Social work - a thankless profession? (Children's Social Services)

Member Name: kate2009

Product:	Children's Social Services
Date:	12/09/09 (282 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Working with people to empower them to change their lives

Disadvantages: Criticism in the media, high caseloads, lack of resources and support

I wanted to write a review about social work in general, however due to the subject matter of this review being linked to 'Children's social services, this review will discuss a bit about social work in general, and a bit about Children's services.

****Who would be a social worker?****

"Who in their right mind would actually chose to be a social worker in this day and age", I hear you ask?

Well believe it or not, most people who chose to train as social workers tend to be reasonably nice individuals, with humanistic principles. Ask any budding social worker why they got into the profession, and they will tell you the same thing: 'I want a job which I can use my skills to help other people.' Sounds fair enough, doesn't it?

However, nowaday's if you gave this answer at an interview to get onto a social work degree course, you would not even be allowed to park your vehicle in the university car park.

To me, whether wanting to help people or not is the correct answer to give, in essence this is the reason why most people want to become a social worker. However, I think that this reflects the fact that lecturers and trainers are cautiously ensuring that social workers today need to brace themselves for the fact that the job is going to be no minor feat.

It is no use allowing social workers to think that they will be leaving university, and entering a magical world whereby everyone will want help and be eternally grateful for the support that you, as a nice person will provide. This is not reality.

***So what exactly is it that social workers do?***


Maybe the question should be reversed to read ' what is it that social worker's don't do? I have at times struggled to pinpoint the core role of being a social worker. Social workers often do a bit of everything. They assist people by helping them cope with issues in their everyday lives, deal with their relationships, and solve personal and family problems. There are different types of social workers who work within different government legislation and practice frameworks. For instance there are many role differences between social workers who work primarily with children and their families, and social workers who work with adults. Some social workers help clients who live with a disability or a life-threatening disease or a social problem, such as inadequate housing, unemployment, or substance abuse. Some workers help families who face domestic conflicts, such as domestic violence, which can have a severe impact on families and the emotional wellbeing of children. Other social workers conduct research, advocate for improved services, engage in systems design or are involved in planning or policy development. Many social workers eventually specialise and over time work within a specific area of interest.

Child, family, and school social workers provide social services and assistance to improve the social and psychological functioning of children and their families and to maximize the well-being of families and the academic functioning of children. They may assist single parents, arrange adoptions, or help find foster homes for neglected, abandoned, or abused children (see careers.org for more info).

***What are the problems associated with being a social worker?***

1. Social work has historically found it difficult to establish itself as a credible profession. I think that this in part links to what I was saying before about it being difficult to define the core role of a social worker. For instance, a doctor or a nurse has a clear role to diagnose and assist with medical treatment. An occupational therapist has a clear role to ensure that a person's environment or home can meet their daily living needs. A teacher provides education and a psychologist looks at a person's state of mind and IQ. But a social worker's main role usually involves assessing and planning to meet a person's social needs which can be various. It involves co-ordinating and ensuring that everything runs smoothly. A social worker may be run of their feet with work but still not get the acknowledgement that some of the other involved professionals may get from their client. In fact, if something does go wrong, it is usually the social worker who has the finger pointed at them. This can often be disheartening.

Efforts have been made to 'professionalise' the social work profession. New social workers now have to have a degree rather than a diploma if they wish to practice. In addition all social workers have to register with the General Social Care Council (GSCC) and reguarly submit evidence of up to date training, practice and registration. In my opinion these steps have mainly been taken to improve the image of social workers to the public.

2. Lack of appreciation. This links to my first point. Whilst This can happen to some degree in all professions, social work can often be a thankless task. As a GP, a teacher or a nurse, you may be used to people saying thank you. As a social worker, all the valuable and essential hard work you put in often goes unthanked and unnoticed.

3. Most social workers are bound to the government and the organisations that they work for. This means an enormous amount of paperwork, bureaucratic structures which mean more time is spent in the office than with clients, and resource limitations which mean that not everyone will be eligable to receive services, support or resources. Unfortunately, most people and clients do not consider this and can become agitated that they do not always have as much contact with their social worker as they would like, or that they have not been provided with services that they feel they are entitled to. Most social workers WANT to spend more time doing direct work with families, or provide them with more services, but this is not always possible.

4. High caseloads. This relates to the above. Social workers are not afraid of hard work. However it is not possible to deliver a good service to every family if you need to be in two places at once. This links to a wider issue with funding and structures within the social work system. Unfortunately, having such high caseloads also means that mistakes are more likely to be made. This has been particuarly evident within cases reported in the media in relation to Children's Services recently.

5. Risk to personal safety. In no other profession would you find yourself so routinely being put in situations of such personal risk. Social workers frequently have to interact with clients on a crisis basis without security staff or basic safety precautions. In theory, social workers should not go out alone if there is a known risk. However, what happens if a situation turns nasty unexpectedly? I have heard of situations whereby a social worker has been locked in a cupboard. I myself have had my life threatened and had to have a panic alarm installed in my home. Yet still I was expected to case work that particular case despite the individual who threatened me living near my home until I made it clear I was not prepared to put other people in my family at risk too. By putting workers at risk like this it also sends a message out that social workers are less worthy than other professions and it makes them feel unappreciated.

6. Burn Out. This can occur in all social work professions. However, it is particuarly the case in Children's Services. Where child protection is concerned, high caseloads are combined with court deadlines, report deadlines and required statutory visits. When crisis hits a family, planned work goes out of the window, leading to a back log of work. When this happens, unless you have very good management to support you, which is not always the case, you end up taking work home to complete. It is not uncommon for many social workers to work long hours dealing with crisis, then spend a large portion of their personal home time, completing work tasks. This seems to be an expectation in many Children's Team. After all, it takes guts to tell a court that you have not completed a report on time even if you have a good excuse! I suspect that this is one of the reasons why Children's services struggle to recruit and most importantly, retain staff.

