Iris Benson, a service user rep at Mersey Care Mental Health NHS Trust has had involvement with social workers since she was very young. In this video, she explains why she stands up for social work as much as she possibly can:

‘They’ve walked in my shoes’

Iris was very keen to make this video, even though it involved looking back to her early experiences of severe abuse and trauma which have had a significant impact on her mental health in adult life.

She was very scared of social workers as a child. On the two occasions she was temporarily placed in children’s homes, the medical examinations, itchy uniform and strict regime made her think it was she because she’d “been bad”. However, Iris says in the video, the social workers who have supported her as an adult literally saved her life.

This article is part of Community Care’s Stand up for Social Work campaign. We’re standing up for social work by being honest, offering support and providing inspiration.

The things that social workers have done – asking questions gently rather than pushing, coming back even when Iris ‘tested’ them and told them to go away, spending time with her in hospital after episodes of self-injury – may not sound huge but have made a big difference.

“They’ve had staying power, and they’ve walked in my shoes, even at the most difficult times,” she says.

Iris says her journey to recovery is ongoing. For example, her social worker helps her avoid the retraumatising trigger of pine disinfectant (a smell she associates with abuse by her mother) by making sure it isn’t used in places she goes.

But Iris is also now in a position to help social workers and other professionals better understand how to support people, in her role as an ‘expert by experience’ at Mersey Care. As well as co-producing and delivering training on, for example, implementing the Mental Capacity Act, she is involved in recruitment of staff at all levels and is service user lead on Mersey Care’s No Force First programme which aims to eliminate the use of restrictive interventions such as seclusion and restraint.

She has joined Emad Lilo, social care professional lead at the trust at numerous conferences and events to highlight how they work together and uses every opportunity to advocate for how important she believes social work is.

“We need more social workers. But we also need people like me to speak up for them too,” Iris points out.

“I think we lose people because they’ve become burned out with their passion.

“If teams like ours had been around when I was little, my life would have been very different. We need to look after our social workers, not frighten them off.”

By Elizabeth Rylan*

I have been a social worker for almost six years and I would say that, overall, I am proud of what I do. I stumbled into studying social work almost by accident, but since being part of the profession, it has been a conscious choice to stay. Yes, I have bad days (and weeks!) and there are times when it seems relentless and I question whether all the stress is ‘worth it’. But then something will happen, a shift in a longstanding situation or a ‘thank you’ from an unexpected source and my commitment is reaffirmed.

Easier to moan

Reading other people’s contributions to Community Care’s Stand Up for Social Work campaign has made me reflect on whether I can honestly say that I do this myself. By nature I am not someone who speaks a lot about their own life, and while family and friends may hear snippets about my work, the very nature of the job prevents me from sharing too many details as I am conscious of maintaining confidentiality.

It can be much easier to moan about general matters such as budget cuts and team restructures, than it is to explain the relative success of ending your involvement with a family knowing that they are slightly more intact than when you met them, or that you have helped to stop someone being financially abused.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who when asked what I do for a job, has given the honest but intentionally vague reply that ‘I work for the council’.

I am not ashamed to be a social worker, rather I am proud of the commitment by myself and colleagues and the outcomes we achieve every day for so many people. However, experience has taught me that it is a job title that provokes a range of responses. Over the years I have had, “Oh”, followed by tumbleweed-style silence; nondescript hostility; or people bearing their soul and disclosing personal and family information with the expectation that I will be able to ‘fix’ whatever difficulty they are encountering. As a result I have become wary and self-protecting.

I work hard and in my leisure time I am focused on looking after myself and recharging ready for the week ahead. So I don’t particularly want to get into a prolonged discussion with the taxi driver/friend of a friend bumped into at the gym/supermarket checkout assistant which can all too easily flip my mind back onto brooding about whatever casework issue is currently causing me considerable concern.

If I am at the hairdressers, I want to enjoy a rare hour of pampering and the complimentary head massage without talking about the 9-5. But then afterwards I tend to feel guilty.

By not talking about what I do, and indeed hiding it at times, do I project that I am ashamed to be a social worker? Or maybe I just come across as a bit rude and non-communicative!

If my concern is negative public perception and a lack of knowledge about what it is that social workers actually do, then am I passively contributing to the cycle continuing?

Perhaps there is a middle ground, a way that I can convey my job role in a non-apologetic fashion while not opening myself up to unprovoked criticism or a barrage of queries or complaints at the same time. I can deftly manage difficult conversations at work and successfully employ a range of communication techniques, but for some reason I find it so much harder when doing things for myself.

Eye contact

So I can state with confidence and commitment that I am a social worker; that it is a profession that brings its challenges and its rewards; that the work is varied, complex and demanding but that I wouldn’t want it any other way. And I can maintain eye contact, smile and steadily move the discussion on if I am feeling under scrutiny.

