In my local authority a wellbeing survey was carried out to explore the reasons for low staff morale and recruitment/ retention. The questions were mainly tick-box with little opportunity for meaningful, detailed responses, apparently because this would make analysis more difficult. When the poor results came back, managers seemed surprised and rather than asking staff what the specific problems were and how they could be addressed they went off and had their own meetings to discuss and decide what should be done. But how would they know if they didn’t ask and let us speak (in confidence – I am a fan of anonymous surveys because this is the only way many people feel able to speak up)?
There is such reluctance on the part of senior management to listen, truly understand and address issues raised by staff as earlier commenters have said. Local authorities are so hierarchical – so many layers of managers – and staff are not routinely encouraged or invited to give feedback and suggestions and raise issues. Recently we had a system redesign which most would agree has been a disaster – loads of extra bureaucracy and inbuilt delays. I am sure this is because it was not collaboratively designed and trialled with frontline workers but rolled out too quickly to meet a deadline.
My team manager has openly said they feel intimidated by senior managers. I don’t think any manager should feel like this. A lack of critical thinking and challenge contributes to a toxic culture and inhibits positive change. All managers should be accountable to workers and service users and we should be asked to give feedback on the performance of managers as they do on ours. The PSW role is effectively meaningless in some local authorities where they are also a senior manager and it is simply an ‘add on’. They are often not approachable and don’t want to be!
Finally, my impression is that many managers just want to get out of frontline practice because they find it too stressful. This is unacceptable – all managers should carry a caseload, even if it is very small (but still including complex cases to reflect their higher pay!). I don’t care what grade they are, if they are not working directly with service users they are not practicing social work and arguably should not be allowed to use this title. Direct work will allow them to stay in touch with the reality of social work today, to understand our roles and the challenges we face and (in an ideal world) to be better managers.
]]>What do social workers do when users of their services don’t understand what they are telling them? A: give up and curse B: repeat then repeat again C: Accept they aren’t being heard but use their skills to get heard, eventually. I have zero confidence in my managers but that doesn’t mean they are useless forever. Hope should be eternal.
]]>Managers will have to take on that responsibility until there are sufficient Social Workers on the front line to provide that protection that is currently lacking ]]>
Oh no, who will protect the children if we do?
]]>Further guidance and clearer expectations are needed from CQC, Ofstead and Social work England and I think the pending Adult Social Care review should also make clear recommendations about this. To stop this becoming yet another tick box exercise or another review to be ignored and ensure key legalizations, including the Equalities Act 2010, and social work standards are demonstrated and evidences by all registered social workers, whether they are a manager or a frontline social worker.
I believe all managers from Team manager and below need to hold a case load, abet a small one. For the managers who do not hold a case load to fulfill a minimum number of hour’s annual of shadowing front line staff, perhaps a 100 hours if not more. That Principle social workers not only focus on practice and learning development of front line staff, but they also develop and review pathways of constructive communication, were there is feedback from line management on their actions, decision, rational and timeframes, making the process transparent and accountable. All registered social workers, including all managers, to regularly discuss and document in their respective supervisions what they did and how they practiced key aspects of the Equalities Act 2010, Care Act and Social Work Standards. For all social workers who supervise staff to have regular, good quality training on management and supervision. For all local authorities to ensure they have up to date and fit for purpose policies and guidance for menopause, anti-discrimination and Anti-racism, whistle blowing etc. Finally, for Social Work England to amend their CPD requirements to include some of the recommendations above and to spell out very clearly that all registered social workers, including managers at all levels are required to uphold and practice the social work standards. And for CQC to included the above areas as part of their standard data collection when they are conducting their assessments in Adult Social Care.
But I am very syndical as to whether line managers, local authorities and Social Work England will be self motivated and committed enough to do these themselves. Therefore I would like to suggest, that all social workers who read this and you truly care about the profession and the vital work we do, to write to Social Work England, CQC, your local MP, House of Lords and/or Baroness Louise Casey about your concerns and suggestions. Knowledge is power, but only when it is used. ]]>