Social Work News - Autumn 2021

The magazine for social workers, by social workers

SOCIAL WORK NEWS AUTUMN 21 32 “IF I WAS IN

26 PRIDE OF SOCIAL

30 9 REASONS

50 WHICH HARRY

CHARGE FOR A DAY” TO DATE A SOCIAL WORKER

WORK AWARDS

POTTER HOUSE DO YOU BELONG IN?

“HOW CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO LOOK AFTER KIDS WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE ANY OF YOUR OWN?” THE SECRET SOCIAL WORKER ON WHY BEING SINGLE AND CHILDLESS DOESN’T IMPACT HER ABILITY TO DO HER JOB

IN THIS ISSUE...

COLUMNISTS:

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SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD WORK EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK

With retailers, tradesmen, banks, estate agents, and restaurant owners getting on board, Matt Bee asks, isn’t it time that social workers were working seven days a week?

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11 OF THE WEIRDEST THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO ME AS A SOCIAL WORKER

From being confronted with corpses, and escaped tarantulas, to hiding in bushes, and manning a war bunker, there isn’t much that Tilly Baden hasn’t seen...

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WHY I CAME OUT AS BEING BLACK AT WORK IN 2020

Auma Acellam reveals how the events of 2020 - from the pandemic to the protests - finally prompted her to come out as Black at work, and how her colleagues reacted.

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HOW TO TRANSITION FROM STUDENT TO NEWLY-QUALIFIED SOCIAL WORKER

Having been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt, Alasdair Kennedy, aka The Sociable Social Worker, shares his top tips on making the leap from classroom to office.

22 THE DEBATE Is it ever okay to swear in front of a client? That’s the question we’ve been asking social workers across the globe in recent weeks. And despite lots of opinions, the winning answer was clear...

24 LECTURE Step into the Bite-Sized Lecture hall for the first time in our Autumn 2021 issue, as we challenge Dr Prospera Tedam to condense her latest research into a digestible #CoffeeBreakRead.

44 INTERVIEW Renowned author and trainer, Neil Thompson, sits down for some real talk with SWN, chatting everything from the pandemic, and racism in 2021, to the deskilling of social workers.

38 OPINION Should there be a National Care Service? What would the pros and cons be? We asked our panel of social work experts for their thoughts on this controversial topic. Do you share their views?

06 BLOG IT UP

26 AWARDS

SWN’s regular columnist, Social Work Tutor, talks compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and the importance of therapeutic support, as he insists that social work supervision must be more than just a clerical exercise.

We’re delighted to introduce The Pride of Social Work Awards, which will launch in 2022 to shine a light on the incredible work of social workers across the globe. Here’s what you need to know.

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EDITORIAL FOREWORD After a busy and brilliant summer, the team at Social Work News is excited to be bringing you our jam-packed Autumn 2021 issue, which is bursting at the seams with columns, features, blogs, and articles!

In recent months, we’ve launched our fantastic new platform, at mysocialworknews.com, which is updated each day with entertaining and engaging content, much of it written by social workers just like you - as well as all the latest news - so be sure to drop in daily for your Social Work News fix.

We’ve also established the Social Work News Editorial Advisory Board since our last issue, and it’s been exciting to bring so many incredible people from across the sector into the conversation, to ensure that our magazine and platform is truly representative, and a voice for all social workers out there.

PRESS@MYSOCIALWORKNEWS.COM @MYSWNEWS

32 FEATURE With reforms and reviews all around, we challenged four social work professionals to outline how they would overhaul the social care sector, if they found themselves calling the shots.

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MEET OUR AUTUMN COLUMNISTS! It’s been a busy summer at Social Work News, and this issue, we’re featuring some of our favourite contributions, from those working on the frontline...

P05

I

n the SWN office, we laughed out loud the first time we read Tilly Baden’s article, on P10.

“More people need to hear about our work, and the positive impact we can have,” says team manager Tilly.

“I hope to inspire other social workers to feel confident speaking proudly and publicly about social work.

P16

P05

Andrew agrees: “I’m proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with anyone who has earned the title of social worker.”

“As soon as I heard about Social Work News, I knew I wanted to write for it.

“I was struggling to find a space to express my experiences as a Black social worker,” she says.

“WE’VE BEEN CRYING OUT FOR

“I hope that my article can share some of the tensions and complexities that social workers from minority groups experience when trying to balance our professional and personal identities.”

Auma Acellam works as a senior practitioner in a safeguarding team, Recovery worker Matt Bee spends and after 18 months of gardening and his days helping people to break their addictions; a job he admits he’d happily Zoom quizzes, has spent her summer do for free - just don’t tell his employer! camping and visiting loved ones.

On P16, she examines the realities of While spending a peaceful summer institutional racism in social work; an at home with his family, Matt asked article which struck a real chord with whether social workers should work our online readers. seven days a week (read it on P8)

YEARS - A PLACE FOR SOCIAL WORKERS TO SPEAK FREELY AND SHARE ARTICLES THAT ARE ACTUALLY INTERESTING.” Social work learning practitioner Andrew Gambrill teamed up with fellow SW Beth Crosby for their Scandinavian-themed submission, P5.

“True to our article, I’ve spent the summer baking, hiking, camping, and reading Social Work News,” he laughs.

P10

“I’m all for finding ways of switching off after work. Social work is all about supporting people, and I think we sometimes forget to look after ourselves. It is so important that we are there for each other, and can be open and honest about all sides of the job!”

“Outside of work, I’m a horse rider, podcast co-host, and Magistrate. I have a keen interest in social justice, and in raising the profile of social work.”

A MAGAZINE LIKE THIS FOR

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too, sharing her embroidery and crafts on her Instagram account.

Alasdair Kennedy is well-known for offering advice to social workers and students on his popular YouTube channel, Sociable Social Worker.

The Director of Fostering has been a social worker for 26 years, and loves passing on his knowledge (P14).

“It pleases me to see NQSWs using social media to promote social work positively. We are all amazing - and Beth, who works as a support worker now we don’t have to pretend to be for adults with learning disabilities electricians at parties to avoid people reveals she’s been indulging in hobbies telling us their problems!”

CAN UK SOCIAL WORK LEARN FROM SCANDINAVIAN CULTURE? FIKA

FRILUFTSLIV

The concept of meeting with colleagues for coffee and cake is a foundation stone of the work/life balance culture in Sweden and is an absolute given - in addition to lunch!

Friluftsliv roughly translates to ‘openair living,’ and is deeply ingrained in Norwegian heritage. Now we’re not necessarily urging you to go on a 10-mile hike, or climb a mountain, but social workers have traditionally fought against being office dwellers, and longed to be ‘out in the community.’

We have set out to emulate this in Warwickshire with ‘Fika Fridays;’ a halfhour online meeting where our NQSWs get together to chat with only two topics of conversation off the agenda: work & ASYE portfolio. Popular culture, holidays, and pets are common themes.

With Scandinavian countries routinely occupying the top spot of the world’s ‘happiness’ rankings, social workers Andrew Gambrill and Bethany Crosby ask, could ‘Fika Fridays,’ Hygge-inspired offices, and ‘Friluftsliv lunchbreaks’ be the key to bringing work/life balance to social care?

The initial impact is obvious, in addition to the overall message: it’s OK to rest.

It’s OK to look after yourself. It’s OK to laugh and talk. Sometimes those lighthearted moments are what we need to help us press the reset button, and return to a task with renewed energy.

HYGGE In the noughties, the Danish concept of Hygge - being cosy and warm, wrapped up in a blanket whilst the storm rages around you - swept across the UK. In social work, the storm is your workload, the problems that you cannot figure out, and the pressure from other teams.

The blanket is a supportive team, and a comfortable environment to work in. So, what if your office were a little more Hygge? What if, instead of pure function, there were plants, posters, and pictures? An actual staff room, where you can remove yourself and chat without disturbing others?

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Then Covid came along and impacted us to the core. Lockdown reconfirmed our need for the outdoors, for space and time away from our four walls.

Now things are opening up again, this drive to appreciate what is around us should not be lost. Being outdoors in a natural, green environment has countless benefits to our health. A regular dose of Vitamin D from the sun, the daylight exposure regulating our Circadian Rhythm, and lowering those nasty stress hormones, to name a few.

It doesn’t have to be a forest. It doesn’t have to be an enormous garden. It could be a little corner of your room, windows open, surrounded by plants, or walking to a nearby park.

So, in the spirit of Friluftsliv, try to build time in an outdoor space into your daily routine. Enjoy a Fika break with friends, and incorporate some Hygge into your office setting. And keep your lunch break. It’s yours, so don’t give it up.

Take that time to friluftsliv, fika and hygge. You never know, you may be happier for it.

SOCIAL WORK SUPERVISION MUST BE MORE THAN JUST A CASE UPDATE

I

have often written about how social workers can be severely damaged by secondary trauma and the subject is commonly discussed on my Facebook page and its linked group.

We deal with so much pain and suffering that it is unrealistic to expect us not to become drained by what we must endure. Over time, this constant negativity can lead to even the most compassionate and caring of people becoming cynical and jaded.

When I’ve raised this issue in the past, many people have gotten in touch to say how they’ve been affected by compassion fatigue in their own practice. Many have also shared how it

was a significant driving factor behind their burnout and low mood.

WITH COMPASSION FATIGUE HAVING SUCH A DEVASTATING IMPACT ON BOTH OUR PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIVES, SOMETHING MUST BE DONE TO OFFER SOCIAL WORKERS BETTER SUPPORT TO COME TO TERMS WITH OUR EXPERIENCES. This is where I believe that real therapeutic supervision can come into its own, helping us resolve secondary trauma, let go of pain, and move on in our work with renewed purpose.

I’ve found a common theme with all my managers that supervision was more of a clerical than a clinical activity. Even my own time as a team manager found

me working with supervision forms and processes that did not lend themselves to therapeutic support of my social workers - the focus of data being firmly rooted in when children were last seen, how plans were progressing, and what their current views and wishes were.

Generally speaking, the focus of supervision within contemporary social work practice tends to be on case progression, report deadlines, recording of data, and planning.

There’s very little opportunity for exploring emotions.

When I speak to colleagues all over the world, their experiences are the same.

More worrying than that, a significant number of people tell me that they rarely get supervision at all. This is especially concerning when considered in the context that many failings

in social work are linked to poor managerial oversight.

Coming back to my own experiences, I am unable to lay any blame on my managers for the lack of depth in supervisions or the scarcity of space to freely explore my feelings in a manner akin to counselling. Without fail, every one of my managers has been dedicated, committed, intelligent, empathetic, and hard-working; already online when I log on in the morning, and always the last to switch off their laptops at night.

When I have managed a team of my own, I have found there is neither the time nor system in place to support therapeutic supervision. Overseeing a team of relatively new social workers each with 30 cases or thereabouts, there was so much to discuss in terms of case management that the impact of vicarious trauma became something to be squeezed in as and when.

Further to this, there was no formal training on how to support the wellbeing of social workers and no structure in place to do so - save for the blanket policy of a referral to the internal wellbeing services via HR. My experience as a manager was far from unique. It is simply, and ever so bluntly, just how things are done in social work these days.

Instead of giving social workers the support that the exacting toll placed upon them by social work requires, the demands of the system force them

to dedicate their supervision time to a series of administrative tasks following a generic template of closed questions that offer little scope for free-thinking.

Supervision’s effect on both the individual and wider workforce is clear, so why is it increasingly being reduced to a series of administrative tasks and case updates?

When was the person last seen?

SOCIAL WORK SUPERVISION MUST

When was the last review meeting?

BE MUCH MORE THAN THIS IF WE

Have you completed the task list from last month?

ARE TO BRING ABOUT POSITIVE

What are your tasks for this month?

KEEP HOLD OF SOCIAL WORKERS.

CHANGES FOR SERVICE USERS AND

WITH PRESSURE FROM ABOVE TO PROVIDE THIS DATA IN A TIMELY MANNER AND AVOID DRIFT IN CASES, MANAGERS HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SUCCUMB TO THE WILL OF A PROCEDURAL SYSTEM THAT INCREASINGLY PRIORITISES PAPERWORK OVER PEOPLE. The knock-on effect of this is that social workers are losing possibly the only chance they have to address secondary trauma, offload pain, and seek to resolve the internal crises that expedite leading them to either bottle up emotions, or turn to negative coping mechanisms.

Research from SCIE shows that good quality supervision gives people better job satisfaction, creates more committed workers, and reduces turnover. The research findings go on to reveal that inadequate supervision poses a threat to confidence, competence, capacity, workforce stability, and morale.

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If managers aren’t going to be freed from the shackles of repetitive data tasks or given smaller teams to manage, then organisations need to bring in external counsellors who can offer therapy sessions to social workers. A system of applying formal work-based supervision and counselling concurrently would create both the audit trail needed to avoid case delay and the truly reflective therapeutic support needed to resolve secondary trauma.

