We’re pleased to announce the latest winner of the CSWM award is Helen Harvey from Barnsley! This marks a fourth win for Barnsley since the award commenced in September 2024.

Helen was nominated for resilience, commitment and ability to balance safeguarding with empathy. Her team sees her as a true champion for quality social work, and an inspiration to grow and learn from each case, "Helen sets a standard of care, empathy, and excellence in practice, and we are incredibly proud of her and the team she leads."

Our judging panel from Calderdale found the nominations hard to choose from but provided the following rationale for their choice.

The nominations were all so heartfelt and lovely, we genuinely found it very difficult to decide! However, the one that touched us the most and stands out as the winner, is Helen Harvey.  Her commitment, dedication, care and empathy really shone in the nomination and her compassion to children in families facing very difficult times was very clearly evidenced. It is clear that she is an excellent team manager, who goes above and beyond, for children, families and her staff- well done to Helen.

Esther Beresford, Assistant Director - Early Intervention and Safeguarding and Louise Ambler, Principal Child and Family Social Worker, Calderdale Council

The CSWM Awards are our monthly award which celebrates social workers who go above and beyond. Each of our partner local authorities and adoption agencies can make one nomination per month. The winner is picked by our guest judges - senior colleagues from different local authorities.