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.”