7. Poor image. Social workers make mistakes, of course they do. However, whenever I hear of a social worker being singled out and subjected to severe critisicm within the media I always feel disapointed. Social workers do not work in isolation - they are not allowed to. They
co-ordinate a care team of other professionals who are all supposed to be working together with the client and families. For instance - take the absolutely tragic case of Baby P.

***Baby P***

Baby P lived a horrible existence and died a shockingly painful death. I don't doubt that the social worker made mistakes. She should have paid closer attention during her home visit to ensure that the baby was being looked after. She probably should have been a little suspicious about a baby covered in chocolate considering the history of the case and in hindsight should have asked the mother to wipe the baby's face.

However, the social worker was part of a care team of professionals who were all responsible for safeguarding Baby P. The police had just dropped charges against the mother relating to possible abuse of Baby P. A peadiatric consultant had seen Baby P and not noticed that the baby had significant injuries. Where was the health visitor in all of this mess? All children under 5, particuarly those on a child protection register would have a health visitor who should undertake regular home visits.

The 'Care Team' and not the simply the social worker had obviously agreed that it was in their opinion, safe for the child to remain at home with the mother. A social worker never works in isolation - Care Teams of professionals work together to make decisions, particuarly in Children's Services where children may be at risk.

I suspect that what has happened in this case, is that the social worker has believed that the child was not at significant risk at the time of her home visit. Mother had been cleared of charges by police, the medical consultant had not picked up on any serious injuries. The social worker did not realise that mother was in a relationship with the man who would later kill Baby P. Should the social worker have been more vigilant? Yes I believe she should have been. However, I also understand that considering all of the above factors, combined with the fact that she was probably meant to be in another 3 places at the time of the home visit, meant that errors occured.

And this is one of the problems of social work - trying to prioritise and remain vigilant when you have such a high caseload that you don't have time. In this case, the signs were not obvious to the social worker and so she missed them, probably because she didn't have time to investigate the situation further.

The other issue is that social workers are trained to look at families holistically, and to promote strength based approaches. What does this actually mean? It means that social workers look deeper than at the problem. They look at why the problem may have occured - social functioning, family dynamics, family background, parenting skills. Social workers look to see how they can work preventatively with families to promote longer term change. A good social worker will try to help a client (such as a parent) see what their strengths are as well as their weaknesses. Their role is to try and empower the client to do things for themself and improve their own life. The goverment tells social workers that the best outcome for a child occurs if social workers can work in partnership with parents, rather than just telling them what to do.

This can sometimes conflict with child protection procedures and cause an internal struggle for social workers. It can be difficult to work fully in partnership with parents, when you clearly have to prioritise the child and often make decisions which the parents do not agree with. It can be difficult to get the balance right between taking control and working in partnership. This can lead to mistakes being made.

***Is social work all bad??***

No of course not, there are many different areas of social work, and all are different. Many social workers love their job and find it rewarding.

But there are fundamental problems with some areas of social work, particuarly Children's Services. Having worked for 4 years with Children in Need and within a Child Protection Team, I can honestly say that there were many times where I loved my job and felt like I helped some families to make a difference to their lives. However, these tended to be families who wanted to make changes and eventually realised that social services were here to help them and not hinder them. There were also times when difficult decisions had to be made.

For me personally, I decided to change to another area of social work mainly because of the impact the work was having on my personal life. Working all week sometimes day and night just to keep up began to grind on me, particuarly because it was often such a thankless task.

***What needs to happen??***

I would work again in Children's Services but I would probably not see it as a long term career move unless substantial changes were made. I, like many social workers, would probably burn out after a few years.

There are no easy solutions, and I am sceptical that such changes will happen. But in an ideal world the following should be considered:

* Smaller protected caseloads - to allow reasonable time for more direct work and meaningful home visits.

*More protection for social workers professionally. Better standards of management and supervision, which happens reguarly as it is supposed to. It is not uncommon for some social workers to go months without supervision.

* Government work with the media to promote the good work that social work does. Why do we only hear about things that have gone wrong?

*Better safety measures for social workers - perhaps all visits should be in two's? Unless the visit is office based. This may have resource implications but so be it.

* Better Pay - social workers should be paid more, in my opinion, for the huge amount of challenging and demanding workloads they have to deal with.

* Better, realistic training relevant for the job. In depth and up to date training should be given around how to work effectively with families and how to balance partnership versus managing risk. Some authorities are better than others at this.

* More resources for social work. Always a challenge this one. But if there were more social workers there may be fewer caseloads and more time for social workers to do their jobs properly.

Final comments:

Social work is a valuable and essential profession that has taken a lot of stick and needs more government support. Politicians such as Ed Balls have rightly taken the opportunity to highlight the Baby P. However in doing so they have also given the impression that such tragedies are widespread and that social services are guilty of terible neglect. As is pointed out by Hilary Searing, the reality is that a recent study into the rate of 'child abuse-related deaths' in England and Wales from 1974 to 2006 found that such deaths 'have never been lower since records began' and that significantly greater progress has been made here than in the majority of the other major developed countries.

What we need is for the government to start by responding to the constant negative, media headlines in order to show their appreciation whilst raising awareness of the difficult job and hard work carried out by the majority of frontline social workers.

Summary: An essential profession but things need to change in certain areas