Memorandum submitted by James Thurston
I have been a social worker since August 2008
and I have really enjoyed my experience. Below is a summary of
what I feel are the strengths and concerns currently within the
social work profession:
Strengths:
— Social Work enables children and
young people to be supported and be protected.
— Social work provides those children
and young people whose parents/carers, who for what ever reason,
are unable to meet their needs or keep them safe, an opportunity
to lead a normal life as possible.
— Good Social Work can make a real
difference in children and families lives, and this is very rewarding.
— As a Social Worker I get to work
with many different professionals from a variety of agencies.
Concerns:
— Recruitment and retention is a major
issue within social work and has a negative impact on many levels,
not just on team morale and the extra pressure placed upon team
members, but more importantly, the service provided becomes compromised
due to lack of continuity and increased case loads.
— Furthermore, the recruitment issue
has lead to a culture within social work whereby agency social
workers are heavily relied upon. The idea of agency workers is
to fill the gap and overcome the recruitment problem. However,
this only creates more problems as agency social workers come
and go, which only makes the situation worse. The culture of over
paying agency social workers lowers the morale of permanent social
workers who, not only feel demoralised by the lack of continuity,
but also by the fact that these workers earn much more than they
do.
— The I.T (ICS) system put in place
creates an environment where social workers spend around 70% of
their time writing reports that are generated within this system.
This, without any doubt, has an implication on social workers
ability to obtain a true insight into a child's life, as the time
we spend with them, and their families, is heavily reduced. As
a whole the ICS system works well as an evidence gathering tool,
but aspects of this system need to be streamlined in order to
open up more time for social workers to visit the children on
their caseload.
— Social Work is a risky business.
Children and young people depend on social workers to make decisions
that will provide more positive lives for them. Often the decisions
social workers make are a case of life and death for children.
These responsibilities are what make social work such a stressful
and demanding career. However, the salary that Social Workers
earn does not reflect the level of risk they manage everyday.
Recommendations:
— It is my view that agency workers
need to become the exception, not the norm. Local Authorities
should be penalised for recruiting agency staff in order to provide
them with an incentive to actively recruit permanent Social Workers.
The money saved by employing agency workers could be utilised
to increase the salary of permanent social workers.
This would then create a more positive culture
where Social Workers are rewarded appropriately to become permanent
employees.
— Local Authorities should be provided
with the relevant resources to enable them to take on more student
social workers. This is where social work training is failing,
as there are not enough high quality placements in front line
child protection teams. LA's should also be encouraged to create
social work trainee posts, where students are employed by the
LA, and complete their placements within their workplace. This
training route provides the highest quality candidates, as they
are given the best possible placements to learn and develop.
— A review of the ICS system needs
to take place.
— Finally, in light of potential public
spending cuts, the Committee needs to be clear: Social Work is
already a profession under immense strain. Case loads are at bursting
point and added with the recruitment crisis, there is certainly
no room for social workers to "... provide more for less".
July 2009
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