There is something clearly amiss in social work when those working in private industries can readily access free counselling at work, yet we are expected to endure witnessing extreme abuse with little to no support in coping with it all.

Even the best helpers need helping themselves now and then.

Our regular columnist, Social Work Tutor, publishes his blogs each week on www.mysocialworknews.com

SOCIAL WORKERS SHOULD WORK EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK H

ere’s the thing with old age, you’re still old at the weekends. Bit of a pain, really.

No chance of partying, nights out, or long walks in the countryside.

You don’t really get a weekend. Just old age 24/7.

have to wait until office hours for help.

It’s the same if you have a lifelong or life-limiting condition, or if you’re living in poverty, or enduring an abusive relationship, or neglectful parents when you’re a child. If these things happen to you, there is no weekends, no bank holidays, no breaks.

DISCHARGE COORDINATOR WE’D

HEALTHY ENOUGH TO GO HOME.

And what about social work? Many social workers are surreptitiously working away at weekends anyway,

But the services you rely on, and the staff who work there, get all these things. That means, effectively, my car receives better breakdown cover than most vulnerable people receive support. Yes, there’s a crisis team covering out of hours, but this is only for emergencies. Other than this, you

Capacity had to be freed up for a new influx of patients over the weekend when all the heavy drinking kicked off and A&E filled up.

catching up on admin and emails.

It’s just clients can’t get help. When you work in the field of addiction it makes profound sense to stay open at weekends since this is when many relapses happen.

No other sector really works like this. On a Saturday morning I can contact my bank, speak to my utility provider, buy a car, book a holiday, get a plumber, landscape the garden - by Monday morning I could have my whole house renovated. But I can’t get a routine endoscopy in a hospital.

WHEN I WORKED AS A HOSPITAL HAVE A MAD FRIDAY RUSH AS THE WARDS CLEARED THEIR BEDS OF ANYONE LOOKING VAGUELY

Over a weekend it is much easier to be admitted to a hospital than to be discharged because, once admitted,

the clinical team will want to run some tests. But the tests are usually undertaken by departments that are shut until Monday morning.

Given that an NHS hospital bed costs an average of £400 a day, you’d have thought it good economic sense to keep the whole service humming over the weekend, maintaining a steady flow of patients. It makes even more sense since the building stays open anyway.

The heating has to be turned on. The gates have to stay open.

OTHER INDUSTRIES HAVE MADE THE LEAP FROM THE 1950S.

Years ago I worked in civil engineering and we routinely rushed into work on a weekend to beaver away on closed roads or railway lines. After that I worked in a cereal factory. That was open seven days a week as well. Most factories are. Most shops are. Most pubs, restaurants, cinemas, leisure centres, gyms, coffee shops, and petrol stations. In fact, most places we spend money will gladly be there to receive it whenever we feel like dropping by.

And, of course, now there is the internet you don’t even need to drop by. You can log on anytime and click away, or chat to an online advisor.

So, how come, if making your latest purchase is so important, then being old, ill, neglected, or abused is not?

How come these people have to wait?

How come a frail old lady can buy cornflakes any day of the week, and even ring the helpline printed on the box should she have an urgent query about her breakfast cereal - but she can’t see a physio, oncologist, or a

social worker outside of office hours?

SAME LEAP, I BET IT COMES DOWN

It makes no sense, and yet in these days of service user empowerment, it’s not really challenged - not even by service users themselves who just shrug their shoulders and accept it.

People gotta have weekends, right?

Well, no, not in other sectors, not really.

TO CASH. WHAT’S THE FINANCIAL

You can make all sorts of arguments for why we remain closed at weekends when every other place stays open. We can’t afford to stay open seven days a week. Staff wouldn’t be willing to work weekends. Other services we work alongside - like schools - are all closed.

All of these reasons are valid. But, when you consider them for just a moment, they are exactly the same obstacles that stood in the way of other professions. Lots of retail staff must have baulked at the idea of Sunday opening – yet they made the transition anyway.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE REAL REASON WE DON’T MAKE THE 09

ADVANTAGE TO A PUBLIC SERVICE OPENING AT WEEKENDS? It costs more but won’t generate any more revenue. Our customers aren’t actually spending hard currency. And it’s not like they are going to drift off to a rival competitor. That means our customer base is going nowhere.

We can shut up shop on a Friday evening, safe in the knowledge that all our clients will still be old, disabled, sick, neglected, or abused come Monday morning. And no-one will have swooped in and taken our place by helping them in the meantime.

It’s a cruel world, for sure, but this is the world we live in. You can get a coffee at the weekend, but you can’t always get help.

And it’s probably because it just makes more financial sense that way.

11 OF THE WEIRDEST THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED TO ME AS A SOCIAL WORKER…

S

ocial work is many things, but it’s never boring.

When I cast my mind back to studying for my social work degree, I never anticipated that my future career would involve so many weird, wonderful, heart-breaking, and obscure challenges. People can be so unpredictable, and in a vocation that is so hard to define, it’s no wonder that social workers are faced with a multitude of situations we could have never imagined in our wildest dreams...

1) BEING MISTAKEN FOR A JUNIOR DOCTOR ON A HOSPITAL WARD AND BEING USHERED INTO A SIDE ROOM WITH A DEAD BODY WHEN THE NURSE THOUGHT I WAS THERE TO CERTIFY THE DEATH.

This average day turned out to be way more horrifying than I was expecting.

It turns out, there were two people with the same surname on the ward that day; my very much alive and well Mr X - who was awaiting my input to facilitate his discharge - and another Mr X who had unfortunately deceased that morning.

3) BEING CHASED ACROSS A CAR PARK BY AN ANGRY GOOSE. The wild goose took a dislike to my presence as I walked from my car. I screamed and ran whilst it flapped and honked. It was very traumatic.

The nurse found it hilarious when she realised. I almost fainted in shock at being confronted with a corpse.

2) GETTING A BACKSTAGE TOUR OF A MAIN UK AIRPORT AND BORDER CONTROL WHEN I WENT TO PICK UP A VULNERABLE PERSON. My colleague and I were escorted by two handsome, burly men in suits around the airport so we got to experience what it must like to be a Hollywood A-list celebrity, with a private security detail. The only things missing was the paparazzi.

4) ARRIVING AT A HOME VISIT ONLY TO BE TOLD THAT THEIR PET TARANTULA HAD ESCAPED, SO “CHECK BEFORE YOU SIT DOWN.” Fortunately, I never met the tarantula and managed to complete the visit

excitable puppy after it defecated all over the floor would have been a whole lot worse if I didn’t love animals.

before anything crawled up my trouser leg or made a nest in my bag.

5) LEARNING HOW TO ORGANISE AND RUN A CIVIL EMERGENCY

9) SOMEHOW BECOMING AN IT

REST CENTRE.

WHIZZ ON MICROSOFT EXCEL

I might have been naive about this one, but I never realised that social work teams are the ones responsible for running and staffing rest centres and helping whenever there’s a local disaster. I haven’t had to do this just yet, but the training has been fun, and I feel prepared for when I inevitably get the call one day to jump into action.

7) HIDING IN A BUSH WHEN I

On a similar note... actually using my maths skills from my school days to work out how the previous social worker calculated a care package when none of the figures make sense.

Our continuity plans include knowing what to do if-and-when various disasters happen, including cyberattacks, fuel shortages, war, snow, nuclear disaster, and a pandemic (hey, we actually needed this one). We’re ready for anything, and we know where the wartime bunkers are... just in case.

Just to clarify - I wasn’t visiting his house, but he happened to be walking down the street. In my defence, I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years, and he’d broken my heart. I also wasn’t wearing any make up and was dressed in frumpy work clothes, so I wasn’t prepared to let him see me.

SPOTTED AN EX-BOYFRIEND ON THE STREET OUTSIDE WHEN LEAVING A HOME VISIT.

I just hope the family I was visiting wasn’t watching me out their window.

8) BEING LEFT TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE’S PETS WHEN THEY GO INTO HOSPITAL OR A CARE HOME.

6) RIDING SHOTGUN WITH A POLICE OFFICER IN AN UNMARKED POLICE CAR DURING A SEARCH FOR A MISSING PERSON. I felt like a TV detective looking for clues to aid us on our manhunt. Tense background music was playing in my head. I was in my element.

Under English law, pets are classed as a person’s property which local authorities are legally required to protect in certain circumstances whilst their owner is unable to do so.

Who knew GCSE algebra would one day come in handy?!

10) ACCIDENTALLY SITTING IN CAT SICK DURING A HOME VISIT. Note to self - always check before you sit down. I still feel queasy when I get flashbacks of that feeling of warm sogginess soaking into my clothes and the smell of putrid, regurgitated contents of a cat’s stomach.

How I managed to keep a straight face and continue with the home visit, I do not know.

11) STAYING IN A LUXURY 5* HOTEL FOR AN AWARDS CEREMONY. I was humbled to be one of the finalists for the national Social Worker of the Year Awards back in 2019 in the adult social worker category. My local authority organised for me and a few managers to stay in the 5-star hotel where the award ceremony was held.

During my time, I’ve dealt with various dogs, cats, tropical fish, pygmy goats, Getting to meet lots of incredible horses, a herd of dairy cattle, a tank colleagues from all over the country of rare breed snakes, a lizard-dragon and hear about their remarkable thing (not sure what it was) and a ferret. work was inspiring. It was one of the Trying to coax an angry flea-ridden highlights of my career and a night I’ll cat into a cat carrier to take to a local never forget. animal shelter or clearing up after an

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MY FIRST DATE WITH A SOCIAL WORKER O

n our very first date, Greg told me that he was a social worker.

Imagine the scene: meeting your date for the first time at your favourite café or restaurant, and then being thrown the curveball of discovering they’re a social worker.

When I first met Greg, back in 2016, I was just 22, fresh out of uni and in my first marketing job for a publishing house. I wasn’t remotely familiar with the profession of a social worker. All of my knowledge up to that point came from ignorant societal misconceptions, which had led to a feeling of mistrust.

FIVE YEARS ON, I’M ASTOUNDED AS I REFLECT ON THE HARSH AND UNJUST ASSUMPTIONS I MADE ON OUR FIRST LUNCH-DATE TOGETHER. For as little as I knew about social workers, it’s only now that I can truly see how I’d been influenced by the snippets I’d seen in the media.

Being completely oblivious to the realities of this profession, the first image that sprang to mind upon hearing the words social worker, was of a middle-aged lady wearing a Harris tweed skirt and jacket. (Picture the social worker from Mindhunter; the one who spends the entirety of S2E5 penetratively hounding the family in an effort to find any evidence of neglect or wrongdoing, in order to be able to tick the items on her checklist.)

What you will never ever hear, in any such TV show, film, or news item, is about all the overtime, or emotional investment, or the wide range of skills that social workers need to possess and develop in order to support the integrity of families, and ensure children’s safety.

Nobody talks about the level of emotional intelligence and resilience required by those I now call heroes.

Many times, however, I have seen newspaper articles talking about how the ‘department’ separated a poor mother from her child, about how the ‘system’ is to blame, and about how this or that social worker has been criticised for this or that, etc.

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IT’S TRULY HURTFUL TO SEE THAT, NOT ONLY IS THIS STEREOTYPE NOT BEING CHALLENGED, IT CONTINUES TO BE PERPETUATED. I once thought that same way, with my limited scope. And then I met Greg.

And suddenly I found myself sitting in a café, in front of a cute, handsome, well-spoken man with warm deep eyes, a gentle smile and spot-on sense of humour, who so clearly didn’t fit into the idea I had in my mind, based on what I’d read and seen so far. So I opened my mind and listened, and the more I heard and saw, as we continued to explore our lives together, the more ashamed I felt of how ignorant I had been. I’m stunned by how far the idea of a social worker - the one presented to the general public - is from reality.

That initial meeting in an East Midland café was over five years ago, and Greg and I are now engaged, and planning our wedding, as soon as travel restrictions allow our families to meet.

Thank goodness I was wise enough to push away my ignorance, and see the wonderful social worker in front of me.

HOW TO TRANSITION FROM STUDENT TO SOCIAL WORKER So you’re officially a Social Worker! Congratulations! But now is when the hard work begins. Here are 8 tips to help you manage the transition from student to NQSW...

project work or working in a charity could turn out to be very niche and isolating. Working in Statutory teams will provide a bigger staff compliment, more learning opportunities, and the best bit - a better social life.

1

7

1 - YOUR ‘TOUR OF DUTY’

7 - SEEK OUT TRAINING

Stick any job for three years, unless it has a negative impact on your psyche. I know, at this stage in your career, three years will seem like an eternity, but it will pass quickly. Completing your ‘Tour

I know, you just left uni, but seek out practical training to enhance your work skills. Wilson (2013) states that “reality-based training” is best for the new worker, for example court or communication skills.

of Duty’ shows commitment.