So perhaps this is what I will do as my contribution to the campaign. It may sound small, but for me it is big. I can start standing up for social work by at least being consistently counted among the profession’s number. No megaphone, no huge gestures, but rather quietly and calmly in my own way making a change and living the values I uphold of integrity and honesty. If I can instil a positive impression in someone who previously held a less favourable view of social workers, then surely that will count as a success. Here goes!

*Elizabeth Rylan is a pseudonym for an adults’ social worker based in a local authority in the south of England

By Jody Resuggan

In May last year I moved from Devon, where I was a social worker in a town called Newton Abbot, to join an older people’s team in south London. My job in Devon was busy, but it was nothing compared to my new role. I’ve had to adjust to a heavier caseload and a different, more target-driven approach to working.

I have a very supportive team, and access to training, networking and supervision. But at times I have found certain areas of the job – such as certain forms and assessments or knowing which interview techniques to use – to be quite challenging. I know I’m not the only one – mental capacity is an ongoing learning curve for me and my colleagues have echoed similar challenges with various topics or casework.

Towards the end of last year, I found myself wanting to explore and discuss these issues in a group where ideas could be bounced off one another. There is only so much you can learn from textbooks and theory and over the years since I qualified (in 2012), I’ve learned the best knowledge you can get is from other people and how they practise.

‘Exploring difficult cases’

In the past I’ve found it helpful to discuss a particularly tricky case or social work subject with colleagues during a lunch break. I know that we should have protected time for reflecting, developing and learning from one another, but there never seems to be any. I decided to set up a peer support group for my team, with the hope that a slightly more structured arrangement might be more successful.

The group allows qualified and unqualified social workers to come together to talk about interesting cases they need help to explore, or that have affected the way they work and may help others to think or practise differently. They can also use the time to explore various social work topics, such as mental capacity and safeguarding.

It took some work to get the group up and running. The idea was warmly welcomed, but many of my colleagues could not afford the time away from their caseload. The team manager therefore agreed that once a month the group would meet in the place of the weekly team meeting, which everyone usually attended. However – and this is key in my view – no managers attend. This seems to help people feel more comfortable.

The group is not compulsory, but provides an opportunity to learn, share practice methods, reflect, or just to de-stress a little.

‘All things social work’

In our first meeting we looked at the subject of mental capacity assessments. We looked at the assessment template, explored various capacity-related decisions, and shared capacity assessments we had recently completed to compare the different approaches. The aim was not to arrive at a prescriptive way of doing the assessment, but instead to learn new and alternative methods to improve your practice.

While I expect to facilitate the groups initially, my hope is that it becomes a self-running, monthly meeting where people are able to come together and talk all things social work.

Jackie Carter from Harrow council is this week’s social work hero.

A social work student on her first placement said she “inspired me to switch my choice of elective in my final placement from adults to children’s” and that when she met her she saw “the kind of social worker I want to become”.

This article is part of Community Care’s Stand up for Social Work campaign. We’re standing up for social work by being honest, offering support and providing inspiration.

Lee Bird, who was not statutorily placed with Jackie but met her in multi-agency meetings, said that she had seen her be “warm, inclusive, authentic and encouraging”.

Inclusive

Despite Lee not directly working with Jackie, she felt the impact of great social work practice.

“I found her very impressive and inclusive with all of her colleagues, which really encouraged effective collaborative working. She encouraged me to speak up in meetings, and took time to explain things.”

She says she was impressed by her inventive ways of working with families, such as making the children the chair of the meetings to help them be involved in the discussion.

“She also helped me to arrange a shadow day within her department, which allowed me to better understand how the statutory teams fit together, what her role involves and again encouraged my input in her team meeting.”

“She went out of her way to encourage my potential, even though I wasn’t statutorily placed with her…Just because that’s the kind of person she is,” Lee said.

Jackie, you are a social work hero and a box of chocolates is on its way to you now.

“Irrelevant of age, those involved are captivated by the same thing,” said older people’s charity, Equal Arts, of their winning image from Community Care’s 2015 Inspiring Images of Social Care competition. The photo (above) captured a weekly transgenerational session at Cranlea Care Home in Newcastle, with children from a neighbouring school.

Inspiring images like this remind people why they work in social care and we want you to share more of those moments with us this year, by entering our 2016 competition.

The competition, which is sponsored by recruitment agency Caritas, recognises the hard work of professionals working across the sector and the achievements of the people they support.

So, if you’ve snapped a picture at an inspiring event or seen a service user create some great art, then why not submit it here? The 12 winning images will be included in a charity calendar, which is sent out to thousands of professionals in the social care sector.

Here’s everything else you need to know…

How to enter

It’s free to enter the competition. All you need to do is complete our short entry form and email us your pictures communitycare@rbi.co.uk. Please also include a sentence or two on why you decided to submit the image. The deadline for entries is 22 April 2016.

