In my team I have a 2 senior pracs, a team manager, manager and senior manager that are all black, as was my manager in my previous role. In our LA there is plenty of room for progression for all ethnicities and diversity is something that we promote in all aspects of our work, and myself as a white social worker feel very proud that we have a team like that. I think it would be unfair to stereotype all authorities.

Ask yourself why agency workers are needed ? Due to either perm staff being off sick, and teams unable to recruit and retain staff – why ? Often way too high case loads, stress, bullying and working extra hours for no pay and no better thought of, and of course burn out. Agency workers receive no sick pay holiday pay no pension so are not really any better off than perm workers but play a vital role in supporting teams who are short staffed, they will be more perm workers off sick if they have no agency workers to support the teams if the Gov start to pay agency the same pay rates as perm

It upsets me to witness the road social work is going. Social workers have a huge impact on vulnerable children and families. So why are social workers treated so unfairly emotionally , financially and publicly?.No one who goes into the profession to have an easy time.Social Workers can shape the next generation.The above is proof of this.

Thank you again, and for drilling down to the core values that make us do what we are trained to do. Agency social workers play a vital role to ensure front line roles are staffed and vulnerable children are seen. In the last 2 years, I have noticed a huge increase in agency social work managers in various teams and it is likely that this trend will continue. I guess managers are feeling the pressure too and taking action by moving away from permanent roles. I am curious to see how this one plays out.

Dear Pauline, thank you for your comments. I agree with you 100%

But continue to put up with being sidelined, bullied and ignored by a career where we all have so much to offer and a career where we want to improve peoples lives regardless of race, ethnicity, religion and so on. Is this not what we are trained to do? People turn to agency work because they are aware they will not have the opportunity to earn past level one of the pay scale.

Social Work is a very important role, not only to protect vulnerable children and families but to also show the younger generation.Working hard,being true to who you are ,expecting to be treated with respect and dignity is something we all have a right to regardless of who you are.

Within another year, at another Local Authority, the same bullying and racist behaviours occurred by white senior managers. I used my knowledge and experience from the first incident and took the case to another Employment Tribunal. (litigant in person) I won my case and received a substantial payment.

I have absolutely no intention of returning to a permanent social worker role given the hostile environment in some LA’s. Although I say this, even as an Agency Worker, I still face bullying and other unwarranted behaviours from managers however, it is knowing that I can hand in my 1 week’s notice and walk out plus, I feel confident to take on another ET case if pushed to do so.

I just wanted to share my experience with you all to highlight the behaviours that is allowed to take place and everyone else including Directors, turn a blind eye and don’t do anything to put a stop to it.

Yet each one of these consultants appear to have made no less than £10.000 per month for a minimum of 12 months and multiply that by 2 and that would be a minimum total of £240.000 for 2 years and that’s for 1 consultant. Yet there’s a debate about agency Social worker’s pay.

The debate in my humble opinion is once again targeted in the wrong area and clearly so, and again in my opinion this is because of the lack of regard for Social workers by Government, whether they’re agency or permanent and yet Social workers do not strike. They stay sincere to their ethics and professional standards to include that which Social work England depicts, in the best interest of their service users.

They work passed their 37 hour week, for free to include weekends. They worked throughout the pandemic tirelessly and without any support or clapping for them and without PPR or mention from the Government, when the umbrella is said to be “Health and Social Care’ I recall the word Social Care stumbled out of our leaders mouth once.

Agency Social workers pay 2 sets of National Insurance, IR35 tax, umbrella fees, and are not paid holiday pay at their usual hourly rate and are not paid sick pay at their hourly rate. They are highly grounded and knowledgeable in practice, legislation and application and arguably there are some that are not which is not dissimilar to some permanent staff and again this is the norm within most organisations, but they serve a purpose with organisations, as they say ‘It wouldn’t do for us all to be the same’

In terms of the isms it is rife in local authorities. Freedom of speech is marginalised.

The inquiries undertaken over the years were completely pointless in my opinion, give all recommendations more so than not, were not or have not to date been implemented.

In sum in my humble opinion Government need to address their behaviour towards Social workers and start to respect what they do in the face of adversity, day in and day out and most of the time at great cost to their personal lives.

Or is it that Government would like Social workers to commence the same behaviour as other professions, knowing that social workers should they behave in such ways, would not be in breech of their registration given all other registered professions have not suffered via striking for their rights to better pay and working conditions and should penalties be considered towards such action, it would clearly be classed as further disparity between professions serving the public.

It’s apparently clear that there’s a better solution to the crisis instead of pitting permanent social workers against agency social workers and vice versa, whilst plans go ahead to privatise local authorities while the notion for this happening will be noted as and due to the state of the Local authorities. One could consider this to be premeditated under the guise of seeking a solution to the issues and crisis within local authorities in my humble opinion.

Anyone who works has an agency social worker is walking into an unknown working culture, were by unrealistic expectation and time scales can be expected of you.For example, you are expected to understand every case you are allocated and start working on the cases within hours of allocation. Cases are normally high risk coupled with an expectation of ensuring children are seen regardless of whether this is achievable.

I find it difficult to understand why social work is so difficult and do not receive any recognition for the difficult role we carry out. All social workers work hard and carry a great deal of responsibility.

My comments are based on my own experience.