I feel sorry for anyone working in child protection

[flashbac]

Especially now.

Increasing workloads, the effect on health, the pressure to close cases, the hate from the general public, the horrible cases you have to deal with, the abuse, the list goes on.

I can't understand why anyone would train to do the job. It's a thankless task and society's increasing problems - poor housing, poverty, lack of prospects - mean more and more children will be in need.

Add in the fact that quite often they're hands are tied by the legislation and policy. They may well want to remove a child, or turn up unannounced, but they're not allowed and then get shit for it. That's must sting..

There also very little progression. Degree educated people will only work under those circumstances for a limited time on £36k. Because the reality is, you either become a local authority manager, still on not much more money, or stay at that salary for ever!

But, that said, some people who do this job, like in any job, are crap at it.

The whole system needs an over haul.

*their hands

I do too. The child protection team at my school work all hours. They are on phones at the weekends and in the middle of the night.

All the stuff in the papers has made it harder; families who aren’t looking after their children safely are using it to have a go at us “why should we listen to you” type thing.
It’s always been a constant pull between spending time with families actually doing the work and keeping records up to date so you don’t get in trouble; I’ve only seen it get worse sadly and the cuts by the conservatives are the massive culprits, add in lockdown and it’s completely unmanageable.
I know accountants who get better stress and mental health support than we do.

I can imagine the sleepness nights spent worrying about the cases you're working on, hoping you haven't made a mistake somewhere...

I do as well. It's not a job I could do. It needs to be funded properly to reduce workload.

They were briefly involved in our family but once a few specific issues were addressed they were moved on to another case and I never heard from them as again.

I hope they know things are much better now and the children are thriving.

Decades of underfunding of social services, unmanageable workloads, and being vilified in the media, no wonder there's a huge problem with recruitment.

No doubt after yet more tragic cases being highlighted by mainstream media, government will invest in yet another inquiry and yet again fail to implement the recommendations.

It’s tough. I work in safeguarding in school and have spent 5 months trying to get a child I work with removed from the care of an abuser… no fucking chance. Hoping something positive will come from these recent horrifying events and this child will be saved.

@JuneOsborne

Add in the fact that quite often they're hands are tied by the legislation and policy. They may well want to remove a child, or turn up unannounced, but they're not allowed and then get shit for it. That's must sting..

There also very little progression. Degree educated people will only work under those circumstances for a limited time on £36k. Because the reality is, you either become a local authority manager, still on not much more money, or stay at that salary for ever!

But, that said, some people who do this job, like in any job, are crap at it.

The whole system needs an over haul.

This is definitely true. I did child protection in my school for almost a decade but there was no progression once you got to about £26k, and it was stressful work. I was good at it and while I wouldn't say I enjoyed it as such, I felt that it was important and cared about doing the job well.

I've switched to classroom teaching now for the progression, though I did consider joining the police and aiming to work my way into child protection related roles there. Good social workers etc. will also get promoted or move away from the front line because the pay is low.

I am a front line CP social worker in a northern local authority. I’ve broken up for Christmas today (well, more or less; we are hideously short staffed) and I am at the point of utter exhaustion and burn out. I’ve never known a year quite like it

I wouldn't work for child services, NHS, social services, the police, prisons or even as a doctor because they're all failing services and it must be uber-stressful and soul-destroying, in the main, for the employees despite the good they are trying to do.

There were jobs going locally, recently, for 999 call handlers. That's a job I would have loved to do but I heard a call-handler on the radio saying about how someone phoned for an ambulance and she had to tell them there was no ambulance available. I couldn't leave that behind me every day when I 'clocked off' and I know that's the situation here.

All this country's services (and industry) have been been falling apart for years.