Social Worker receives the New Family Social ‘2021 Making a Difference Social Worker’ Award.

UK’s LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers nominate Tesni Toulliou from Adopt London South for the ‘2021 Making a Difference Social Worker Award’. Following public nominations and a judging panel New Family Social, the UK’s charity for LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers received some 130 nominations and testimonials for agencies and social workers, from LGBTQ+ people at different stages of the adoption and fostering process. The announcement came at the close of the charity’s Adoption & Fostering Support Week for LGBTQ+ parents.

Tor Docherty, chief executive of New Family Social said “Record numbers of LGBTQ+ people now adopt and foster in the UK. Selecting the right agency to go on your parenting journey is key for any LGBTQ+ potential applicant. We’re thrilled that so many LGBTQ+ people shared praise for a broad range of agencies and social workers. If you’re LGBTQ+ and considering adoption or fostering the experiences of others in your position will hopefully help inform your choices.”

Tesni Toulliou a post adoption support social worker from Adopt London South and the winner of the Making a Difference Social Worker Award said “I am very honoured and humbled at being selected for just doing the job that I love. I simply love working with people and with children. I like being able to be a solid support to our incredible families when they are faced with the challenges that we know parenting adopted children can bring. To be someone that our families can turn to and rely on is a real privilege and the greatest joy comes from seeing the growth and watching families take off with skills that we have explored together and the resilience that they find again with the right support at the right time.”

Audrey Bouazizi, The Post Adoption Support Team Manager at Adopt London South said “Since joining ALS in February 2020, Tesni has shown herself to be dedicated to her families, diligent in her approach, and consistent in the quality of her work.  Her understanding of the needs of families has shone through in everything that she does and she has always added value to every interaction that she has, balancing her need to ‘get the job done with an empathetic ear and creativity in her approach to her work. All of Tesni’s experience within Adopt London South has happened against a backdrop of coming to join a newly formed Regional Adoption Agency and then through the crisis of a global pandemic.  Tesni’s calm, solution-focused approach is such a stabilising factor and more than one family has shared with me how appreciative they are of the fact that Tesni just ‘gets them and their needs”.

We continue to innovate, develop and grow as an organisation that places excellent outcomes for children and families at the heart of all that we do.

Notes:

• New Family Social is the UK’s charity for LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers, with some 5,500 members.
• LGBTQ+ adopters and foster carers submitted nominations for agencies and social workers in the charity’s recent State of the System survey. These were judged by a panel of LGBTQ+ people.
• The longlist of agencies nominated for a commendation by New Family Social’s LGBTQ+ adopter and foster carer members is: Adopt London, Adopt Thames Valley, Adopters for Adoption, Adoption Counts, Adoption Matters, Adoption West, Barnardo’s, Brighton and Hove City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, Caritas Care, Essex County Council, Hertfordshire County council, Lincolnshire County Council, One Adoption West Yorkshire, SSAFA, St Francis’ Children’s Society, Suffolk Fostering & Adoption