It is critical that the next government defines what we should expect of social workers working with our most vulnerable children, young people and families.
The five main political parties in England and Wales revealed their manifestos in April outlining plans for the country if elected on 7 May 2015. Unfortunately, the collective manifestos were hardly bursting at the seams with social care and social work-related policy; there was precious little written on ‘social work’ or ‘social workers’, for example.
Nushra Mansuri, professional officer for the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), pointed out that all the parties’ pledges needed “unpacking” and were “meaningless unless we have the meat on the bones”.
In my role as a social care consultant I see daily pressures and demands for help on services at the social care “front door”. The numbers of children needing care or protection is rising year-on-year based on national data findings and there has been a sharp increase in people who require adult social care support.
Accredited standards for social work
The social work profession – now more than ever – requires recognition of the need for the public to have absolute confidence in social workers. These professionals are working with our most at-risk children and children in need (Children Act 1989), together with partner agencies which fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities (Children Act 2004).
Recent improvements in partnership working and information sharing have allowed social workers to understand information around cases better. It has also assisted and improved the management of the volumes of cases now being forwarded for statutory service delivery – and this will surely ensure an uplift in inter professional practice.
In 2014 it was announced that accredited standards for social work would be introduced by the DfE through the Chief Social Worker for England (Children and Families), Isabelle Trowler, establishing clearer standards for the profession.
This proposal has real potential for promoting social work excellence in children’s services and could significantly assist in enhancing the status, standing and standards of social work. This could have a positive impact in addressing some of the professional and contextual issues for social work practice as frontline workers often suffer from profound public criticism of their profession.
Social work at the heart of child protection
Ever since the Munro review in 2011, we have sought to put the quality of frontline social work practice back at the heart of the child protection system.
Nicky Morgan, Education Secretary in 2014, said: “It is hard to think of a more important job than social work. It’s hard to conceive of a profession with a greater level of responsibility – one in which the rewards can be so great but the consequences of failure so severe.”
I joined the social work profession because I had a genuine desire to support some of the most vulnerable people in our society. My colleagues almost certainly joined for the same reason. It is time that we stand up for social workers that continue this demanding and difficult job everyday despite all the media coverage and despite taking bashings both personally and professionally. There should be less of a knee-jerk reaction of blame laid at the social worker’s door by others when something goes tragically wrong. Shared responsibility and shared accountability is everybody’s business
By Marisa de Jager