What are we looking for?

Put simply – we’re looking for images that inspire those working in social care. These can be as arty and abstract as you like, just make sure to add a comment on what the picture is about and why you decided to enter it.

Pictures can be of social workers and social care professionals, images that symbolise social work – dogs, cups of tea, files, toys, anything you want. As long as you have permissions, you can also enter pictures of service users or art they have created.

We’ll also accept drawings, collages and other images. These can be produced by young people, other service users or professionals themselves. Basically, this is your chance to get creative and showcase your profession in a positive light.

Who can enter?

Anyone who works in social work or social care, or uses their services. You can work in any part of the sector and for any organisation – local authority, charity, private, independent, or any other type of social care body.

What about anonymity?

Community Care takes the anonymity of professionals and service users very seriously. Please make sure that if you are identifying in a picture that you have their permission to do so. If the person is under 18, or a vulnerable adult, then a parent, carer, guardian, or responsible professional must also give permission.

If anonymity is an issue, then be creative and see if there is a way to convey your message without identifying the person. Community Care is happy to offer advice on how best to do this, as it is a challenge we often have to overcome ourselves when taking or using pictures.

How will the photos be used?

Photos will be uploaded onto Community Care. The shortlisted entries will be exhibited at Community Care Live in a photographic exhibition on 10 and 11 May 2016.

The 12 winning entries will be used in a 2017 calendar, which will be distributed to social care professionals. The person who submits the overall best photo will get to nominate a social care charity of their choice to receive a £500 donation. The logo of their chosen charity will also appear alongside their winning image in the calendar.

Who are the judges?

Community Care is selecting judges from within social work and social care. Everyone is handpicked by us and chosen for their commitment to the sector. The judges will pick the 12 winning images that they judge to be the most inspiring. This year, we are also asking our readers and Community Care Live delegates to vote for their favourite photograph. The ‘people’s choice’ will be taken into consideration by our judging panel.

Copyright

By entering this photo competition, you are granting Community Care all rights to the picture or images. We will only use the pictures in the way described above.

Read the full list of terms and conditions.

by Kirsty Rowe

I’ve been qualified as a social worker for almost seven years now and I still can’t get over other people’s perception of our profession.

I started typing the following into Google: ‘social workers are…’

This article is part of Community Care’s Stand up for Social Work campaign. We’re standing up for social work by being honest, offering support and providing inspiration.

I had to take a second look at the autocomplete of the most commonly made searches. I was horrified at what I then saw when clicking on the links.

Social workers are…evil

Social workers are…idiots

Social workers are…scum

Social workers are…stupid.

I expect evil people sleep well at night after a day of being evil. Sadly my sleep’s been disrupted for years as I worry about the people I have in the community. I also worry about their families who are struggling to look after them.

I also expect evil people would leave the office at 5pm regardless of what emergencies families are in. Clearly my colleagues and I are doing something wrong. We often work 8am – 8pm, Monday to Friday as standard, and this might be later in a safeguarding situation. This is despite our 37 hour-per-week contract.

Seven days

We also have emergency duty team social workers who provide support every night, weekend and bank holiday in emergency community situations.

We support doctors by working seven days. We help get those hospital beds emptied because the government think it’s appropriate to close hospitals across both general health and mental health services.

We now work seven days, not only to facilitate weekend discharges, but to prevent the unsafe discharges that would take place without our intervention. No pretend pay rise or media attention for us though, because we’re the scum.

People think we don’t care and we’re heartless. If I’m heartless, I wonder why I’ve shed so many tears in the office and at home over the years for various people I’ve worked with. Tears of happiness, tears of relief, tears of frustration and tears of sadness.

Social workers care and we’re there to help our service users through the toughest and most difficult periods of their lives. It’s an honour and a privilege to be there and offer a hand when sometimes there is no-one else there to pick them up.

Fancy a go?

This is why we go the extra mile, why we work with people – no matter how much it hurts sometimes – and the reason we keep going.

Fancy a go at my job? You need A-levels, followed by a specific degree to enter the profession.

Then you need to navigate the paperwork we are required to complete, even just for a basic assessment. You need to work through the following on a daily basis: assessments, support plans, direct payments, net, gross, authorisation forms, Telecare equipment, carer assessment, carer care plan, carer direct payments, finance assessments, risk assessment, risk management plans, continuing health care checklists, decision support tools, case conferences, safeguarding strategies, multi-disciplinary team meetings, best interest decision meetings, deprivation of liberty safeguards, appropriate adults…and the rest.

It’s tough, but social work has a way of giving you a gift when you least expect it.

You’re drowning in paperwork. You’re worrying about the people you haven’t got out to see as often as you’d like. You’re thinking about the next allocation to land on your desk, knowing it will probably be prioritised above everything else.