5 5 - PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS

Choose to work in a job similar to one you had before you qualified. For Ensure your new contract and working example, if you worked in youth work, hours reflect the work. Even as an perhaps family support would suit NQSW, you can negotiate on holidays you? Play to your strengths. You don’t and flexible working, though maybe not always have to have had placement wages. However, if you are already an experience to get a post in a different experienced social care worker, ask to area of expertise. However, if you have be put on midpoint salary. I know this had a statutory placement, as above go takes confidence to ask, but try it - the do your ‘tour of duty,’ it will help with worst they can say is no. job applications in the future.

2 - BE CONFIDENT TO NEGOTIATE

Pick something you enjoy, social work is tough enough without working in a discipline you don’t enjoy or you do not have a baseline of relevant skills in.

Self-care is key to your social work longevity, so, be sure to check out services for wellbeing in your social work patch, such as a lunch time meditation, exercise class, or just a coffee shop for that well-earned break.

Alternatively, is there a park nearby for those sunny day stress release walks?

4 - CHOOSE A BIG TEAM! Choose an area to work in with lots of staff and support, as something like

8 8 - GET A PROPER INDUCTION

2 3 - IDENTIFY ‘SELF-CARE’ SERVICES

Also, seek out some YouTube or Skill Share videos on productivity and organisational skills, required for autonomous working. (Hint: Check out The Sociable Social Worker - “the best on the net,” they tell me...)

Make sure you get a proper induction; one that meets your needs. Not: “so, here is the coffee and tea, now crack on with your 60 cases.”

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Four in ten NQSWs leave the profession within three years because of a poor induction or overwork (Community Care 2019).

6 - GET IT SAVVY Sort your ICT quickly and make sure you make the most of its functionality.

Use apps like Forest for productivity, and Tik Tick for to do lists. More time spent learning IT skills means more time with clients, isn’t that why we came into social work in the first place?

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I have always said, to students and NQSWs, make allies, but just as important, contact the providers you will refer to. They then know your role, and will get to know you as a practitioner, and not just an email address or a voice at the other end of a mobile.

WHY I CAME OUT AS BEING BLACK IN 2020 O

ver the past year, there has been much in the media about the impact of the murder of George Floyd. Personally, it led me to re-evaluate my own practice, and social work’s relationship with our safeguarding partners, the police.

were white, the villains were people of colour, and the heroes who swooped in and saved these damsels in distress were the police.

that I was categorised as IC3 before I left secondary school. The message is clear: Know your place. You don’t belong here.

For many people from ethnic minorities the over-policing we have experienced in our lives is one of the most visible experiences of racism we endure.

Being in the heart of Babylon was not an easy experience as a black woman.

For the first three years, I managed this internally, debating whether these issues were still a concern, or whether I was being disloyal to my loved ones by being there.

At the end of 2020 I left a complex safeguarding team due to my ongoing concerns about institutional racism in this area of practice, and the sector’s inability to meet the needs of diverse communities.

FAMILY START TO BE HARASSED

My previous team was a mix of police, social workers, parenting workers and health practitioners, set up following the grooming scandals in the north of England. This was the knowledge base the sector was built around: the victims

MY EXPERIENCE OF BEING BLACK AND BRITISH MEANT SEEING MY MALE FRIENDS AND ONCE THEY REACHED PUBERTY. Black British contact with the police is so pervasive that over 30% of Black British men are on the police’s DNA database. Our community radio stations complete sessions to teach our boys how to manage the inevitable police questioning they will receive in their adult lives, and I was aware

The officers I worked with were all lovely; they made me cups of tea and asked how I’d spent my weekends.

The arch-whiteness of the space meant it never felt safe for me to raise my concerns and I never shared my family’s experiences with the police, or mentioned the children I had known growing up who were now men in prison following years of exploitation. My internal battle became unsustainable, however, following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

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MY WO R K N E W S AL .C

A COLLEAGUE HAD WARNED ME IN THE DAYS FOLLOWING FLOYD’S MURDER THAT THERE HAD BEEN SOME DEFENSIVE COMMENTS BY POLICE OFFICERS IN THE TEAM. Due to the pandemic we had been mainly working from home. On my first day back, I felt tearful walking into the police station. I sat down at my desk and then…nothing happened. Police officers made me cups of tea and asked how my weekend had been. The world was shifting under my feet and no one else noticed.

The protests started and there was a moment when I felt the weight lift off my chest, when I felt heard.

These feelings didn’t last long. My colleagues all talked in the social workers’ team meeting about how wrong Floyd’s murder had been, but how it was nothing like that over here. A team member referred to the peaceful protests as ‘riots.’ I felt like a collaborator. The rest of Black Britain was out in the streets protesting against the police while I sat quietly in a police station.

I CAME OUT AS BEING BLACK IN WORK IN JUNE 2020. I SHARED WITH MY TEAM THAT I HAD BEEN OUT PROTESTING SO THAT WE COULD LOOK AT HOW TO MANAGE THE RISK OF THE INFECTION.

behaviour was going to impact on her family’s ability to meet up and the impact on her husband’s earnings if there was a second wave. She helpfully informed me of how I should have managed the situation better.

My white manager later told me that, while it had been wrong for the colleague to insult me, the incident had nothing to do with race and I needed to understand my colleague cared about her family. While I don’t believe that anyone involved felt any animosity towards Black people, I do feel that these responses spoke to deeply embedded cultural understandings about our places in society, whose voice should be heard, and whose welfare should be prioritised.

Weeks later, I overheard senior police officers joking defensively about how it was all the rage to complain about police brutality while another angrily asserted that it was nothing to do with them. I questioned how our team could say we were against racism while not challenging the police to address clear racial disparities in their work. When I raised it with my manager the next time we were together, she told me that no-one in the team was racist but if I wasn’t comfortable working with police, they could find me an alternative working space.

Following these experiences, it came as no surprise when a senior manager raised that they were having meetings to address the fact that ‘complex safeguarding simply isn’t reaching some communities.’ I pictured a room of white senior managers all scratching their heads wondering why Black people wanted nothing to do with this team, why people from ethnic minorities might be reluctant to engage with police or share their most difficult personal experiences with these social workers. I was sent the data analysis showing the cohort of young people we worked with were disproportionately white. This didn’t surprise me. While I was aware of some Black service users, I personally hadn’t worked with a single Black child in three years.

My three years in complex safeguarding practice experience taught me that one of the biggest weapons we have against exploitation is showing people they matter.

HOW CAN WE EXPECT CHILDREN FROM ETHNIC MINORITIES TO TRUST PROFESSIONALS WHEN THEIR NEEDS ARE SO LOW IN OUR PRIORITIES? WHY SHOULD PEOPLE

THERE WAS NO SUGGESTION

ENGAGE WITH SERVICES WHICH

OF ADDRESSING THE TEAM’S

WERE NEVER MEANT FOR THEM?

COMPLACENCY ABOUT RACIST OUTCOMES OR MAKING

This immediately drew the ire of a colleague who insulted me in front of the team. When she was pulled up on this, instead of making a meaningful apology, she told me about how my

of being divisive and yet here was my manager suggesting that we segregate the team on racial lines.

IT AN INCLUSIVE SPACE. So often when Black people raise concerns about racism we are accused

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The reality of institutional racism is there are no racial slurs, no hatred, no white hoods or burning crosses. Just relatively homogenous teams who haven’t considered that other people’s experiences don’t match their own.

Jaz @jaz00615, Replying to @myswnews and @socialworkerMM I loved this article. What on earth does the number of kids you have or haven’t had got to do with one’s professional knowledge on how to keep children safe from physical or emotional harm? A lot of parents throw this question at SW’s. The mind boggles.

HOW CAN YOU TELL ME HOW TO LOOK AFTER KIDS WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE ANY OF YOUR OWN?”

I

never realised how much of a hot topic my fertility would be once I - a: became a social worker, and b: turned 30. Now that I am both, the subject is of regular interest to all - with my family, friends, colleagues, and clients showing far more interest in my ovaries, uterus, cervix, and vagina than anyone bar my smear tester or ex-boyfriends.

I get that these are rhetorical questions, posed to make a point, and I get that they come from a place of pain, but they still hurt.

I don’t need to have had children of my own to realise that they should not be growing up in a house where domestic violence is a daily occurrence.

When I planned my life out, I did not expect to be single and living alone at this age. I wanted the perfect man (or even a semi-decent one, minus a pornography, cocaine, or gambling habit), the fairytale wedding, and children I could plaster all over the ‘gram in order to recast ‘party girl Maisie’ as ‘yummy mummy Maisie.’

It doesn’t take giving birth to grasp that children need a safe, loving home.

The kindest comments from my eggwatchers come with well-intentioned questions: ‘would you like children one day when you meet Mr Right, Maisie?’

NO LITTLE GIRL DREAMS OF BEING

The harshest of coments, sadly, come from the parents of the children I am allocated to at work. Inevitably, they suggest that my lack of children deems me unfit to assess the ability of someone else to care for their own.

TAKEAWAYS, AND WINE, AND

“WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT RAISING CHILDREN WHEN YOU HAVEN’T HAD ANY?” “How many kids have you brought up?

“How can you tell me how to look after kids when you don’t have any?”

THE WRONG SIDE OF 30, STILL SINGLE, EXISTING ON A DIET OF PRE-PACKAGED SANDWICHES, FIGHTING OFF UNSOLICITED D**K PICS ON A NIGHTLY BASIS. Equally, no girl deserves to be reminded on a daily basis that they are still childless, despite their best intentions to the contrary. So, although I do totally get that people in crisis are likely to become defensive and shift the focus, the fact that this focus tends to move towards my lack of children is really hurtful. It’s also an insult on my professionality.

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Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everything changes the moment you bring another human into the world, and you instantly become a better social worker.

Or, maybe hurt people are just trying to hurt me too. If that’s their aim then congratulations are in order because it works. I’ve found myself sitting in my car in tears on many occasions, feeling like a failure, both as a social worker, and as a woman.

After one of these sidestreet emotional breakdowns, I went back to the office and told my manager what happened.

Her words made me laugh, and reminded me that, in social work, as in life, laughter is often the best medicine.

She looked me straight in the eye and said: “Maisie, I’m not a helicopter pilot but I know something’s wrong if I see one stuck up a tree.”

The Secret Social Worker writes under a pseudonym, Maisie MacDonald, publishing her columns each weekend on mysocialworknews.com

Danielle Grandison @DanielleGrandi5 I loved reading this... I take my daughter to/from school most days and my hours work around that. I’m there when she needs me the most, parents evenings, dance shows, dinner, play and bedtime... and I’m still on top of me busy workload. Balance is key & family is everything.

THEY WILL REPLACE YOU AT WORK, BUT THEY CAN NEVER REPLACE YOU AT HOME

T

he question I get asked more than any other is ‘how do you manage it all?’ People see my writing commitments, podcast productions, social media posts, full-time job as a frontline social worker, part-time job as an independent social worker, and my development of other projects, and wonder how on earth I fit enough time in for my wife and two young children; there being an assumption that my days are so full, that my passion for social work leaves my family picking up the scraps of what’s left over.

It wasn’t always this way. In early 2018 I thought it would be a good idea to work away for six months as I was offered an exciting opportunity as a Signs of Safety expert within an improving authority. The experience would do wonders for my CV, the pay was the highest I’d ever had (before or since), and it would be a chance to experience life in a new part of the world. I chose all of those things over my 2-year-old daughter.

Having moved around a number of different local authorities and seen far too many colleagues burnout and drift away from the profession, I’ve learned one thing that rings true throughout: They will replace you at work, but they can’t replace you at home.

One early Sunday evening about four months into my role, my daughter held onto my leg and wept as I was getting ready to leave- saying ‘Daddy no go.’ I handed my notice in the next morning and terminated my contract two months early. Since then, it’s always family first.

AND ARE REPLACED.

The truth, I explain, is the opposite. My wife and children get the best of me, and social work gets the rest of me.

Unless there is a real-life emergency (not a paperwork or arbitrary deadline emergency, but a situation where someone is in grave need or danger) I Regardless of how much I have ahead of me in the morning, I get my children work my contracted 37 hours a week. ready for nursery and school, and drive No more, no less. If I can’t complete the tasks expected of me in spite of them there myself. working as hard as I can, then that NO MATTER HOW MUCH is the fault of my employer and not PAPERWORK I HAVE LOOMING, I AM I. They need to give me less work THERE TO COLLECT MY CHILDREN or employ more staff because their business model is unsustainable if AT 5PM EVERY AFTERNOON, AND I AM ALL THEIRS THROUGH TEATIME, it relies upon the goodwill of staff sacrificing their own wellbeing for the BATH, AND BEDTIME STORIES. sake of propping up an underfunded and inefficient department.

