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What is the Fellowship?

The Fellowship is a growing community of social workers, who have all been trained by Frontline. It brings together social workers from across England, at every level of experience, to spark ideas, get support, share knowledge and build expertise. The Fellowship offers a whole range of opportunities including free training, career development and the chance to influence policy to make social work better.

How do I join the Fellowship?

You automatically join the Fellowship when you complete one of our qualifying programmes, including Approach Social Work and Progress Social Work. Social workers who work for Frontline and Approach consultant social workers also join, after one year in role.

The purpose of the Fellowship

The Fellowship empowers and supports the ongoing growth and development of our fellows by providing lifelong access to resources, professional opportunities and a network of support across the country.

In this way, the Fellowship helps us achieve our mission and vision, by driving a national network of leaders to create system change for children and families.

Benefits of the Fellowship

As a fellow, you have lifelong access to development opportunities and resources, as well as exclusive programmes to further enhance your professional growth and enable you to increase your impact throughout your career.

The Frontline Fellowship community platform, accessible via browser or app, is the primary source of communication and connection for fellows. This platform enables you to stay connected with other social workers, share knowledge and best practices, and sign up for events, conferences, workshops, coaching, programmes and other development opportunities.

Exclusive programmes for fellows

Step Forward: a leadership development programme and CPD opportunity for fellows early in their career. Step Forward empowers you to overcome the barriers you face and support you to engage with others to create an inclusive and impactful system, all while breaking down leadership skills into practical tools to apply your current role and when securing future roles.

Practice Development Series: a series of workshops that enhance your practical knowledge of working with children and families in an ever-evolving sector. You’ll build your knowledge, skills and experience to continue delivering excellent social work practice and improve outcomes for children and families.

Innovation programme: an opportunity for you to develop and implement creative solutions to challenges in the social work sector. The programme equips you with the time, knowledge, guidance and skills to transform your ideas into tangible solutions which improve outcomes for children and families.

What is required from me as a fellow?

While nothing is formally required from you as a fellow, we encourage you to actively participate in the Fellowship community and make the most of the resources and opportunities available to you.

We encourage all our fellows to strive to be as impactful as possible for children and families.

What is an impactful fellow?

The Fellowship supports participants to be impactful fellows, improving outcomes for children and families. We consider fellows to be impactful if they are doing at least one of the following:

  • Delivering high quality social work practice
  • Acting as a strong and confident leader
  • Championing innovation in the social care sector