To ask your honest opinions of social workers?

[founditdark]

I am due to graduate with my social work degree and feel ready yet apprehensive to go out into the working world.

However, over the past 4 years, some people have been less than complimentary when I told them what I was doing at uni. Including my dad who had a bad experience with social workers growing up. He frequently tells me 'I hate fucking social workers'.

Is this the norm? Is it something I'm better keeping to myself when asked what I do for work?

Also if anyone has any words of wisdom for an (almost) newly qualified social worker please do post.

Thanks

If I had another life I would love to have been a social worker. I think they are awesome!

Overworked, underpaid, and massively underappreciated.

I think if social work had the funding and attention it needs, the issues that makes people hate social workers would be far less.

I'm with your dad on this one (due to horrible personal experience when I was a teenager). It's 45 years ago, and I'd still lamp her one if I could.

Dammed if they do and damned if they don't, frankly.

I appreciate they do a thankless job and are massively underfunded, but as a teacher and SENDCO I've found them next to useless.

I am one and honestly I don't give a fuck if people have issues with my job. Most people are perfectly polite and if they have opinions they keep it to themselves.

I'm with your Dad.

@WlNDMlLL

I appreciate they do a thankless job and are massively underfunded, but as a teacher and SENDCO I've found them next to useless.

Teachers and Sencos often expect social workers to do things we don't have the capacity, remit or funds to do.

They get burnt out. It's a tough job, The ones I work with are under resourced and law doesn't have any teeth to help them out.

A. I think there are good ones.
B. I think there are average ones.
C. I think there are totally crap ones.

Like all humans really!

Of course they are pretty much all-

1. Overworked
2. Underfunded
3. Stressed
4. Living in a specific bubble which can skew opinion/experience.

How much this matters depends on whether they are a, b, or c type!

I used to be one and I am friends with lots of people who are one.

My opinion is that they are only hated because the system lets them be. The universal safety net that should surround vulnerable people/children has been actively dismantled - from surestart centres, to midwifery services, health visiting services through to mental health services, substance abuse support, careers services and on and on. SW and social care more widely as a stat service can't be withdrawn fully but it us so undermined and without that foundational safety net that it can't operate effectively - social workers get the kicking.

Underfunded, underresourced, understaffed. Overwhelmed. But mostly trying to do their best.

I think it’s similar to my profession, nursing, one bad patient, family or friends experience and that’s the whole profession tarred with the same brush.

I had many social workers growing up, some were average, a few were terrible, but one was amazing and helped me so much.

Social workers, in general, are caring and want to help.
Unfortunately, there is a lot of burn out, high pressure, and stress and that can lead to them not being at their best, at a time when they are working with the most vulnerable people.

I think a lot of them shy away from the difficult cases because it's too hard.

I think some of them would like to do more .... but it's too hard.

@Ginger1982

Dammed if they do and damned if they don't, frankly.

I agree. I think the vast majority (over 95%) really do a job that very few people could do and do it to a reasonable standard. We always hear about the cases that went wrong but like many other jobs not the ones that went right. I imagine burnout can happen very quickly in this job and it's unfortunately where standards might slip and where problems get worse.

Also most parents don't want to lose their children even if that's what's best for the child at that moment. It's understandable parents in these situations don't have a positive view of socials workers. Many children also don't want to be separated from parents so again it's understandable. What's not understandable is the absolute abuse anyone working in this field gets. They're doing a job and it's a job that has to be done to protect children.

I think the whole social care system is woefully inadequate and dysfunctional. I don’t believe that’s down to any one individual social worker, but it’s difficult to hold them in high esteem with that belief.

I think the work they are employed to do is work that needs to be done

I think the service in its current form is inadequate - training, funding and professional culture is sorely lacking, which serves neither the public nor the social worker

I think the proportion of social workers who are actively unsuitable for the job is disturbing. I've met some really, shockingly bad characters through my work, and heard about far too many more.

So on the balance of probability, if you're a British social worker there's a reasonable chance that you're incompetent/temperamentally unsuited to your job/an utter disgrace.

I had a horrible teenage experience of a social worker. It has made me instinctively not trust or like them and fear (unnecessarily because there’s no reason why they would) any involvement from them in my life ever again. It would feel like a failure and it would be very unwelcome.

Sorry OP. I get how unreasonable I am being totally in my opinion, but I’ve never really challenged it - the feeling just appears when I hear the title “social worker” mentioned.

@AppleKatie

A. I think there are good ones. B. I think there are average ones. C. I think there are totally crap ones.

Like all humans really!

Of course they are pretty much all-

1. Overworked
2. Underfunded
3. Stressed
4. Living in a specific bubble which can skew opinion/experience.

How much this matters depends on whether they are a, b, or c type!

As a SW who has been working as a therapist for a long time now I'm inclined to agree with the above. I would work on developing a thick skin OP, everyone has a view on SWs and they usually share it with you. I've had a really mixture of comments, probably more positive to my face because people are usually polite.

@nocoolnamesleft

Underfunded, underresourced, understaffed. Overwhelmed. But mostly trying to do their best.

Agree with this in my experience

We had our first encounter with a SW regarding FIL and his care needs recently. She was a waste of space. We did it ourselves.

(Wrote that in a rush, don’t know where the “totally” appeared from!)

I think they have an incredibly hard job to do with far too few resources. It's one of those roles when, where there's an error, the consequences can be terrible, but a lot of the time it's simply overwhelm and lack of support, not incompetence.

Ex copper. A mix of good, bad and indifferent. For fuck sake, don't be that SW who passes off high risk interventions to live police on a Friday afternoon. If your colleagues want to do this, discourage them. It's such a dick move.