Weekends are mostly theirs too, with my bygone beer-fuelled Saturdays as a Newcastle United season ticket holder replaced with junior football club for my son, ballet lessons for my daughter, swimming classes for both, and a family outing to Costco. My children are my number one priority in life, and nothing comes before them.

My writing, projects, independent social work, and podcasts all take place between 5am-8am, then 8pm-10pm, during unpaid leave from my frontline job, or when I mercifully get to swerve a children’s party where my wife is more than happy to take the lead.

This means that my days are full, but those days are happy and meaningful.

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SOCIAL WORKERS LEAVE AND ARE REPLACED. MANAGERS LEAVE AND ARE REPLACED. SERVICE MANAGERS LEAVE

If you passed away and moved on tomorrow, there is a strong likelihood that your cases would be reallocated before you were laid to rest in accordance with your wishes.

Your seat would be filled, your desk taken, and your assessments and interventions changed. You’d be remembered fondly by those you worked alongside and, from time to time, ex-colleagues would express their sadness at your passing. But that would fade away over time as the old team fell apart and people’s lives moved on.

Your family would miss you forever though. Your place at home could never be filled. Your own children could not be reallocated. All those plans with your partner could never be completed.

It is those thoughts, which I bear in mind in a stoic manner, that help set my priorities in social work. I love my job, but I love my wife and children far more. I am committed to my job, but I am committed to my family far more.

My wife and children get the best of me, social work gets the rest of me.

They will replace you at work, but they can’t replace you at home.

70% YES

30% NO

THE DEBATE IS IT EVER OKAY TO SWEAR IN FRONT OF A CLIENT? Yes of course it is, in the right context and with the right person,” said Lucie Lou on the Social Work News FB page.

I work in adult mental health, and our service users are grown ups!

“They are often in touch with our service at a very difficult time in their life. Communication is key in any form of social work, but in adult mental health is it particularly pertinent due to issues around engagement and service users’ understanding and perception of situations. We can easily be seen as the enemy.

“Service users look for honesty and transparency, and that should be reflected in our communication with them. A service user may comment to me about something in their life being particularly difficult, or “shit.” I don’t feel there is any need to mince my words, and would be more than comfortable to reply, “yes I agree, this situation is really shit for you.”

“I WOULD NEVER SWEAR AT OR ABOUT A PERSON, BUT I WOULD SWEAR IN THE CONTEXT OF A CONVERSATION “Swearing is a form of expression, and it conveys certain feelings and emotions. Of course I would always judge the person and the situation before I swore, and would usually only swear in a conversation where the service user has used the same word. This is a common approach in counselling, repeating what the person

has said, using their language.

“us” (social workers) vs Them.”

“Of course it might be appropriate in front of some service users but not others, and it is up to the individual social worker to make a judgement on that. What works for one person doesn’t work for everyone. It is about what feels appropriate at that time, and with that person.”

@SWBohemians: “We spoke about this within a team a little while ago and the answer was no. Best to remain professional and use language that is courteous and polite wherever possible to put forward a respectful and calm approach.”

@Kes_t1D: “Yes. If it is a shit situation, reaffirming in the person’s own language is not unprofessional at all, it’s human. I’m not talking about having a rant and offloading with families and going too far, but we aren’t robots and we are human.

“I think professionalism can go too far. Whether it’s the way we dress, the way we talk, whether we share (not in detail) our own experiences - that’s all important stuff. IMO it’s important to be reachable and on a level to build relationships to empower sustainable change.”

Chrystal Roll: ‘Yep...for some it establishes rapport. Can’t change my mind.”

GERALDINE HARRIS: “NO. VERY UNPROFESSIONAL.” Sarah, a clinical social worker from Baltimore, said: “Always. Obviously I read the room, but be a human. Not some stuffy professional.”

Valerie: “I had a client tell me to stop using my proper “social worker voice” and act like a person. I am flexible.”

Vince Baart, of Belgium, said: “Of course it is. We’re just humans. Humans swear.” @SociableSocial: “Depends on the level of swear word and context.” @MATTBEEWRITES: “WHEN I FIRST QUALIFIED I’D NEVER DREAM OF

@cathryn_jani: “No! Why would this ever be necessary?”

SWEARING IN FRONT OF A CLIENT.

Greg Warwick: “From a counselling and psychologist perspective we would match the client’s language.

So if they’re swearing, we would use their swear words to connect, show understanding, and empathise.”

THERE’S NO OTHER WORDS.”

Matthew Sickler, a child protection social worker from Minnesota, said: “Absolutely, in the context of connecting with that individual, using their language and to close the gap of 23

BUT SOMETIMES, HONESTLY,

@colinjdinnie: “Generally the answer is no, but most social workers will remember a time when they did and it was the right thing at the time.

Sometimes it breaks down a barrier, sometimes it underlines a point.”

Visit mysocialworknews.com to vote on our latest polls

THE BITE-SIZED LECTURE Step into our Bite-Sized Lecture hall for the first time, as Dr Prospera Tedam, Associate Professor at United Arab Emirates University, condenses and explains her new research.

READ THE FULL RESEARCH Tedam, P. (2021) To Shield or Not to Shield? There Should Be No Question—Black African Social Workers Experiences during COVID-19 in England, The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 51 (5) Pages 1720–1738 https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/51/5/1720/6329654

One of the many key highlights of this research was that discrimination in terms of race was clearly perpetuated during the pandemic, and the majority of this study’s participants experienced racialised responses during this time.

important leadership method, when working with a diverse population considering what we’re saying, how it’s coming across, who we’re speaking to, and who it includes and excludes.

“For practitioners, it was such a vulnerable time that many felt unable to do anything about, and in the absence of firm government guidelines, decisions were being made at a local level that weren’t in favour of everybody. Shielding was one example.

FROM HOME WERE WHITE.

“When shielding was introduced, the idea was, if you’ve got vulnerable family members, you need to work from home to keep them safe. That gave managers this power, if you like, to decide who was entitled to be shielded. So one participant was told, flat out, you’re from *Ghana, your family’s in *Ghana, you have no grounds for shielding. Then a colleague who was white British, with family two hours away, was told your family’s close, so you can work from home.

“My debate in this paper is, why does that become a necessary part of the exclusion or inclusion criteria, where your family lives? That isn’t what the government said. In the absence of guideline definition, we really leave this serious decision making to people who then interpret, or misinterpret as the case may be, in favour of some and to the disadvantage of others.

“We need a management process that is more culturally informed. I borrow this term culturally responsive leadership, which I think is a really

“WITH REGARDS TO SHIELDING, THE OUTCOME WAS THAT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE IN THE OFFICE WERE BLACK, AND THE ONES WHO WERE ALLOWED TO SHILD AND WORK

So the Black practitioners felt they ended up doing more work during Covid, when more of the people who looked like them were dying and becoming disproportionately infected.

There seemed to be either a lack of understanding, or complete disregard to what was going on.

“This was, of course, exacerbated by the murder of George Floyd. Black practitioners were saying: nobody ever mentioned the name George Floyd in our team meetings. Nobody mentioned Black Lives Matter. Black people are dying of Covid, we’re in the office, we’ve not being given PPE, and on one occasion, another practitioner said you had to be mates with the administrator who gave out the PPE to get any, but the administrator was white and all her friends were white, so they just went out and bought their own.

“This kind of thing is important to highlight for social work because we often find ourselves thinking that, because our profession is built upon this whole notion of respect for equality and diversity, empowering everyone, wanting the world to be a place where everyone is given an equal share of the cake, practitioners - and indeed

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researchers - can forget there are differential experiences for different groups of people. We are not immune as a profession, and the silence of some managers and leaders around Black Lives Matter - when you’ve got a significant number of Black students practitioners - is actually quite disgraceful, and needs to be picked up.

“I’d like to finish by mentioning the fact there’s little to no research on why we seem to have high numbers of Black social workers doing agency work, rather than permanent roles.

One practitioner I spoke with made it absolutely clear that the reason for this, in his view, is that when you experience racism, it’s easier to leave a locum or agency role.

“BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T IN LOCUM OR AGENCY ROLES BECAUSE THEY CAN GET MORE MONEY, HE SAID, IT’S BECAUSE THESE ROLES MAKE IT EASIER TO ESCAPE RACISM, WHEN THEY’RE CONFRONTED WITH IT. “That was quite disheartening to hear in 2020 or 2021.

“If this carries on, we will continue in the profession to see more ethnic minority people becoming locum social workers, which doesn’t help any local authority, because there’s a kind of fluidity of staffing, and no real core staff.

“Covid uncovered a need for culturally responsive leadership, recognising the diversity of people you lead and manage, and ensuring that everyone has a fair proportion of the goodwill and the good things that exist in our profession.”

INTRODUCING...THE PRIDE OF SOCIAL WORK AWARDS!

E

very day, social workers across the globe get up and go to work, their ‘ordinary’ days extraordinary by anyone else’s count.

The work is hard, intense, but they ask for no recognition, and no reward.

As they forge ahead through massive caseloads and emotional burnout, their motivation remains the people they support, and the essential work they continue to do quietly, year-after-year.

But now, a new annual celebration is set to unite social workers all over the world, elevating the public profile of the profession, and celebrating its success stories like never before.

“We chose the name, The Pride of Social Work Awards, because we felt nobody was shouting our success stories from the rooftops and, more importantly, the success stories of the people we support,” says Vince Peart, one of two UK social workers behind the new international evening of celebration, which will launch in 2022.

“That’s really important for me - to remember that we are only ever facilitators and advocates of change, and that the hard work is put in by the people we go to work for every day.

“I engage with social workers from all over the world and there is a clear sense that our profession needs to be better celebrated and better promoted.

“AFTER YEARS OF WAITING FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO PUT TOGETHER A VEHICLE TO IMPROVE OUR PUBLIC IMAGE, WE FELT IT WAS TIME TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND DO SOMETHING OURSELVES.” Vince joined forces with Tilly Baden, an adult social work team manager and Best Interests Assessor, after the pair came up with the idea back in 2020, while considering ways they could help to celebrate the achievements of

their fellow social workers and people supported by them during the darkest days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There are countless unsung heroes out there with uplifting tales to share,” says Tilly.

“The public never gets to hear about these, as much of the media coverage around social work focuses on the negatives when there is a tragedy.

“Taking initial inspiration from The Pride of Britain Awards, Vince and I agreed that this could be just what our profession needs!”

THE PRIDE OF SOCIAL WORK AWARDS WILL DIFFER FROM OTHER AWARD NIGHTS ALREADY RUNNING IN THE SECTOR, IN THAT IT WILL BE NON-COMPETITIVE AND NARRATIVE-DRIVEN. SOCIAL WORK NEWS WILL BE COMING ONBOARD TO SUPPORT THE AWARDS AS MEDIA PARTNER Offering some insight into how the awards will work, Tilly added: “Our awards will enable social workers, students, academics, leaders, and the people we support to tell the world about their social work successes.

“These will inform and inspire fellow and future generations of social workers whilst ensuring that those individuals achieve the recognition and prestige they deserve.

“The chosen award winners will not be ranked, and each person will be celebrated equally for their positive contribution to society. We want to celebrate stories from people from all over the world, from all different backgrounds, cultures, ages, genders, religions, sexualities, races, abilities, and circumstances.

“Unlike other awards, we haven’t created specific categories to enter

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as we recognise that social work is a broad profession and different countries practice in different ways. Some countries protect the professional title of a social worker, whereas some use this title to cover a variety of roles and the title isn’t protected by law.

“To be as fair as possible, we’ll accept nominations regarding anyone who is practising in the field of social work including community work, research, academia, protective services, charity and voluntary services, local government, care, fostering and adoption work, and humanitarian work.

“We are also accepting nominations for people who use these services if they have contributed to society or the development of social work.”

Vince and Tilly confirmed they are currently setting up formal processes in relation to nominations and the selection process for winners, and will soon begin recruiting judges and partnering with sponsors.

In discussing the legacy they hope to leave, Tilly added: “This is the first award ceremony of its kind in the field of social work.

“We want to ensure that social workers and people supported by social work services receive the recognition and admiration that they deserve.

“We’ve been supporting and empowering individuals, families and communities for years, but the majority of people still have no idea what social workers actually do. We hope to change that, making the winners’ stories public, and celebrating them all over the world.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the awards, putting themselves forward as judge, or offering sponsorship, can do so by emailing Tilly and Vince at office@ prideofsocialworkawards.com

WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT BEING A SOCIAL WORKER…?

S

ocial work is a job like no other; difficult to define, and difficult to explain.

As we reveal the launch of The Pride of Social Work Awards next year, we asked our global community of social workers what they thought was the best thing about being a social worker.

Hundreds agreed that the people and families at the heart of each case were their reason for giving their best.

