22 March 2017

For immediate release

Karen Cook, CNWL's new head of social care

CNWL's new Head of Social Work and Social Care aims to strengthen and develop excellent social work practice across the Trust by promoting strong social work values, skills and expertise to all aspects of social, mental and physical health care. The role covers all social workers employed directly by the Trust and social workers working as part of integrated teams. There are over 200 social workers in a variety of roles and services across the Trust.

Karen Cook began her career as a residential worker in a mental health hostel in 1989 in Westminster and qualified as a Social Worker in 1994. She has worked primarily in adult mental health and started her first social work role in a Local Authority Mental Health Social Work Team in the London Borough of Croydon. She was a practising Approved Social Worker during her 11 years with Croydon/South London and Maudsley Trust.

She has worked for the Trust for 11 years in a variety of roles - mainly in developing joint agreements with London boroughs to jointly provide health and social care services and over the last year has been the Interim Head of Social Work and Social Care.

Karen is currently the Deputy Chair of the National Principal Social Worker Network and also co-chairs the London Mental Health Social Care Leads Network at London ADASS. These roles have enabled her to have a broader perspective and ‘pinched with pride' some examples of good practice to influence service improvements.

With a key driver being integration across health and social care, one of Karen's key priorities is to ensure CNWL continues to deliver high quality social care services in an integrated way with health and that CNWL meets all the delegated statutory duties under the Care Act, 2014.

Karen said: "My focus is to ensure social workers in CNWL have the opportunities to use their social work skills and expertise and move away from a generic care co-ordinator role and to influence a person-centred, strengthens based approach to promote recovery, independence and choice to individuals who use services and their carers"

Another key part of Karen's role will be to develop a stronger professional social work supervisory structure to work alongside an improved CPD programme. Karen is looking forward to welcoming the Think Ahead participants into their first social work roles and support them and all newly qualified social workers in the beginnings of their career.

Karen, who will also be the Lead for Adult Safeguarding during this period, wants to ensure that the work already achieved in the Trust in embedding safe practice across all services is maintained and strengthened.

Outside of work Karen, who lives in South London, can often be heard talking about her vinyl record collection, the latest band she saw or how Liverpool FC isdoing.
 

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
Stephenson House, 75 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PL
Tel: 020 3214 5756 e-mail:communications.cnwl@nhs.net