A new study published in the UK by Family Rights Group, suggests that cruel treatment of families by social workers is not only common but also affects the likelihood of positive outcomes in cases. The research concludes that social care can and should incorporate humane social work practices, even when the system is under pressure.
The report, “Stepping up, stepping down”, was co-authored by professors Kate Morris (University of Sheffield), Brid Featherstone (University of Huddersfield), and Katie Hill (University of Nottingham) and Dr Mike Ward (Open University).
The researchers collaborated with 20 families as part of the Your Family, Your Voice Alliance, which the report says is a national initiative seeking to “develop humane evidence-informed policies and practices”.
The report includes the views of 27 adults and 10 children. Over 80% of the families interviewed have been involved with welfare services for more than five years.
The study highlights inhumane and cruel encounters families experience inside the social work sector, and offers some heartbreaking stories shared by service users:
‘She saw me sobbing in reception and she walked past me twice and then said there were nothing wrong’ I said to the social worker I wasn’t prepared to leave because XXX was being sick, he was alone and somebody needed to be with him. But it seemed that nobody wanted to listen to what we had to say …It was horrible. All I wanted to do was hug him and I couldn’t hug him, I had to sort of hold him here because he was covered in sick; his clothes were covered in sick. It was crusted where they had not changed his clothes.”
“I don’t feel like she had any time for us at all. I didn’t feel like she wanted to listen, she had made her mind up before she had even got here. I think the thing is, because XXX’s dad has got a history of drug use and prison, she formed an opinion before she met me. I have never taken drugs and have never been in prison. What happened was she came into the meeting, a child in need meeting at school, and me and (my partner) had an argument. She sat there and said, “I was driving here today in the car and I was thinking, ‘shall I put this on child protection or shall I just kick it out? No, I think I will put it on child protection’ “. That is exactly how she said it, in front of all the other people. I thought, ‘How can you make that judgement on one…?’ She met me once. Then she has made a judgement coming to work in her car. That put me off her straight away.”
“They released her sedated after midnight without letting anyone know, she got attacked trying to get home, staggering around with the tablets and we didn’t know.”
The families who took part in the study were selected from the following services:
- A Post-adoption support project
- A Family Intervention Project focused on families with multiple problems including antisocial behaviour
- Three Local Authority (LA) Children’s Services working with highly vulnerable children and families
- A service working with sexual exploitation and abuse
- A support group for survivors of domestic abuse and their children
- A national advice and advocacy service for families whose children were involved with children’s services
- Two self-help organisations involving families with multiple needs.
There were five key findings from the report:
- Services were multiple but scarce, fragmented and siloed
- Constant reminders that resources were scarce produced barriers between families and social services, making positive engagement much harder
- Not enough time spent with families and too many delays combined to create feelings of abandonment, resentment and misunderstandings
- Interpersonal skills are deeply valued by families
- Families are often left out of service design, and had negative experiences when complaining about poor service.
The report also offers five key messages from these findings:
- Fragmented services leave families feeling demeaned, and need to be streamlined
- Develop everyday practices that acknowledge poverty and the impact that has on family life and work with families to try to address their financial and economic needs
- Demonstrate respect for families through good timekeeping and where timeliness is difficult, recognise that can also be the case for families
- Utilise the knowledge of families to inform professional development and to support the development of humane practice
- Involve families in thinking about the commissioning of services , and use the expertise of families who have experience of the child welfare system to develop and evaluate the services.
We are heartened by this latest research and thrilled to see this thinking entering the mainstream. Kudos to the authors.
Family Experiences In Photos, From Stepping Up, Stepping Down Report, October 2018.
I find that I am increasingly distressed to learn of more and more cases of one human’s heartless attitude or behaviour to another.
Also in the news are the increasing number of children being excluded from school, and because there are insufficient qualified or trained peripatetic staff or accommodation to which the children can be taken, they are too often out on the street, wandering into trouble; perhaps in gangs that indulge in petty crimes which all too often lead to vandalism and the increasing number of knife crimes.
It is this increase in knife crimes that has the authorities currently concerned. One speaker admitted that it was possible to predict future prison inmates from these excluded youngsters. It is a pattern that has become more commonplace than anyone in either the Government or the Home Office cares to admit.
The sad and appalling facts speak for themselves; too few people, truly concerned with the welfare of these young people – and their families, are struggling to contain their mammoth caseloads with meagre resources and little hope that the future hold out much in the way of encouragement. The truth is that poor families with problems are known to exist, but few want to be involved.
For those who care, the sense of an endless battle with bureaucracy and a feeling of helplessness is often demoralizing; especially when it comes at the end of a day spent trying to tease out the extremely delicate strands of subconscious torment that spiral, like tangled spaghetti, within the hearts and minds of youngsters caught up in subconscious psychological battles with adult authority.