“Honestly. Just being a part of someone’s process to a better life for themselves,” said Amanda Mulhern, a social worker from Pennsylvania.

“Truly humbling and makes my day.

Wouldn’t change my profession for the world. #socialworksarechangemakers”

Pamela Robertson, of Scotland, said: “Just everything! The journey with people, in their most humble moments, I’m privileged!” while Keely Johnson, of Manchester, agreed: “Seeing people take back control of their lives.”

Nia Lauren, of Hertfordshire, shared a touching moment: “I visited a family today with a mother who is deaf, so I hired an agency interpreter to assist with our face-to-face meeting (I was formulating a safety plan with the mum) “After our visit came to an end, and we had left the property, the interpreter told me that she needed to tell me two things - I have a gift, I am a natural communicator, and secondly I am a one in a million social worker...absolutely made my day to be honest.”

And Nia wasn’t the only one to share a special moment that made the job utterly worthwhile.

“I am still a student but last week the mother in a family I have been working with thanked me for my heart,” said Ra Ra, who’s based in the south west of England, while Shyla Archuletta, of New Mexico, recalled: “One of my clients invited me to school to watch his presentation and turns out it was ‘bring your hero to school’ day, and I was the hero.”

Deanna Smith said: “I had my client tell me I’m the only person who “really gets him.” Just listening and validating during their vulnerable moments.”

Christy Rood, of Nevada, said: “Seeing progress people make in their lives.

Carrie, in the south west of England, said: “Seeing children make huge Jaxon Adams, of British Columbia, said: and rapid progress developmentally, emotionally, behaviourally. It will never, “Feeling a sense of contribution to our ever get old, no matter how hard this community. Acknowledging those tiny job is and how much some days I want tiny steps or giant leaps forwards.” to run far away from my job.”

Donna Murray, of Dundee, said: Meredith Jo Allen, of North Carolina, “Knowing you’ve helped someone in said: “When a family cried with me on some way...and although it doesn’t the phone after making the difficult always happen as you hope, seeing decision to place their children up for people progress.” adoption because they knew it was the Liz, of Surrey, said: “Seriously I wish I best decision for their family. could find another job that gets me out of bed in the morning. I just love what I “THE FAMILY TOLD ME THEY LOVED ME AND THEY CONSIDERED do. I love it when a YP keeps standing and starts to feel able to make their ME A PART OF THEIR FAMILY. own choices (some of which can be IT WAS A HUMBLING DAY.” interesting). We are so honoured to be alongside them.”

And they will thank you, but it is them doing the work.”

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Stevie Hollinsworth, of Kilwinning Locality Team, North Aryshire in Scotland, shared: “Too many to mention. My team. Good outcomes.

Good relationships. The challenge.”

Madeleine Dubbelman said: “Never knowing what a workday will bring, experiencing crazy funny horrible things...being able to stand with a person at the worst time of their lives.”

And while the job of social worker remains difficult to pin down, we think Brittany Saggau, a social worker from Canada, hit the nail on the head when she said: “I get to love people for a living, that’s a pretty beautiful thing.”

Follow Social Work News on Facebook to join in the conversation.

NINE REASONS TO DATE A SOCIAL WORKER

As the name implies, we are ‘social’ creatures. The tool of our trade is communication so we know how to get along with others. We are great team players, work well in partnership and know how to pull together in the same direction. You’ll always be able to hold a conversation if you’re dating a Social Worker and will never run out of things to talk about.

We are good listeners. We spend our working lives listening to the life stories of the people we support and are always there to listen without judging.

One of the biggest problems in failing relationships is that couples can’t communicate properly. Social Workers’ strong communication skills mean that we can speak openly and share our feelings with our loved ones.

We are caring and compassionate. We have big hearts and can use empathy to put ourselves in the shoes of other people. We know the importance of understanding how other people feel and seeing the world from their perspective. This helps in a relationship because we can understand what it might feel like to be our partner and do what we can to make them feel good.

We are great negotiators and work hard to compromise with other people.

Effective long-term relationships rely on compromising to get by - what film to watch, where to eat, which house to buy, the kids’ names - and Social Workers are adept at finding common causes to work from. Although, a word of warning, we can be stubborn if we know our other halves are wrong!

We are reliable and don’t give up on people. We’ve all been there, that moment the first cracks appear in a relationship and you wonder whether to fix them or move on before it all falls apart. Social Workers spend their lives trying to empower people so they can achieve their goals. This makes us dependable and less likely to walk out when the going gets tough.

We are good at making rational decisions and weighing up the evidence before acting. A key part of being a Social Worker is completing assessments and putting in place interventions to address any needs we discover. This experience means we’ve got analytical minds and are good at thinking things through before making a hasty decision.

We get stuff done. After those early lust-filled days have died down, relationships tend to move onto more of the mundane stuff. As Social Workers, our days are all about getting stuff done. Writing reports, filling in forms or planning meetings, we work efficiently to get things done. If you date a Social Worker, you can rely on us to keep things running smoothly.

We are brilliant at remaining cool under pressure and managing stressful situations. Being a Social Worker means having to handle a great deal of pressure and coping with a lot of stress. Because we’re so used to coping in this environment, we can stay cool under pressure and are betterequipped to manage difficult situations in our personal lives.

We are good judges of character. Social Workers spend their lives meeting people from all walks of life and finding out about their deepest secrets.

Because we’ve working with so many different people, we tend to be good at working people out and judging their character. If you’re lucky enough to be married to a Social Worker, then you must be a very special person indeed!

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We challenged four social work professionals to outline how they would overhaul the social care sector, if they found themselves...

IN CHARGE FOR A DAY DIANA KATOTO Final year student social worker at the University of Birmingham, & Activist If I was in charge for the day, I would aim to disrupt the corrupted systems to rebuild them in a anti-oppressive way.

There are many areas I think could be improved in the world of social care services. However, I would want to specifically tackle discrimination against people with lived experiences and professionals based on their protected characteristics - for example, their race, gender, sexuality or disability. The harm of discrimination isn’t just seen or felt personally, but can also create systemic difficulties, so my plan would tackle each level.

Why is tackling discrimination important? Not only does it affect all aspects of an individual’s life, sometimes it can be the deciding factor of whether you “deserve” certain treatments. Your voice might not be heard or valued as much as others because of your race, religion or sex etc. If that is our reality, how can we possibly turn a blind eye to the serious dangers of discrimination and oppression? No one should be above being criticised. It should be used as a stepping stone to improve, as no one knows everything.

I WOULD DIVE IN AND EVALUATE THE LEADERS IN THE PROFESSION. WHO ARE THEY? WHAT DO THEY STAND FOR? DO THEIR PROFESSIONAL ACTIONS ALIGN WITH SOCIAL WORK’S CORE VALUES AND ETHICS? ARE OPPORTUNITIES BEING SHARED EQUALLY?

But I would also evaluate the quality of services being provided. Are service users being listened to? What happens after reporting discrimination? Are we creating a safe environment?

Within the organisation, I would be asking more critical questions around personal and professional identity. Are we safeguarding our professionals?

Is career progress accessible to all or only a few?

I wouldn’t be able to achieve this all in one day, but I would structure a detailed plan and process so that we can start disrupting the system. From there, we would make the necessary changes! Time and money would go into how to improve our practice and services. There isn’t an end date to this because we should constantly be challenging and improving. We can’t become complacent.

If I was in charge for only one day, I would take that opportunity to amplify the voices of those who go unheard.

We must challenge and make changes as awareness can only go so far.

RICHARD DEVINE Consultant social worker Social workers caseloads would be reduced by at least a third. Social workers would have the time to provide families the support and help they need (and deserve!). As a result, retention would improve. Children and their parents would be more likely to have the same social worker which would help relationships.

More administration support would be provided. If I have ever made a positive difference in the life of a child, it has always been because I was supported by brilliant business support.

Every social worker would have an

assistant social worker who could deliver interventions and provide intense practical support for families.

•

A therapeutic rehabilitation centre for a parent with a longstanding drug and/or alcohol problem.

Work with families would be underpinned by practical ideas, skills and tools that would be made available to all social workers, such as motivational interviewing, systemic practice, and signs of safety. Time and space would be allowed to support ongoing skills-based training.

•

A long term, practically and emotionally helpful relationship for a lonely, depressed parent, completely overwhelmed by the challenge of parenting. One way to achieve this would be foster carers fostering the family.

•

Psychotherapeutic treatment would be available for a parent experiencing severe mental health problems, causing him/her to act

A different hierarchal structure would be developed - experienced practitioners wouldn’t be forced into choosing between front line social work or management. Instead, experienced social workers could acquire specialist roles. They would develop an expertise, continue to work directly with families, and support less experienced social workers.

When parents have significant and enduring problems, we would have access to a range of intensive, evidenced-based interventions. For example:

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impulsively and violently.

Parents would be asked to address only one problem. The main problem.

We would not send them to several different short-term programmes, but instead think carefully about the critical cause of concern.

PARENTS WOULD HAVE ACCESS TO A PEER ADVOCATE; A PARENT WHO THEMSELVES HAD PREVIOUSLY AND SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATED

THE CHILD PROTECTION

readily be considered.

SYSTEM, AND WOULD PROVIDE

Ongoing family time between parents would be supported by specialist family support workers in well equipped, nicely furnished centres. Parents who have children in care, fostered or adopted, would be entitled to therapy for their loss, plus all the support that parents who are at risk of losing their children can access.

GUIDANCE, SUPPORT, AND HELP TO A PARENT WITH CURRENT SOCIAL WORK INVOLVEMENT. Instead of parenting programmes that last 6-12 weeks, social workers and parent advocates would codeliver localised support groups that run indefinitely. This would provide parents the content of many parenting programmes, but also enable ongoing social support, and a place to receive/ give advice.

If children need to come into care, we would have access to high quality, local, in-house foster care provision.

Adoption would be an option, but adoption without direct contact (family time) would be extremely rare. If a parent makes changes, even a few years after their child is removed, shared care or reunification would

WINSTON MORSON Independent social worker When reflecting on changes if I oversaw the child safeguarding system, I think about two fundamental

issues. Firstly, we have a system based on hierarchical, corporate style structures. Secondly, there is a lack of transparency, where confidentiality for families is often used to avoid openness.

Therefore, the centrepiece of my plan is the implementation of community panels – known as Comps - which will be a substitute for the role of local authority senior managers, replace the current OFSTED inspection regime, and limit input from private companies and large third sector actors in providing services, favouring a local ecosystem of services and innovation.

Comps will take the lead in liaising with local politicians with respect to funding and planning of services and will be based on a localised “patch” structure, rather than a centralised hub. Comps will ensure a shift from office-based to outreach support so that safeguarding systems are less dependent on referrals and more able to address

they place unrealistic timescales and expectations on employees. Managers would be trained appropriately.

community issues, such as child sexual and criminal exploitation. Imagine the difference if this had been in place during the pandemic.

Supervisory Support – more frequent supervision would have positive impacts on stress as well as cases that individuals are expected to deal with.

EACH SOCIAL WORKER WILL HAVE A PERSONAL ASSISTANT THAT CAN MANAGE THEIR CALENDAR, AND OTHER RELEVANT ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS. Instead of using locums, Comps will establish “banks” of social workers, kept directly on retainer, to cover gaps in relation to leave, sickness, and fulltime vacancies.

Eventually, social work teams will become non-hierarchical, promote a culture where frontline workers undertaking research is the norm, and provide support so that practitioners can speak to the media about what they do. This will support a move away from a compliance-based service where “monitoring” or “statutory timescales” will become profanities.

To evaluate services, Comps will coordinate a new inspection regime with on-going evaluation based on feedback of experiences from families, testimony from workers, and outcomes for children - not adherence to data points.

Finally, Comps will work with the legal profession to ensure the family courts are more transparent, accessible to families, and less adversarial in approach. This will reflect the shift to a more open social care system, led by a confident, but compassionate workforce no longer held back by the comfort blanket of hierarchy.

JOHN MCGOWAN General Secretary, Social Work Union If the Social Workers Union (SWU) was at the helm of social care services for a day we would set in place a service wide plan to embrace a community led approach. This would be an expansion of the SWU and British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Professional Working Conditions Campaign that was launched in 2018 to improve the working conditions of Social Workers and has continued thereafter.

To start, SWU would run a far-reaching public education drive about the nature and current state of social work in the UK. This would grow media interest and build public awareness of SWU’s research which shows that Social Workers are strongly engaged in their work and want the very best outcomes for people that use services, but they are hampered by poor working conditions and a lack of resources.

Some changes we would make: Workload – social workers have too many cases – meaning they don’t have the time to get through them all.

Too much paperwork – social workers have too much paperwork, as well as paperwork which is too repetitive.

