Social Work Confessions

Sometimes it feels like I’m stuck in social work because I’m too young to retire and too old for a career change.

When I first became a social worker, we were in that weird in-between, where we were in the process of fully phasing over from paper files to recording everything on the computer. This meant that newer families had all their work on the computer, and ones we’d known for longer - especially children who were now older and in care - had a mix of paper and electronic records.

TO ME, THERE WAS SOMETHING ABOUT THE OLD WAY OF WORKING THAT SEEMED A BIT MORE CARING AND MORE ‘SOCIAL WORKY.’

Having a physical file for a child seemed to make the reports people wrote a little more special, and I also think they were more person-centred and family-friendly.

There certainly didn’t seem to be this need for recording every little thing, and it just felt like we were trusted more back then. I can’t remember ever hearing ‘if it’s not recorded, it didn’t happen.’

I’m not sure if it’s society getting worse or social workers not being able to manage risk these days, but we didn’t have as many children going into care when I first started either.

IN MY FIRST FEW YEARS AS A SOCIAL WORKER, TAKING A CHILD INTO CARE SEEMED VERY RARE, BUT THESE DAYS IT SEEMS TO HAPPEN ALL THE TIME.

I’m really worried that we’ve lost the skill of being able to manage risk with children in the home nowadays. Instead we are turning to the easier option of knee-jerk reactions to risk by asking parents for consent to take their children into care so we can ask them to make changes while their kids are kept artificially safe.

I must sound so cynical and worn out, but the truth is that working this way has made me cynical and worn out.

I began training as a social worker when I was 34, working for the same council in a different role before then.

I’m glad I entered this career later on in my life, because I look at my colleagues with young children now and I don’t know how they do it.

NOW I’M ALMOST 50, IT FEELS LIKE I’M STUCK IN SOCIAL WORK BECAUSE I’M TOO YOUNG TO RETIRE AND TOO OLD FOR A CAREER CHANGE.

When I read articles about how social work is hard, I see some responses in the comments that people need to stop being negative and just get another job. Well I don’t know what planet they live on but it certainly doesn’t feel as easy as that where I work.

Every few years I’ll read a new report into the state of social work, or hear a politician make a big speech about how they’re going to change the profession for the better, but nothing ever comes.

I’m not sure I believe anything will ever come of it either. I think perhaps social work is stuck the way it is, and I’m stuck in social work.