I totally agree with you ABC. We should only praise and celebrate how wonderful social workers are. In my 26 years of frontline practice, never been a manager, all I’ve only experienced is positives and social workers who cannot bear to leave their office so content and enthused they are with our work. Pollyanna social work versus bile ridden burnt out social workers needs a satirist for sure. Happy and glorious etc.

Annie – agree 100%.
These ‘awards’ are divisive, and insulting to others – the ‘winners’ are doing their job………maybe..

ABC, I have spent 26 years of my life in statutory children’s social care, and I wish I hadn’t. It cost me my marriage, friendships, life, and freedom, and for what? Loneliness is now my constant companion.

Charlie, complete agree with everything you said, and I am in the process of leaving this unrewarding and toxic profession too. It’s the healthy ones of us who chose to leave rather than be exploited, over-worked, under-paid and under-valued in a broken system. Healthy people with functioning families and active social lives don’t have time to spend their lives at work, but those of us in need of approval or lacking in our lives out everything into our work. I have said no more.

What we don’t need is a dystopian approach to rewarding social workers likely breaking their backs, sacrificing their own time and being under paid. Pay social workers better for their time, provide therapeutic support and loudly challenge the systems that hinder our work!

The burn out rate is high for obvious reasons!

You sound quite unhappy and angry, and I cannot help but notice that you’re “done for good” and yet still posting about social work issues. Please consider keeping your negativity to yourself rather than dragging down those who continue to work hard to do a job you have chosen to leave. There’s so much negativity on here – every article seems to be followed by people complaining. It’s not a perfect job for sure (I’ve been doing it 15 years), but I do wish people would consider swallow their bile rather than sharing it with the world.

Well said 👏

Well done them workers!

They can now hang their awards on the wall, get on with the endless grind on the next day and still wonder how they are going to make ends meet due to the ridiculously low pay.

Working for Children’s Services is the worst job I’ve ever had. No support, backlash all the time. Leadership only concerned with timescales being met and no care for service users and workers.

Glad and proud I’ve left this unrewarding job and be done with the constant backstabbing and being thrown under the bus by narcissistic managers and envious coworkers. I’m done with this manure for good I believe.