Managerial Support – a large number of non-social workers are in management positions. Because of this, 35

SWU WOULD USE OUR DAY TO EMPOWER LOCAL AUTHORITIES, BEGIN TACKLING INEQUALITY AND HIERARCHY ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFERENT CARE ROLES, AND SUPPORT BEST PRACTICES FOR HYBRIDIZED WORKING THAT WE HAVE BUILT UPON DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. SWU would also ringfence current social care service funding and impress upon the government the importance of restoring previous funding, making whole a sector that has been cut to the bone by austerity-based policies.

We need to move away from the neoliberal commodification of care – particularly in adult social care – that assumes the individual is best placed to buy services, and instead move the focus to a community-led approach that values the many rather than the individual. The vulnerable in our society are not customers; they are people.

There aren’t any magic wands available in this scenario so this isn’t a change that could take place over the span of one day. However, our aim would be to set into motion a significant shift in social work culture that has empathy, awareness of social policy, and personal values at its core.

Financial rewards of up to £750 per child per week

Flow of placements and an eight-week pay retainer

A fantastic, individual personal development and training plan

Access 24/7 support, every day of the year

One-to-one sessions with a social worker

Local support groups and so much more…

To discover more, call 01253 420222 or visit blackpoolfostering.com

#bettertogether

‘WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE STUDENT SOCIAL WORKERS JUST BEGINNING THEIR COURSES?’ Three students from The Student Social Work Hub share their thoughts on studying social work in 2021.

DYLAN SLOAN.

DYLAN SLOAN

KELLY CENTRO

As the Samurai Social Worker (follow him on Twitter if you haven’t done so already!) explained during a recent book club meeting: we are all on a journey, imagine it to be a train with stops along the way. People will get on the train, and depart at their right stop. It’s vital to submerge yourself in the world of social work, create connections and communities within your university. These people are on your train for the next 3/4 years and beyond, so get to know them.

Sometimes the train will be delayed - you may not get the mark you were hoping for on an assignment - but remember the train isn’t broken down!

Secondly, you are going to learn theoretical underpinnings which you will ultimately use in practice but please remember, as you embark upon placements, that these are real people with different life experiences. Imagine them reading what you are writing.

FIONA STEANE

timetables for assignments has definitely helped me. I always try to make my submission date on my plan earlier than the actual one.

Read everything you can, it helps with assignments to see how people write and their different styles. There are many second-hand books to be had from former students and online sellers. The library should also become your best friend! I found the academic support at NTU and the library is fab, they have all kinds of sessions on referencing and academic writing.

Also make the most of the social work community, there is a wealth of knowledge and experience you can learn from. I found social work Twitter is really helpful and leads to many resources and professionals willing to impart knowledge and experience.

FIONA STEANE.

As someone who has just qualified and finished three years at university, I would definitely say do not wish your time away. As cliché as it is, time really does fly. My biggest piece of advice would be to think of university as your time to learn about social work, the Thirdly, a piece of academic advice – reference along the way; honestly it will world and most importantly yourself. save you so much time when you get to During my time at university I experienced a rollercoaster of the end of your assignment! complete self-discovery, something Finally, embrace it, you are choosing I am eternally grateful for. So really a career path where no two days are what I am saying is give yourself the the same; that’s the joy of working time and space to learn. Yes, social alongside people. work includes how to write reports and complete those procedures, but that KELLY CENTRO. will come with practice.

As a student who is completing the In university, allow yourself to take time apprenticeship, so working alongside to learn, to be critical in your thinking, studying, I would say be organised! to learn more about yourself, and social Spending time putting dates into work as a profession. my diary and planning out rough 37

ASK THE PANEL SHOULD THERE BE A NATIONAL CARE SERVICE? Each week on mysocialworknews.com, we put a question to our panel of experts. This issue, we ask social workers Tilly Baden, Kayleigh Rose Evans, and Social Work Tutor if there should be a national social work service.

TILLY BADEN

KAYLEIGH ROSE EVANS

SOCIAL WORK TUTOR

Social Worker, BIA, Adult Social Care Team Manager, and podcast host

Social Worker, Trainer, Academic, and YouTuber

Social Worker, tutor, writer, and podcaster

I’m watching the current consultation about the proposed National Care Service in Scotland closely.

Having worked as a social worker during the pandemic, I feel the cracks in the system have been exposed.

Yes, I think there should.

We’re amidst a growing care crisis in the UK, and the idea of having adult and children’s services pulled out of local authority control and placed into a central system with nationalised care services available under one umbrella certainly has some merit. In many parts of the country, the care offer is so woefully inadequate that people’s basic needs can’t be met. Radical change is clearly needed.

The Care Act 2014 advocates for a ‘market of care.’ The reality is that some people have had to wait weeks for support, in hospital beds away from loved ones because care isn’t available. When it is, timings have been inconsistent and staff shortage levels high.

However, I’m cautious about advocating for a National Care Service in England. In theory, it looks appealing, but I have many concerns about how it would work in practice. If we think about the NHS, the amount of bureaucracy and senior management involvement is terrifying. It has become so vast and overly politicised that it is far from where it started.

In my view, nationalising and centralising services doesn’t always work out for the best. We have such diverse populations and communities within the UK that a ‘one size fits all’ approach is never going to be right.

I believe we should start by localising care services, allowing each local authority to commission and run the services which are right for their citizens. We should be designing services alongside the people who use them so that true co-production becomes a reality rather than a trendy buzzword. Let’s get this right as a first step, before we even consider a National Care Service.

I believe that care agencies are doing their best, but more government focus is needed on making improvements to social care and listening to those in receipt of and delivering services.

Carers carry a lot of responsibility, and have an important role in people’s lives, yet are paid minimum wage. They face the brunt of people’s expectations not being met, yet it seems to put them in an impossible position with difficult working conditions.

Recent news about the amazing work achieved by social workers in Sunderland shows just what can be achieved through dynamic, driven, and child-focused leadership. The leaders in Sunderland had a clear vision for the children in their communities, and through reducing caseloads, improving practice, and investing in their workforce, they have achieved something that has never been done before - going straight from inadequate to outstanding in under three years.

Let’s not just hope that their ways of working ‘trickle down’ over the years, through the occasional shared briefing or best-practice workshop, but let’s put such leaders in charge instead. If this can be achieved in one of the 20% most deprived districts in England, then it can surely be rolled out elsewhere.

But the current system doesn’t lend itself to this kind of sharing of best The Scottish government suggests it practice. Instead of our best leaders wants to invest in communities and being escalated to regional and change the system, moving from a national positions of powers, they focus on mere survival to one that get poached away by struggling local empowers people to thrive. authorities who pay a premium in I am in support of The Social Care the hope that they can replicate the Future movement. Their vision can be same results. This causes significant summed up by this statement from their problems with consistency and website: ‘Don’t we all want to live in disruption amongst workforces. the place we call home with the people and things that we love, in communities A National Care System would lend itself to this kind of promotion - with where we look out for one another, local, regional, area, and national doing the things that matter to us?’ leaders sharing a consistent vision for The Scottish government’s proposal their staff and service users alike, as appeared to align with this. If a National they work towards a goal for a unified, Care Service could truly deliver this standardised, and high-quality care vision, I would be fully behind it. system for all.

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THE PEOPLE WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN SOCIAL WORKERS

P

eople have tied themselves in knots trying to define the ineffable qualities a social worker should possess, begging the question: just what does it take to be a great social worker?

Here are a few famous faces we think would have made fantastic additions to the sector...but sadly they got saddled with careers in music, film, and fiction instead!

MARY POPPINS Okay, so ‘practically perfect in every way’ is about as far from our vocation as you can get, but on the plus side, our ol’ mate Mary can bring order out of chaos, stand up to the overbearing Mr Banks, and jam everything imaginable into her handbag – a top skill for any practitioner.

PHOEBE FROM FRIENDS Phoebe is kooky, quirky, and not afraid to be different. While her day job was a masseuse, she could easily have worn a local authority lanyard instead.

She was willing to stand up for the little person, give away her wedding savings, and act as a surrogate mother for her brother. But, had she been cast as a social worker, Friends would have been very different. Phoebe would have never had time for coffee at Central Perk and would instead appear every week by phone, apologising for having to work late – again.

ED SHEERAN Ed may be a multi-million record selling superstar, but he also is clearly a man with a social conscience. He raised £40,000 for a charity supporting street sex-workers, he gives his clothes to charity shops, and when his restaurant closed during lockdown he continued to pay his staff in full. Not every superstar is quite so humble. Of course, being a good egg doesn’t automatically make you a great social worker, but it’s a good start.

DEL BOY While Del’s younger brother Rodney may seem like the more obvious choice for this list (he’s liberal, caring, and usually wants no part of his older brother’s dubious schemes), if you can look past the hooky gear, we think you’ll find Del Boy has a heart of gold.

When poor old Uncle Albert needed a place to live, Del Boy took him in. When Rodney’s marriage fell apart, Del put it back together again. Whenever anyone needed anything – whether it was a knocked off microwave or an ear to listen – Del Boy was there. A diamond geezer, we reckon he’d ensure his clients were always sound as a pound.

PRINCESS DIANA

What would have happened to Lady Di had she never married into royalty?

That’s the question that has been knocked around the tabloids for years.

We already know becoming a princess TOM HANKS didn’t change her values, as she famously made headlines for hugging When it comes to playing the role of a AIDs victims, taking her young sons to social worker, Tom Hanks is a casting volunteer at homeless shelters, and - in director’s dream. He is never the bad the weeks before she died - walking guy, never the tortured genius. Either among landmines while campaigning he is wading through a warzone to rescue a mother’s only surviving son, or for a worldwide ban. Maybe she wouldn’t have found quite the same calmly landing a passenger jet on the glamour in social work, but she would River Hudson. If he can do that then, have still made a difference. perhaps he could handle social work...

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Outlanders - Hidden Narratives from Social Workers of Colour In this landmark publication, Social Workers from Black and other Global Majority Communities showcase a rich and diverse collection of their essays, poems, stories, and reflections, providing unique and spellbinding insights.

Visit kirwinmaclean.co.uk/publications to order your copy, £13, plus P&P.

EVER FANCIED SEEING YOUR WORDS IN PRINT? ...honestly, who hasn’t?!

W

hether it’s a humorous observation about office politics, your thoughts and opinions on a current issue or hot topic, an overview of your research, or a resource review, mysocialworknews. com exists to give you a space to share your articles, columns, and blogs about life as a social worker.

it is likely to draw a knowing nod of recognition, because the truth is that nobody gets social workers like other social workers.

As well as our Feature content, our Social Work News team works hard to bring you the latest updates in the News section of our homepage, making it easier for you to stay up to date with Each day our online platform is updated one click of your mouse/swipe of your with entertaining and engaging content finger. And if we don’t have it - register written by social workers just like you on the site and share it yourselves with from across the globe, and whether our growing global community of social lighthearted or serious, nearly all of workers! Each quarter, we select some 43

of our favourite, and most popular, submissions to appear in our print magazine, which is sent to thousands of social workers all over the world.

If you’d like to write and share content, comment on and ‘like’ other people’s words, access our free quarterly magazine, and receive our weekly digest newsletter of the Social Work News week’s highlights - all while giving your CPD a valuable boost! simply visit mysocialworknews.com to register for free today. Pour yourself a cuppa and come dive in...

Pop the kettle on with...

NEIL THOMPSON Renowned author and trainer, Neil Thompson, talks pandemic, racism in 2021, and reveals how a multiple-choice questionnaire led him to social work.

I got into social work by accident,” admits Neil, with a smile.

“When I was younger, I was studying languages - French, Welsh, and German - and planned to be a speech therapist. Then one day I was at my local jobcentre, filling out a questionnaire which identified that my ‘caring and compassionate’ nature, teamed with the fact I was ‘organised and disciplined,’ made me well-suited for a career as a social worker.

“The buzz of constant new referrals, meeting and helping lots of people, really appealed to me,” he recalls.

“I especially loved the pace and rapid turnover of cases, in that you could meet somebody on a Monday, and have the case closed by Thursday, after helping to set someone on the path to solving their own problems.

“I worked as a social worker for over a decade, going on to become a team manager, and then a training officer, before making the leap into lecturing.”

“I immediately headed off to the library to research what social workers did, and the more I read, the more it sounded like the job for me.”

Today, Neil is renowned as an independent writer, educator, and trainer. In the past 25 years, he has published 47 books on the subject, and also has six training manuals, and six ebooks to his name. Most recently, he was offered a visiting professorship at the Open University.

Neil began his career with his local authority in Wrexham, North Wales, in 1977, working initially as a residential child care officer before studying to train as a social worker. His first placement was with an intake team - a job he reveals he loved.

“A lot has changed since I qualified in 1982,” he muses with a nod, “but what has stayed the same is the value of social work, in that when it is done properly, it can make a huge difference to people’s lives. Something else that hasn’t changed is the media.

