Five years after the start of a pandemic that turned lives upside down, the crippling cost of living crisis and the increasing challenges of an ageing population mean that the need for social workers has never been greater.
Yet the life-changing impact of their work is often overshadowed by negative media coverage and stereotyped portrayals on TV and film. And the longstanding shortage of child and family social workers is predicted to worsen over the next decade.
Only one in 10 social workers believe their role is well-respected in society, according to research commissioned by Social Work England. The regulator’s Change the Script campaign, therefore, aims to tell people what the job is really about – and highlight the fact that social workers are regulated professionals, just like doctors and nurses, who must be properly qualified and on Social Work England’s public register to practise legally.
And during Social Work Week, 17-21 March, now in its fifth year, social workers and the people they work with will come together to celebrate the profession’s contribution to society and consider the opportunities for growth.
“Social workers help individuals become the best version of themselves,” says Sarah Blackmore, executive director of professional practice and external engagement at Social Work England, which runs Social Work Week. “They work with them on what they want to do to achieve that, and they help advocate to get them the services and support to enable them to do it.
“People’s mental health is poorer than it’s ever been, and we’ve heard a lot recently about child sexual abuse and exploitation. All of these are areas where social work really comes into its own in terms of dealing with the most vulnerable people in society.”
While on-screen depictions of social work tend to focus on child protection, in reality the roles available are incredibly diverse.
Mallory Walton, an advanced social worker with West Sussex county council, works with asylum-seeking children who’ve arrived in the country without a parent or guardian. Often fleeing conflict or persecution, they’re frequently scared and traumatised. Others may seem fine on the outside, but later have breakdowns.
It’s deeply rewarding work. “These young people have come here to seek shelter, to seek safety and they genuinely want your support,” says Walton. “Their motivation to keep going, to keep bettering themselves, is truly remarkable.”
In Oxfordshire, Linda Green leads a county council team dedicated to preventing people who are autistic or have learning disabilities from being unnecessarily admitted to hospital psychiatric wards under the Mental Health Act when crisis situations develop.
For people on the Dynamic Support Register, getting the right care and treatment in the community is crucial. But their cases are often complex, involving factors such as trauma, domestic violence, and the management of suicide risk.
Green’s team specialises in building meaningful relationships as well as knowing what support people are eligible for, and how to get it. “The social worker is at the heart of making things happen,” she says. “I’ve worked throughout my career with people who are marginalised, who experience discrimination and have diminished lives. We are able to change that for people.”
Level Chingalembe worked first in accounting, then trained as a social worker. Today, he’s the head of social care finance at Oxfordshire county council, where his insight into the challenges for people using adult social care is helping improve the way financial assessments for payments towards care are carried out, and how the council supports people who are struggling with money.
“There’s a better understanding across financial assessment teams of the impacts that their work might have on people, and the extra costs that people incur as a result of a disability or illness,” he says. There’s now no waiting list for assessments, thanks in part to a new online system allowing some people to complete the assessment forms themselves.
In children’s social care nationally, 10 local authorities have been involved in the £45m Families First for Children programme, testing innovative reforms designed to help children stay with family when homes can be safe and loving, while protecting vulnerable children when it’s needed. Changes being piloted include multidisciplinary early family help services, greater use of family networks and an increased role for education in safeguarding.
While Gloucestershire county council isn’t part of the Families First programme, the aims are echoed by Julie Miles, assistant director in children and families services. “We try very hard to work alongside families, really strongly believing that the outcomes those children will be able to achieve as they go through their lives will be much better if they can stay within their family, but be safe within their family,” she says.
Miles is responsible for the local authority’s Turn Around for Children Service, which works with families using the area’s family drug and alcohol court. Parents committed to beating addiction problems so they can continue to care for their children receive intensive support. “It’s a fantastic model,” she says.
Looking to the future, Ruth Allen, the chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, is encouraged both by a greater sense of solidarity across the profession, and the regularity with which service users say they want to tell the stories of how social work makes a difference.
“It’s not just the profession talking to itself,” she says, “it’s actually the people we serve saying: ‘You need to celebrate the best of social work, you need to be confident in that, because that’s how we get better services in the long run.’”
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