 01935 891738

 

Mobile: 07525 455604

 

email: independentsocw@me.com

 

Website: independentsocialworker.com

 

Experience

 

My career has developed into a wide range of practice experience, as follows:

 

September 2009 – ongoing: self employed independent social worker and self employed FCA for Cafcass Cymru. (Please note, the latter precludes me from working independently in Wales).

 

2003 - 2009 Employed by Cafcass England for six and a half years as a Family Court Advisor, in both public law (Children's Guardian) and private law (Children and Family Reporter, Rule 9.5 Children's Guardian) as well as adoption work (Reporting Officer). Unlike some of my colleagues, who eschewed private law work, my caseload was always equally divided between private and public law.

 

I received domestic violence training stages 1 & 2 and Cafcass risk assessment training as well as instruction in the application of human rights law (Article 8, especially).

 

In public law I worked as a children’s guardian with cases in which there were issues of neglect, physical abuse and sexual abuse warranting child protection services. I am familiar with issues in the use of illicit drugs and in matters where parental mental health or learning disability is an issue, or where problem alchohol consumption raises concern. I am experienced in making my own analysis of matters and I am experienced in putting that analysis before the Court both in writing and in oral evidence.

 

In both public and private law matters I am familiar with domestic violence and its effect on childrens’ development.

 

In private law I am used to working as a children and family reporter without the advice of a solicitor, to writing my own reports and giving evidence in support of those reports. I have experience of a range of applications: for all section 8 orders and for leave to remove from the jurisdiction. Part of my private law work involved dispute resolution and that experience now helps my practice by giving me the tools to explore behind the issues.

 

As a rule 9.5 Childrens’ Guardian I have experience of working with very conflicted private law matters and I have put that experience to good effect in my work as an independent social worker.

 

I am familiar with my responsibilities with regard to child protection and I adopt the south West child protection procedures.

 

My experience as a manager as well as in the assessment and preparation of foster carers and adopters and in working with adults with learning disability (see below) all adds extra understanding that helps me to form opinions, make constructive comments, and maintain a focus on the welfare of children.

 

2000 - 2003 Employed in local authority fostering and adoption work in Bournemouth and Poole, firstly as a social worker preparing foster carers and adopters for panel and supporting them afterward and latterly as a fostering team manager, managing a team of social workers and presenting applicants to fostering panel.

 

The specific experience that I gained here built on my earlier more generic experience and added to my earlier development of skills in learning disability services.

 

1999 - 2000 Manager of a Care and Repair  project providing services to disabled residents to assist them to remain living at home. This post gave me experience of assessing the needs of physically disabled adults.

 

1992 - 1999 Employed by a local authority firstly as a social worker for children and families and secondly as a social worker for adults with learning disabilities. At first working with children in need or looked after, alongside duty social work, I later moved to work with learning disabled adults. The latter work provided me with wide practical experience of assessing the abilities of learning disabled adults, their strengths and their weaknesses, and of providing services based on those assessments. This complements my wider experience of working with families.

 

1978 - 1992 The early part of my career in social work started in Wales, as a generic social worker, before I moved on to become a court officer working in juvenile courts and undertaking duty work. Subsequently I moved to become the manager of a child care team coving a wide rural area, providing child protection services, fostering services and services to children in need. This was my first management post and it enabled me to develop leadership and self-starting skills.

 

 

Paul Fitzpatrick

 

 

 

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