“I see people getting het up about the public image of social work, but I try and reassure them that it’s not just social work that takes the hit.

‘DOCTOR DOES A GOOD JOB’ IS NEVER GOING TO BE AS GOOD A HEADLINE AS ‘DOCTOR SUED FOR NEGLIGENCE.’ That’s just how the media works; they look for the negatives, and so it’s up to us to put the positives forward highlighting the value and benefits of the work being done by social workers everywhere.

“One thing that really has changed is that we now struggle with, what I call, a referral culture. I think there’s been a lot of deskilling over the years as social workers have found themselves, at times, reduced to being administrators of sorts, forced to refer someone to B, C, X, and Y, for the interesting, challenging, and rewarding work, instead of being able to take care of certain things themselves, as the skilled professionals they really are.”

NEIL ON...

MORALE “Low morale doubles the workload, undermining energy levels, and killing creativity. Good leaders are needed to make people feel supported, valued, and safe. I think people can cope with a lot with a good leader behind them.”

THE PANDEMIC “We’ve seen evidence, in the past two years, of people surviving this industry by the skin of their teeth. One person told me about a time when her manager walked into the room and found her in tears, because of all the pressure she was under. The manager just turned around and walked out again, presumably because they just couldn’t take it. Not necessarily because they’re a bad manager, or they don’t care, but because perhaps they felt like crying, too. That’s part of why I co-wrote ‘How to Survive in Social Work’ last year.”

WELLBEING Neil, who has worked with thousands of social workers in his years as a trainer, reveals it is this culture he continues to work to change, encouraging a move away from this idea that social workers are just an intermediary between the service user and service provider. Instead, he says, he hopes to encourage social workers to help those they’re working with to think in terms of problem-solving.

“It’s so important to be able to ask for help. People worry about seeming weak, or people thinking they’re incompetent or can’t cope, but that’s bullshit. It’s also dangerous, because once that culture develops, people feel they have nowhere to go. Stress is not a sign of weakness. Anyone can get overwhelmed.”

“I know from speaking to them that there are social workers out there, driving towards people’s homes already thinking: ‘what service can I direct this person to?’ rather than going back to the basics of: ‘What problem are they struggling with?’

“Anti racism has become high profile again, which I’m really pleased to see, but I’ve also seen these gross oversimplifications creep back in again - things like ‘you can’t say black coffee, that’s racist, you must say coffee without milk.’ That’s nonsense. People are so worried about saying the wrong thing, so they end up saying nothing at all. We’ve got to do justice to the complexity of this issue.”

RACISM

“A big part of my career has been challenging that, and getting people to think in terms of, what today we’d call, outcome focused terms.

SOCIAL MEDIA

“Sometimes I feel like a bit of a fraud, at the end of a conference or training course, when someone says that I’ve inspired them. It’s lovely to hear, but in reality all I’m doing is reminding them of what social work is all about.”

“I’m very active on social media, and I love when people get in touch to ask questions, or even just to engage, so get in touch.

Find out more at neilthompson.info 45

When it comes to social work, we know that no two days are ever the same, so we asked three social workers to share their day, and show us what it’s really like to spend...

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SOCIAL WORKER

MARK MONAGHAN

CHRISTINE FERGUSON

WAYNE REID

Social work practice educator

Senior social worker

Social worker & Anti-racism visionary

7am – Get up, catch up on case recordings and urgent emails. Every email from legal is usually marked ‘urgent.’ Most are not.

8am - I’ve had two days to prepare a ten-minute presentation entitled ‘Barriers to Learning and how will I overcome them’ for an interview, for a project education worker role. I present this to my colleague who gives me constructive pointers.

7am – Bike ride or run before walking my youngest daughter to school with our dog.

9am – Attending court online, a very surreal experience. Since lockdown, the courts have been closed, making communication hard due to tech issues. 9am – Student time case discussions.

She is doing well but needs 11am – After the stop-start, of reassurance about her lack of process connecting, we are finally ‘in’ court. knowledge. Went through all cases and Solicitors explain that they have not advised her on case noting. been able to speak to their clients.

Complaints about the level of inaction from the Local Authority.

1pm – During lunch, we are sometimes told to discuss issues that may or may not be resolved by the return at 2pm.

3pm – After much discussion and bartering, we get a conclusion in which an order is agreed. Clearly there are issues around assessments required and the timescale. The family are not happy as they were informed by a previous worker that they ‘wouldn’t have to undertake further assessment.’

10am – Looked at Court Orders, from the Court of Protection and planned work to be completed. Phone calls and emails to arrange assessments, and case noted everything.

11.30am - Emails. Student asked me what to do with one of her cases. Made phone call to S/U husband to discuss the risk assessment. Also, emailed their daughter in Albania to reassure her, and sent her a copy of the assessment.

2pm – Panic swotting for interview on Andragogy and adult learning theories.

2.30 pm – The interview went well.

5pm – Catch up on emails, feedback from manager and soliCitors, exhausted It was strange doing a presentation online, they all turned their cameras off, from a full day staring at a screen. so I had no clue as to how it was going.

My proudest moment was... when a

Surviving it all, makes me proud and suggests a level of resilience that I never knew I had.

4pm – A colleague’s case has gone into crisis and she finishes today at 4pm for one week. My manager called me and we discussed the crisis case, agreeing to meet at 8.45am tomorrow to discuss further. Got feedback on that afternoon’s continuous improvement and case progression meeting.

The lessons I’ve learned... listen more than you speak, always treat people with respect, and while social work education is one thing, people are people, and they generally respond to warmth and honesty above all else.

My proudest moment was... gaining my first degree from the Open University. My father died young, and was a great believer in education. I had a quiet moment at his graveside, and whispered “I made it, dad.”

young man approached me to thank me for taking him away from his mother, although he said he initially didn’t understand the risks, and had hated me. That was a moment.

47

9am – Respond to wide-ranging emails and phone calls from BASW members and stakeholders on antiracism and generic social work issues.

Team meeting with BASW England colleagues.

11am - Virtual ‘Anti-racism in Social Work’ presentations to local authorities.

Networking/planning meetings with internal colleagues and external stakeholders. Thematic discussions with BASW members regarding criminal justice, mental health, and professional development. Discussion with a BASW branch chair regarding a forthcoming event.

1pm – Lunch (if I’m lucky!). Work on a national consultation response and BASW survey. Black and Ethnic Minority Professionals Symposium (BPS) meeting focusing on conference planning.

3pm – Allocated time for project development and campaign work Sometimes ends up being time used for responding to wide-ranging email requests and administrative tasks. Panelist at an ‘Anti-racism in Social Work’ webinar promoting the OUTLANDERS anthology.

5pm – Late meetings, branch meetings and/or late catch-ups with colleagues.

My typical day is... diverse and requires versatility.

The lessons I’ve learned... are plentiful, the clearest being to stay true to your authentic self.

The most challenging part of my job is... the covert and overt anti-Black racism I’m faced with near and far.

#SOCIALWORKNEWS YOUR COMMENTS:

p67 Vijay patel @vk

ago worker 30 years qualified social a as b jo had I st ir. fir y ha I started m a bit of my my humour and ed in ta d up re pe e ty I’v o .

Admin wh this month ary and landline. di t, ne bi ca . g ile in mob an office, fil ve a laptop and reports. Now I ha case notes and 99 6 4

In response to columnist Matt Bee’s article, ‘Nobody knows what a social worker does. Should we be called something else?’

RO @_CousinKayah Honestly, Social Work is NOT for the weak. The amount of emotional energy it takes is inde scribable. But I cant imagine doing anything else with my life.

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rich Dr. Sonyia Richardson @sonyia work classes on Monday and my Had my first face to face social ing sure they didn’t cause harm students greatest fear was mak ful change in the lives of their and were able to create meaning lead. This is social work. clients. They are ready to lean and 3

@socialworknewbe: ‘Many moons ago (before social work) I was called ‘Help’ by a Polish lady who could understand a lot of English but had trouble writing it. She put me in her phone as HELP, because that is how she saw me, as her help, and did not know how to spell my name. It made me smile at the time.’

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Kai @KailieHamilton Social work culture do es too much to prepa re us to be busy and always on the grind, an d somehow its okay bc of some false notion that other safety depends on our grind .

@stanley3319207: ‘It’s not simple. I think it’s more about knowing who I am and what I am able to skillfully assist with, and that’s a huge spectrum of tasks. It’s a very unusual rewarding job, uplifting and at times soul destroying, then a new day and we do it all again.’

YOUR ADVICE: Abbie She/Her @galestorm_

and stitch ial worker by watching Lilo Studying to become a soc ever for the best social worker

This month, @davethecarebear asked: ‘What advice would you offer people about to start their dissertation?’ and the community came out in force: @Hannah_CEPSW: ‘Give plenty of time for it! Especially if ur like me with low attention span. Plan the time ahead u give for different chapters. Doa subject ur genuinely interested in. Skim read abstracts. Send in chapter to uni tutors etc for advice.

4

Viwe #ENDGBV @ViweTafeni_SW This is what a sc hool #socialwor ker looks like. M workers exist. So ale social cial workers who are men exist.

@socialworknewbe: ‘My advice is to start lit review now. Reference as you go. Aim for a certain amount of words per day. Be prepared to move your segments to where they best fit. Use the literature, refer to any example dissertations provided. Good luck.’ @markamsw1: ‘Make sure your references are collected. Give enough time for the final write up and read!! I’m just starting my MA now so any more suggestions are welcome...good luck!’

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L L A RT IC

RE

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@jane_mclenachan: ‘Choose a topic that really captures your interest and passion. Do lots of initial reading around your topic to help determine the gaps to inform your own focus.

Make sure you enjoy researching your topic and the process of writing and investigating.’

LE

A

@Ant_Vaughan: ‘Don’t underestimate the power of bullet points when you can’t see through the fog of writers’ block. A single bullet point is like a seed for engaging content.’

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SO

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MY

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WO R K N E W S AL .C

WHICH HARRY POTTER SOCIAL WORK HOUSE DO YOU BELONG IN? Ahh if only there was a Hogwarts for social workers…

Well now’s your chance to take a turn under the Sorting Hat, and decide which Harry Potter house would best suit your social work skill set!

DO YOU RELISH A CHALLENGE? YOU COULD BE GRYFFINDOR! A Gryffindor social worker is drawn to fast-paced, intense roles, within child protection or mental health teams.

They won’t think twice about working in hostile situations, and get a buzz from the uncertainty of social work.

GRYFFINDOR SOCIAL WORKERS ARE ADEPT AT POSITIVE RISK TAKING AND WILL SUPPORT PEOPLE TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST. They thrive when working in situations where there is conflict, and adopt a confident persona which puts others around them at ease.

Gryffindoors aren’t usually fans of planning, and prefer to be ‘thrown in at the deep end,’ figuring things out as they go. They are pragmatic and practical, can handle anything, and will be first to volunteer for tasks to help out their colleagues. When the pressure is on, you can count on a Gryffindor to lead through a crisis.

ARE YOU A LOYAL AND

IF YOU LOVE THEORY AND

ARE YOU HIGHLY AMBITIOUS? YOU

EMPATHETIC HUFFLEPUFF?

PLANNING, YOU MAY BE A

COULD BE SLYTHERIN!

Hufflepuffs are well-suited to social work, with listening skills, empathy, patience, and compassion that are second to none. Described as ‘diamonds’ by J.K. Rowling, these hard workers are the backbone of any good team, and will work tirelessly to get the job done, always volunteering to help a colleague out, or take on a new referral.

HUFFLEPUFFS ARE FIERCELY LOYAL AND WILL DO ANYTHING TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE THEY CARE ABOUT, MAKING THEM EXCELLENT ADVOCATES AND NEGOTIATORS.

RAVENCLAW! Ravenclaw social workers are the ‘brainy’ ones in the team, with a thirst for knowledge, and a passion for selfdevelopment which means they’re often drawn into research, practice education, and academia.

IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM, YOU CAN COUNT ON A RAVENCLAW TO FIND A CREATIVE SOLUTION. THEY THRIVE ON WORKING THROUGH ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND THEY HAVE REFLECTIVE PRACTICE NAILED.

These social workers are tenacious and will achieve anything they set their mind to. They are fierce advocates for the people they support, and their creativity and perseverance will ensure they achieve the best outcomes for people.

Their cunning helps them turn negatives into positives, and their powers of persuasion will help them secure funding, services, and resources.

SLYTHERIN SOCIAL WORKERS ARE AMBITIOUS, AND OFTEN FOUND PURSUING POSITIONS OF POWER AND INFLUENCE.

