100%. If people think the Labour Party is going to be any different to the Tories they are in for a shock. More austerity incoming, the most vulnerable carry the weight of the burden and the top 5% continue to be shielded by all parties.

BASW are the mirror image of the Labour Party – willing to ignore blatant social injustices to appear “balanced”.

What career have you moved into Abdul? I’m sure many social workers would love to follow your lead.

Hi Tahin, I totally agree with the majority of what you said, and I include myself as a current Local Authority Social Worker in all of this, having qualified and been working in front-line CP since 1998. I was apart of the ‘culture’, and accepted my lot of working a 70 hour week (i.e. working until midnight on weekdays & full days on weekends), and only being paid a 35 hour week. I did not like it, but kept trying to keep up with the chronic unreasonable and endless workload which kept coming my way, it came first in life, and nothing else mattered. I began not taking care of myself, eating take-away’s (not having time to cook), being lonely, isolated, depressed, not sleeping, not socialising, and not going to my place of worship. Eventually the majority of my friends dropped off, and I had not had a romantic relationship in years – it was hard to meet anyone, when the only relationship you are having is with your work computer, but still I kept going. This scenario is most common, but most Social Worker’s don’t really talk about it, because of the shame, embarrassment, and lack of community in the field. What eventually happens is when you (or others) abuse your body mentally and physically through being over-worked, you become fatigued, sick, overwhelmed, and then your body just stops, and you become too ill to work. That was what happened to me, but it became the best thing in the world for me, as I had no choice, but to stop, think, reflect, and plan. I realised I had been abused and mistreated for years in local authority social work, and the only thing that kept me in the job was it was all I knew, and also for the pay. Social Workers are actually essentially ‘Emergency Workers’, expected to go out at a moment’s notice, even at 5pm, which could involve another shift of work – all unpaid. There is no additional pay or financial acknowledgement of this (similar to what you said about zero hours contracts), unlike any other profession (bar Teaching). I spent the time looking at other careers I could do – out of the care industry, which pay similar, and I was surprised. We have degrees and transferable skills, we are IT literate, and are good net-workers, as we interact with a range of diverse people and other professionals. I have identified another career, which pays similar, which I can cross into. You can do it too.

It is a choice to stay in local authority work, or to go. The work conditions have been abusive and chronically bad for at least the last 20 years, and it will continue to decline, until there are no staff left to do the job.. Whilst there are staff willing to work and be exploited in the Local Authority, senior management and the Government will continue to do so as they can, and will, as they are not affected personally, and it has worked thus far. As a Social Worker with 26 years of front line local authority CP experience, I have said ”Enough’, and my physical health and mental well-being is more important than my job, title, caseload, or computer. We all only get one life, and I don’t want to spend it at work, and not even get paid for half of the work I do in the evenings and weekends, as apparently that is ‘On my own time”, but they (the local authority) get’s that time too. Enough is enough, if you stay, then that is on you.