Esther Burgess

I am an experienced, committed, motivated, and dedicated employee with nearly 20 years' practice at Cafcass providing advanced social work services to a diverse range of children and families involved in the family court. My commitment and passion in terms of promoting inclusion and equality has always been a central thread running throughout my practice.

During almost a 30-year career in social work with children and families, fair and just outcomes for children with a diverse and broad ranging needs has always been at the root of my work: with the intention of ensuring that children are seen and heard and at the heart of decision making. I work passionately and tenaciously to advocate on behalf of the publics most vulnerable group in society, children'. However, inevitably during this time, I have worked with a raft of vulnerable people who have required protection and intervention.

My role over the last 20 years has required me to make safe, sound and independent recommendations as an independent court witness about what is in the best interest of a child. This role requires me to scrutinise often voluminous and sometimes very complex evidence, including expert assessment and assess social work practice in a respectful and inclusive manner, to enable me to make sound and impartial objective recommendations.

My written reports are persuasive, well thought out, as well as fair and balanced and are used to guide, advise and influence the decision making of the Family Courts to drive change and promote the rights and the welfare of some of society's most vulnerable people.

I communicate written outcomes explaining and justifying decisions in an accurate, thorough, but also concise and factual manner which is accessible to a broad range of people. I benefit from working within a legal and policy framework to achieve safe and positive outcomes for children as well as contributing to ensuring that is consistency and transparency remain in my reports.

My role has required me to be a check and balance in terms of social work practice in the hundreds and hundreds of cases which I have been appointed to. My experience has enabled me to have a robust and sound view about what good practice looks like, what unsafe and what problematic practice looks like.

Integrity has been at the heart of my role as a Family Court Adviser and my ability to communicate this significantly affects whether or not my work is trusted and respected. Over the course of my career, I have engaged and collaborated with a range of different people whereby positive change is usually desperately needed. I have demonstrated my integrity as a social worker through a combination of values and qualities which includes: impartiality, honesty, transparency, accountability, respect and fairness and lastly never losing sight of my central duty which is safeguarding and promoting the child's welfare even when it is conflicted with adult agendas. I have shown myself to be professionally brave on many occasions and throughout my career I have continued to be driven to promote, develop and maintain high aspirations for social work as a profession. I also have lived experience of the significant challenges which face social workers, without compromising expectations of myself and others in terms of professional standards.

Whilst my recommendations and reports are my own, I have extensive experience of working as part of a team and/ or working collaboratively with a wide range of professionals. A significant part of team working in public law cases and complex private law cases has been as a duo with a Children's Panel Solicitors and Barristers, to who I give instructions to and obtain legal advice from, but with the knowledge that ultimately, I am accountable for my analysis and reports and have to be prepared for these to be robustly scrutinised at the highest level. I am also able to work autonomously with an extremely busy workload, working to deadlines, I am able prioritise conflicting priorities and also maintain a high level of attention to detail and accuracy. I value being part of team and actively seek feedback from team members as well as service users. I access training opportunities which are available to inform my continued practice development as well. I am effective team player, actively seeking out and also providing peer supervision as well as receiving it. Alongside this, I am committed to supervision and am confident in when matters need to be escalated, in addition to the benefits of performance learning reviews to reflect, development and maintain accountability.

I am committed to continuous learning and improvement which is reflected in my social work England registration and also my engagement with training opportunities as well as being open to constructive feedback from managers colleagues, service users and the court.

I have good organisational skills, and I am used working in a fast past environment. I am able to adapt to competing demands and changing priorities, embedding training and development, whilst ensuring that my practice is child-inclusive, and at all times bringing the voice of the child to life whilst ensuring that practice is safe and focuses on the best outcome for a child. This in turn enables me to achieve organisational goals.

I have a genuine regard for a child/persons lived life experiences and sensitive and empathic to this.

Over the years, I have developed an excellent reputation as a Family Court Advisor within the Nottinghamshire circuit, despite facing a number of challenges with health, which culminated with being identified as a disabled worker. Whilst it was not part of my life plan to work part time at the age of 50, in light of my circumstances, and the fact that I still have much to offer Social Work as a Profession, I made the decision to work part time. This has enabled me to continue to be an asset to Cafcass and any future employer.

• Fibromyalgia
• Functional Neurological Disorder
• Chronic Fatigue
• Dyslexia

NB Whilst the first three were diagnosed in December 2023, I had been living with symptom's for many years.

Since I have been working part time, I have not had any absences at work and have been able to use pacing to manage my conditions despite high workloads due to significant staffing shortages. During this time a case was randomly selected for a national and thematic audit by Cafcass' National Improvement Services, the case was graded Outstanding.

• Laura Bailey Team Manager from August 2021 to July 2023
• Roz Evans: Children's Panel Solicitor; known professionally for 15 years *
• Rebecca Wimble: Children's Panel Solicitor; known professionally for 14 years*
• Anne Buttler: Children's Panel Solicitor/ Barrister; known professionally for 15 years*
• Hannah Simpson Barrister: known professionally since 2008
• Judy Claxton Barrister known professionally since 2005

• Available upon request