These social workers are brilliant A Hufflepuff social worker will never planners and analysts, and they shine let you down, and their grit and when applying complex legislation, determination - along with their positive case, law and policy to practice. spirit - will motivate others when times You can tell which desk belongs to are tough. a Ravenclaw social worker, as you Usually first to arrive, and last to leave, will find a mountain of theoretical they’re also food orientated, so you can textbooks alongside pages of notes always count on a Hufflepuff to have an and annotations. emergency snack stash.

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Don’t be put off by what you read about Syltherins from Harry Potter’s perspective - they make awesome friends who will have your back, and help push you to be the best version of yourself. Just don’t cross them, as they do have a vengeful side and are unlikely to back down in an argument.

“OOH I NEED ONE OF THOSE!” Dive into our resource round-up - whether it’s out now, or coming soon, here are a few books we think you should be getting your hands on...

PANTOSAURUS AND THE POWER OF PANTS Years after introducing Pantosaurus the yellow dinosaur to the world, the NSPCC has now unveiled a new children’s novel - the charity’s first - designed to give those living or working with children an ageappropriate way of discussing consent.

Released last month, Pantosaurus And The Power of PANTS has been created, following a £46,000 crowdfunding campaign, to help young people protect themselves from sexual abuse.

The book is based on the charity’s Talk PANTS campaign, with each letter of PANTS representing a rule that is supposed to teach children that certain parts of their body are private, that

their body belongs to them, and that they should tell an adult they trust if they’re worried or upset.

The book tells the story of Pantosaurus, who gets a new pair of pants, and Dinodad tells him that they will give him special powers. Pantosaurus then experiences a problem at school and just as Dinodad told him, his super pants give him the power to speak up.

An audio version of the book is set to be voiced by Game Of Thrones star Natalie Dormer, who is an NSPCC ambassador for Childline.

Research conducted by the NSPCC suggests that one in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused, and through PANTS the charity said it is working to make sure all children have

the vital language that they need to speak out to a trusted adult.

Margaret Gallagher, NSPCC service head of local campaigns, said: “This bright and playful picture book is perfect for reading with younger children and not only will they love Pantosaurus and his roarsome story, it’s also a fantastic tool for parents and carers to spark conversations with their little ones to help keep them safe, and talk about this difficult topic in an ageappropriate way.”

The money raised through book sales will go towards helping the charity continue its fight to end child abuse.

Pantosaurus And The Power Of PANTS is on sale in selected Matalan stores or Matalan.co.uk for £6.99.

COMING SOON...

THE SOCIAL WORK STUDENT CONNECT HANDBOOK This handbook, designed to cover everything a social work student needs to know - from applications, placements, and essays, to dissertations, and job hunting - is due out by the end of the year. Visit siobhanmaclean.co.uk to order your copy.

THE ANTI-RACIST SOCIAL WORKER This is the story of an anti-racist campaign staged by social workers and allied health which encourages readers to consider their own possibilities for anti-racist action.

Edited by Tanya Moore and Glory Simango, this book will be released on 27th September, priced £14.99. Visit criticalpublishing.com and use code SW2021 for 20% off purchase.

DILEMMAS AND DECISION MAKING

FOSTERING FOR ADOPTION: OUR

IN SOCIAL WORK

STORY AND STORIES OF OTHERS

Written by Abbi Jackson, this collection of stories has been designed to help social workers work with dilemmas, weigh-up options, and make good decisions.

An ideal read for professionals seeking to understand the experience of the adopter more profoundly, as this book provides a detailed, personal account of every stage of the process.

Release date is 12th October, priced £12.99. Visit criticalpublishing.com and use code SW2021 for 20% off purchase.

Release date is 11th October, priced £14.99. Visit criticalpublishing.com and use code SW2021 for 20% off purchase.

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‘THE INSIDE SCOOP’ Director of Children’s Social Care, Martin Birch, reveals exactly how his team became the first in the country to go from Inadequate to Outstanding in just three years...

“I think it’s fair to say we weren’t expecting Outstanding primarily because we didn’t think it was possible!”

Martin reveals.

externally into our ‘bare bones’ senior management team, which gave us a foundation to build from.

“From there we were able to recruit permanent social workers on the basis that we were turning things around.”

Martin and his team also set about changing the culture of the service, creating an open leadership-style of practice, with a firm open-door policy.

“Nobody has ever made that leap, from Inadequate to Outstanding, in the space of one inspection before, so although we knew we were doing really “I moved all of the senior managers into the same workspace as everyone well, we were stunned by the result.” else,” says Martin.

Inspectors who visited the ‘Together “I took an office right in the middle of for Children’ service back in July 2021 the social work offices, and my senior described a ‘tight-knit’ team and a managers and I encouraged social ‘rich and stimulating environment’ workers to approach us and tell us if which ‘empowers children to develop exceptional levels of perseverance and something wasn’t working.” determination.’

Martin also focused on reducing caseloads, taking the service average Sunderland is now one of only 18 local of 40+ cases per social worker back in authorities to attain this ‘Outstanding’ 2018, to an average of just over 17. status, and one of only four in the North of England.

Martin joined the team in October 2018, five months after the initial assessment that called for urgent change, and immediately set to work.

“NOT A GREAT DEAL HAD BEEN DONE, AND WE’D LOST QUITE A LOT OF MANAGERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS BY THEN, BECAUSE PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH A FAILING SERVICE,” HE SAYS. “Only about half of our workforce was permanent, so my first job was recruiting both internally and

“This is allowing us to do quality social work with children and families.”

“We also introduced a new model of intervention with families, adopting the Signs of Safety approach, which has been fantastic.

“Another important focus for us was involving our children and young people in our journey, that has become one of the bedrocks for our foundation.

for ‘care experienced.’

“All of these changes we were making, to stabilise the workforce and improve the service, began to have an effect very quickly.”

Speaking about the report, which was released last month, Martin says there are some key elements that he is particularly proud of.

“I LOVED WHERE IT SAID STAFF FEEL VALUED AND ENJOY THEIR WORK. “I’m also immensely proud of the work of our pre-birth team, who have been able to keep 78% of the children they’ve worked with, with their parents from birth.

“Pre-2018, that would have been a very different figure, in my opinion, and is truly reflective of the intensive work we’re doing.”

And as the service, and its team, continues its hard work on behalf of children and families in Sunderland, Martin says he is keen to pay it forward.

“When we started in 2018, we were at the foot of an enormous mountain, and we had such a long way to go,” he recalls.

“People generally don’t want to be associated with failing authorities, and “Early on in this process we asked them what sort of services they wanted. it’s quite a lonely existence.

They’ve helped us to develop some “Now we’re striding up that mountain, fantastic elements in our provision, our and the peak’s within view, if we can ‘Change the Language’ campaign has offer any assistance, or advice to our seen us working hard to adopt young colleagues around the country, who people’s preferred terms - swapping find themselves in the position we were ‘LAC’ for ‘cared for,’ and ‘care leavers’ in, we would love to do that.”

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‘MY SKIN, YOUR SKIN’ Laura Henry-Allain MBE, talks about her new book, and how she hopes it will help to open up a dialogue about racism with young children.

“It’s important to remember that no child is born racist,” Laura says simply.

“So when I hear stories from educators, teachers, and parents sharing with me racist comments made by three and four year olds, I wonder where that has come from.

“I’ve learned that when it comes to raising anti-racist children, it’s not just about what you say, your subconscious can speak to children as well.

“If you’re walking down the street and you see a group of Black children coming towards you, do you grab your child’s hand a little tighter?

“IF YOU SEE AN INJUSTICE

she is best known as the creator of the characters of the popular BBC CBeebies show, Jojo & Gran Gran; the first animated series to centre on a Black British family.

More recently Laura penned a new children’s book, My Skin, Your Skin, which she hopes will enable families and professionals to start talking about racism with very young children.

“The idea for the book came to me about a year ago,” she explains, from the home office of the London house she shares with her family.

“I’ve been speaking about race, antiracism, and empowering children in Early Years globally for many years.

deny our differences, because we do see colour. It’s important to teach our children that there are lots of different people in the world, and that there is correct terminology for them to be using.”

My Skin, Your Skin is a beautiful book, fully-illustrated by Onyinye Iwu, and created specifically for children aged four and over. Over 32 thoughtfully crafted pages, it works to explain what racism is, why it is wrong, and what children can do if they see it or experience it. It also explores how important it is for children to celebrate their achievements and greatness.

“IT IS MY WISH THAT EVERY PARENT, EVERY PROFESSIONAL,

AGAINST A BLACK OR BROWN

“THERE’S THIS MISPLACED

PERSON, DO YOU TALK ABOUT

IDEA THAT WE CAN’T TALK TO

THAT INJUSTICE TO YOUR CHILD?

CHILDREN ABOUT SEROUS

THESE ARE THE MESSAGES YOUR

THINGS, LIKE RACISM, BUT OF

CHILD IS RECEIVING ABOUT YOUR

COURSE WE TALK TO CHILDREN

OWN STANCE ON RACE, AND YOUR

ABOUT BIG THINGS ALL THE TIME.

“I hope My Skin, Your Skin will be a helpful resource for social workers to use and share with families.

“We tell them that bullying is wrong, that hitting is wrong, so why not open up conversations about racism?

“The book has been designed to empower children to be the very best versions of themselves. To have self-esteem, self-love, and self-worth, irrespective of their skin colour.”

ATTITUDE TO ANTI-RASICM.” Laura is not new to the concept of illuminating injustice, celebrating diversity, and battling racism in Britain’s young people. She began her career as an Early Years teacher before becoming a writer, children’s content creator, and producer. Today,

“There’s this school of thought with children, where people seem to think it’s helpful to deny their children see colour. I understand it comes from a useful place, but it isn’t useful to

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AND EVERY SCHOOL HAS A COPY OF THIS BOOK,” SAYS LAURA.

My Skin, Your Skin, published by Penguin at £9.99, is available for pre-order now, ahead of its release on 14th October.

ARE YOU A WORKAHOLIC? Addictions therapist, Candace Plattor explores why being a workaholic is a form of addictive behaviour that needs to be addressed.

S

ocial workers are essential, notoriously busy, and key to supporting vulnerable people with their problems. But what are the pitfalls of a social worker who is also a workaholic?

While it might seem to promise some perks, there is always a cost associated with any addictive behaviour.

OF COURSE THERE ARE BENEFITS...

Money Naturally, the price of working hard sometimes means more money ,and a climb up the career ladder at a faster pace. More money and praise for

doing a good job really builds selfesteem, but as you climb the career ladder, more work naturally begins to fall on your shoulders, and if you’re a workaholic, it may become harder to maintain the level at which you’ve been working long-term.

usually doesn’t have time to look at what the deeper issues are that are eating away at them. As a society, we still validate “busy, busy, busy” and “give, give, give,” so naturally a busy persona may be formed as a coping mechanism to get by in life.

Respect

SO, WHAT ARE THE PRICE TAGS OF

People often “respect” and look up to the workaholic for all they accomplish and achieve in such a short period of time. It’s so important not to confuse “strokes of ego” from other people with “healthy validation,” as this often leads to feelings of self-esteem but no real self-respect.

BEING A WORKAHOLIC?

Busy, Busy, Busy

People Pleaser

Being busy is approved of in our society. However, the workaholic

A workaholic is usually a peoplepleaser - they don’t want anyone to

Resentment Workaholics tend to feel a lot of resentment, especially if others around them aren’t working as hard as they are. When left unacknowledged, resentment only grows bigger.

for a raise in pay - but you can. The trick is to learn ways to work smarter, understand that delegating work is not a weakness, and ask for help when you need it.

get upset with them, and the most important thing they want to avoid is conflict. This means that other people, including bosses and colleagues, may try to take advantage of the workaholic and give them even more work to do, knowing that they will say ‘yes’ and get on with the job - no matter how this might negatively affect the workaholic’s sense of well-being.

and friends notice their absence.

As well, because they are so busy, they often reach for fast food and junk food, and may resort to alcohol, drugs, excessive shopping, and other addictive behaviours to try to alleviate their feelings that life is passing them by. Illnesses can often be a by-product, which in some cases become lifethreatening for the workaholic.

Burn-out

SO, WHAT CAN YOU DO TO

Plan in advance to spend time with people you enjoy being with, and take part in activities that make you feel good about yourself. Prioritise muchneeded downtime on a regular basis.

The workaholic’s physical, emotional, and mental health is likely to suffer, as their working life continues to intrude on their personal life. This could lead to exhaustion, anxiety, and/or depression, due to a lack of vitally important selfcare on a regular basis. Relationships can suffer too, as partners, children,

ALLEVIATE WORKAHOLIC

Self-discovery

TENDENCIES? Face it head on Lower the bar and keep your work expectations realistic - especially if you’re a perfectionist. As a people pleaser, you might feel you can’t ask

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Start doing what feels good

Once you decide to give up your workaholic ways, you may find that your deeper work will begin —so please be gentle with yourself as you embark on your amazing journey of self-discovery - and remember to reach out for help when you need it.

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