A directory launched on Sunday, housing the names of social workers who have been recommended by service users has received over 300 messages, which offer interesting insights into service users’ experiences, and the child protection sector.
The Good Social Worker was created by Michele Simmons and Natasha Phillips, who wanted to launch a site for parents and children which could offer them reassurance about their social worker, and give passionate social care professionals the chance to highlight their commitment to the families and children they assist.
While the directory has been met with cynicism by a few service users, most families who contacted the founders of the directory have welcomed the initiative, feeling it has offered them a place to seek out competent social workers.
The initial findings from the directory are thought provoking. Several service users said that they had engaged with good social workers, but within a short period of time those social workers had then left the sector. Some families implied that this was because the social workers felt pressure to conform to unethical practices or processes that were not in the best interests of the families they were helping. The departure of these social workers significantly affected families, who felt that they had lost a vital advocate who made them feel safe and understood.
Other families had experienced multiple social workers during the lives of their cases, a feature of the current system which many parents and children find deeply unsettling, but there were also positive stories of social workers going above and beyond their current duties.
One service user told us:
“The social workers attended a private court hearing for me to get contact with my older kids on a Special Guardianship Order. They didn’t have to come and weren’t involved with my children but they both came to support me and speak up for me to the judge.”
This kind of feedback is significant for the way it highlights the gaps in current social work services, and how families respond when they are properly looked after.
Other interesting information emerging from the directory relates to the concentration of good social workers in specific areas, with Hastings and Sefton in the lead this week. Three social workers in each area have been nominated by families for their help and support.
Researching Reform 
Nobody on this site has so far managed to identify “a good social worker” with live quotes etc
I feel it is therefore up to me to introduce “Maggie Mellon”!
Maggie Mellon, British Association of Social workers; Vice Chair says:-
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2016/02/19/parents
“I believe that suspicion of parents and of families has become corrosive, and is distorting the values of our profession.
For the last 20 plus years the number of investigations or assessments into families suspected of child abuse has climbed steadily upwards and now accounts for one in 20 families in England and Wales !!!
A recent analysis found that since the Children Act 1989 referrals have increased by 311%, from 160,000 per year to 657,800 per year, between 1991 and 2014.
Assessments have increased by 302% over the same period, from 120,000 to 483,800, while the number of cases of ‘core abuse’ have fallen. The figures show that the ratio of referrals to registrations have fallen year on year from 24.1% to 7.3%.
Child protection dominates work
These assessments will have been carried out mainly by social workers. For social workers in statutory children and family teams there is no doubt that ‘child protection’ dominates every aspect of their work. Despite there being no significant rise in the number of children who die as a result of parental abuse or neglect, risk of abuse is assumed to be high.
What does this say about how social workers view parents and families? And, just as importantly, what must it tell us about how parents view contact with social services? I believe that the evidence is mounting of mutual distrust and fear
“The policy imperative towards more and quicker forced adoption means we may well look back at this period in horror as we do now to the forcible removal of thousands of children to Australia in the 1930s, forties and fifties without their parents’ knowledge and consent. That was done because it was felt it was the right thing but now we think how on earth could we possibly have done that ….”
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Hi Ian, we’ve mentioned Maggie many times on Researching Reform.
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Hi Ian,
With Respect You must have missed this ‘Heart Felt’ Acknowledgement then
~
Maggie Mellon
September 10th, 2018
“My kind of social worker, telling it like it is in Scotland.” [Name Withheld]
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I used Maggie to help fill the yawning gap on this site between the so called “good social workers” and their aversion to publicity !Well at least Maggie is willing to be named and quoted ! The others are evidently too terrified to give you this special “green light” necessary to allow their names and quotes to be published without hiding their identities !
I am sure you have a lot of names tum tum but their views and their activities helping families are as usual covered by the usual blanket of secrecy ;Unless by writing like this I might actually provoke some of them to coyly reveal themselves !
That at any rate is my object but so far ……………..Zero
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Reblogged this on tummum's Blog and commented:
While the directory has been met with cynicism by a few service users, most families who contacted the founders of the directory have welcomed the initiative, feeling it has offered them a place to seek out competent social workers.
The initial findings from the directory are thought provoking. Several service users said that they had engaged with good social workers, but within a short period of time those social workers had then left the sector. Some families implied that this was because the social workers felt pressure to conform to unethical practices or processes that were not in the best interests of the families they were helping. The departure of these social workers significantly affected families, who felt that they had lost a vital advocate who made them feel safe and understood.
Other families had experienced multiple social workers during the lives of their cases, a feature of the current system which many parents and children find deeply unsettling, but there were also positive stories of social workers going above and beyond their current duties.
One service user told us:
“The social workers attended a private court hearing for me to get contact with my older kids on a Special Guardianship Order. They didn’t have to come and weren’t involved with my children but they both came to support me and speak up for me to the judge.”
This kind of feedback is significant for the way it highlights the gaps in current social work services, and how families respond when they are properly looked after.
Other interesting information emerging from the directory relates to the concentration of good social workers in specific areas, with Hastings and Sefton in the lead this week. Three social workers in each area have been nominated by families for their help and support.
XX
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Having browsed a few of the posts on this site, I keep coming across critical remarks from Ian Josephs. Now, don’t get me wrong – I have the greatest respect for you if you’re reading Ian. I also don’t deny that I am uneasy about the idea that there ‘could’ be a good SS member out there somewhere.
However, in the spirit of hopefulness, surely encouragement or words of support or even better, the benefit of your experience might all be more useful to readers rather than lashing out at people who are only trying to do their best…
I am acutely aware when reading sites like these that many of them exist as a result of people coming to the end of their tether – when they can find nowhere else to turn etc. and with that in mind, I feel a sympathetic approach is required.
Ian, you KNOW this…!
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