Then you pay a visit to see how someone is doing. They tell you how much your involvement has made a difference in their life, and you walk out remembering why we put ourselves through it all.

So please, don’t be so quick to judge us. But even if you do, we’ll be there to help you and your family when you need us.

Kirsty Rowe is a social worker. 

If you want to write for Community Care, email communitycare@rbi.co.uk

by Peter Beresford

A battle is intensifying for social work’s soul. The Conservative government seems determined to clip the wings of a profession that, at its best, can be a force for support, emancipation and social justice.

Take the succession of government criticism of social work education in recent years. At the same time enthusiasm, and financial backing, has greeted new ‘fast-track’ routes of social work training before their effectiveness has been evaluated.

See also ministers’ decision to withdraw funding from The College of Social Work (an organisation set up to give the profession a voice) and six months after its closure announce plans for a new social work body to take on responsibility for regulation and professional standards.

There are moves towards privatisation too, most notably in children’s services where David Cameron has criticised what he called “tolerance of state failure” and promised any services that don’t improve will be taken over.

The wider context

Of course these moves cannot be viewed in isolation. They are part of an ideological drive to shrink the state and decimate public services in the name of ‘austerity’.

I have recently been investigating another area targeted by the government – the welfare state more generally. Drawing on both research evidence and the lived experience and experiential knowledge of people as service users, I wanted to find out how well the welfare state’s routine reality has matched its lofty principles.

My research highlighted the need to subject the old welfare state to a much more critical gaze if we want to secure welfare fit for the future. The same is true of social work if we want to have a sustainable profession worth defending for the next generation.

Partnerships with service users

If we are honest, statutory social work has not truly been developed in partnership with service users and their movements. Instead, it has tended to be hierarchical, bureaucratic and paternalistic.

Yet there are some chinks of light. Social work has pioneered service user participation in professional education and practice. And the evidence has also increasingly highlighted how user-led support makes for better, more cost-effective policy and provision.

Social work must build on this. The profession cannot expect to command popular support if its campaigning is based on a series of don’ts – ‘don’t be nasty to us’, ‘don’t change’, ‘don’t privatise’, ‘don’t question’. Instead, the rallying cry should be this: ‘We want genuinely user-led services, practice, education and support’.

Co-production should be the yardstick

We must demand that reforms are based on, and increase, user and carer involvement. They must put the service user first. Such involvement and real co-production should be the yardstick for introducing and evaluating changes.

That is the way to get the relation-based practice and personalised support that all political parties pay lip service to (so far the record of private sector providers for achieving this type of care is far from convincing). It also undermines politicians’ efforts to argue that social workers critical of government policy are only interested in themselves and their jobs.

The frontline voice

As well as service users and carers, there is another voice too often missing from discussions about social work’s future – that of the practitioner doing the job day-in day-out. To social work’s cost, its self-appointed leaders are often senior managers or academics whose direct involvement with practice is limited or long in the past.

Social work needs to be a profession that itself clearly values practice, rather than professional advancement too often seeming to be out of practice.

There are signs alliances between day-to-day practitioners, service users and carers are being built. The Social Work Action Network has prefigured such an approach and the recent British Association of Social Workers summit involved substantial contributions from all of these groups.

Here lies hope for social work and for the growing numbers who need its help but are increasingly denied it. This has to be a fight for something, not against it. That something has to be the rights, needs and interests of service users.

Peter Beresford OBE is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Brunel University and co-chair of Shaping Our Lives. He is also the author of All Our Welfare: Towards participatory social policy.

Sam Worrad, a personal adviser in a children in care team in Leicestershire, is this week’s social work hero.

Although not a social worker, Kierrah Marriot, a senior practitioner in the team, said: “She has more [than] the required qualities and skills to be a fully qualified worker but she just has never wanted to take time away from the young people to further her career.”

This article is part of Community Care’s Stand up for Social Work campaign. We’re standing up for social work by being honest, offering support and providing inspiration.

Marriot said she wished “every team throughout the UK” had someone like her in it.

“She is always so positive, and always is there for a shoulder to cry on,” Marriot said.

Credit to the profession

Sam’s 20 years of experience of working with difficult and challenging young people has helped enhance the skills of the team, Marriot said.

Sam Worrad.

“Sam has been working closely with a young mother aged 16 and her baby who has received non-accidental injuries. [She] has supported the young woman to address her mental health, her accommodation and helped with parenting styles,” Marriot said. She added that Sam is still in contact with many young people she has supported, and is a godmother to a child of a young woman, now 28, who had experienced significant abuse and used to lash out at professionals.

“Sam has been her constant support since age 15,” Marriot said.

“She is a credit to the social care profession.”

Sam, you are a social work hero, and a box of chocolates is on its way to you.

If you want to nominate someone to be a social work hero please email luke.stevenson@rbi.co.uk

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