Therapists may return home via a stressful drive in dense traffic before gulping a cup of tea, coffee – or what-have-you to chill out before spending another couple of hours writing up case notes while knowing that few of the children, their parents or carers will benefit to such a degree that they may eventually find happiness.
There are simply too many cases and too few qualified therapists for the increasing workload. Local authorities are struggling with deceasing budgets and increasing demands upon their meagre resources.
Perhaps there is much to be said for the decentralisation of so much government revenue, and like the Swiss, we might consider their concept that money collected from local taxation should be allocated locally by those who have experience and knowledge of what local communities want – and need.
Above all, we need to re-think the whole idea of families who need moral, financial and psychological support. So many families are fragmented and youngsters become ‘fair-game’ for exploitation; some becoming parents before they’ve had a chance to enjoy a childhood.
Political tinkering with education has not helped by cutting domestic skills completely from the curriculum of secondary schools so girls and boys no longer have the chance to learn basic household skills such as cooking, needlework, carpentry – general DIY skills that will serve them in the future – nor are they learning to appreciate the arts such as music and drama. All essential as part of the growth towards being mature, responsible members of any community.
Our politicians need to be aware that not all children are cut out for an academic life: whereas everyone will always need to have a basic knowledge of how to prepare food, and knowing what to do with a screwdriver, a garden spade and how to mend a fuse or sew on a button. etc. will certainly come in handy at sometime in the future.
LikeLike
“Cruel treatment of families by social workers is not only common but also affects the likelihood of positive outcomes in cases … the study highlights inhumane and cruel encounters families experience inside the social work sector.”
Whilst the study never uses the term ‘cruel’ it does use the term inhumane once, in this context:
“This small study contains some very rich accounts from families of their struggles and successes. It identifies serious system constraints and inhumane practices but contains the seeds to suggest that ‘another world is possible’. Crucially it identifies the large amount of knowledge and practice wisdom carried by families and opens the door to possibilities of reforming services from the ‘bottom up’.”
Accurate reportage is always a bonus.
LikeLike
Many thanks for your comments, Chris. The post is not inaccurate, and whilst the terms I use are not used constantly throughout the report their impact is reiterated often, within it. Whilst I’m always transparent about my motives for writing, and have no dog in this fight, you still choose to remain anonymous and not share your background with the site’s readers. That’s entirely your choice, but the hypocracy of that has not gone unnoticed.
LikeLike
Pingback: New Study Highlights Britain’s ‘Cold Hearted’ Social Workers « Musings of a Penpusher
Reblogged this on Musings of a Penpusher and commented:
I am increasingly distressed to learn of more and more cases of one human’s heartless attitude or behaviour to another.
LikeLike
The cold hearted ones haunt us for life. It’s as though they leave a cruel, harsh, cold imprint on your brain for eternity; because you don’t expect to be treated quite so badly by any service meant to be there to support your family. It also causes there to be an innacurate record of who you are, because obviously complaints are in turn engineered and in the making to make it appear the problem is you. When in fact, this could not be further from the truth. The last thing on their minds then (social services) is doing what they are meant to do which is- putting the child’s best interests first, which goes hand in hand with supporting families, prioritising children first! I liken it to someone poking you in the eye, you would react. Only in some sadistic twist, you are not allowed to react, or it gets used against you. You are not allowed to ask questions or you end up being considered to make vexatious requests. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t! I am just one example who it has happened to and it leaves you with nightmares for ever more which can’t be right! xx
LikeLiked by 3 people
Know exactly what you mean I was mentally/emotionally abused by social workers in and out of court just reading some of the fictitious reports about my character turns my stomach to this day which triggers PTSD the memories and hollow words stay with you struggle to switch them off!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Same as that ((Hugs)) xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
something to read up on: https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Cruel+and+Unusual+Punishment
“Such punishment as would amount to torture or barbarity, any cruel and degrading punishment not known to the Common Law, or any fine, penalty, confinement, or treatment that is so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community.”
having all the children kidnapped from your family and sold to private adoption agencies, based on a social worker’s opinion about some future event. but it states “common law” that can’t be asserted until we are out from eu jurisdiction. the eu knows all about the uk ss and their child trafficking, but fail to act. pre-eu it was only the church and commonwealth that kidnapped and trafficked children, but now eu policy won’t allow us to assert our law that protected us from government tyranny, so HM has created this system of kidnapping and selling children.
we need our laws back, it’s as simple as that.
LikeLike
“The experience of being watched.
it is like you are being looked at through a spy hole”.
in fact this is true. the SS are known to use spy cameras to watch parents and children in supervised contact.
the big question is why do they Lie about it and is it Legal.
LikeLike
This story may have already been covered on here.
“Social workers break up too many families, review by Family Law Group says”.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/social-workers-break-up-too-many-families-review-by-family-law-group-says-kfzfj8h7k
LikeLike