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

I have only had indirect contact. Other than one lazy article I thought they were sincere and hard working. I had some dealings with a couple of very sharp ones, but overall they weren’t the most dynamic group which I think was partly down to burn out and the inertia of the system, and partly that it’s not highly regarded or paid so it doesn’t in often attract the bright and best.

They are much needed though and I’ve heard good things about adoption services recently. If you are smart and ambitious I expect you can move up quickly and hopefully make a difference.

Totally 100% agree with your dad

I think the responses on here are fairly reflective of how sw’s are seen in society OP, and much of it is not without foundation. But more often than not, I find social workers to be amazing humans who want to make the world better. What they do when they realise they are working in impossible circumstances, is another thing. Many harden their hearts to cope with the very difficult experiences and decisions they make, with poor support. It is such a shock as you start to practice to see how much you are hated when you are genuinely trying to help. My advice though is to understand that there are broadly good reasons that the people you support will often have a dim view of you. Be patient with this, name it, tell them you realise they have no reason to trust you and you know how hard it is that you have the power you have in their lives. Keep showing up patiently and try to do what you say you will. Be strong with managers who try to give you too much work, leave if they keep doing it - there’s plenty work. Take support from your colleagues, many of whom will be totally inspiring. Leave local authority and work more therapeutically in other services for less money if it’s not your thing. And make a call in different situations outside of work whether to tell people your job, sometimes just ‘I work with children’ etc will do.

I wasn't blaming service users for that anger btw. It's intrusive and painful because you don't need a social worker if everything is lovely and rosy.

Often anger that is not yours to own will be directed at you. Anger at the situation, anger at others who have harmed them or their loved one, anger at themselves.

When I was considering fostering, I was in contact with three social workers. I felt they meant well, but were on a different planet. Not one of them actually had a child. Dealing with social workers later, regarding my mum's care when she had dementia was a different story, they were truly horrible.

Having been a foster carer for many decades I have found that in recent times almost all the good social workers leave. So many good, enthusiastic young social workers that either have to forget their principles or resign and change careers. Sadly so much is about ticking boxes, paperwork, pointless meetings and the real needs of the children get forgotten. As foster carers it sometimes seems no one considers the children anymore and most of our job is fighting the very system that is supposed to protect them. We are very unpopular for not going along with the "party line" and once our current children reach adulthood we too will be leaving.

Have had positive experiences and am very thankful for social workers!

I think it depends if they have a positive or negative experience.
My ex was taken from his mother as a baby and placed with an alcoholic who beat him until he was removed again and pulled from pillar to post with various foster families until he was old enough to leave and find his birth mum - a lovely lady who loved him dearly, had 3 other happy children since who lived with her and he missed out on his family for a miserable life of abuse instead.
I don't know why only one child was removed at birth but it was forced and her relationship with the 3 other children shows she was not an unfit mother.
However SW play an important role in the safety of children and that's to be admired, sometimes they get it wrong though and families are left devastated.

My personal experience has been poor, but I don’t let that cloud my judgment when I meet new social workers.

As a child me and my siblings were told our mother was only hitting us because she didn’t love us enough, if he were better behaved (we were very well behaved) she would love us more and stop hitting us. I say hitting, that is putting it mildly.

My sons social workers were poor because they never actually had his case for long, one gave his birth mother my address, luckily we have an okay relationship so this didn’t put me or more importantly my son in danger. My own social worker was alright, just very poor at contact due to workload.

My daughters social worker isn’t proving to be great, she keeps referring to her as ‘Sarah’ when her name is ‘Katie’, paperwork is wrong, we were recently given the information of a completely different child and the info pack had material about the birth parents that should never be made available to the adopters, nevermind when its the wrong set of birth parents. Our social worker, not great, not awful, every meeting so far has been cancelled (but he doesn’t bother telling us).

I dread how long it will take to react finalisation with the experience we are having at the moment.

As a profession I think social workers are underfunded, over worked, poorly trained and hamstrung by a dysfunctional system

As an adopter I have encountered many social workers. My first SW was quite frankly a bully, lied about me to her supervisor and was incapable of being objective. I moved agencies and had two fantastic SWs, one of whom in different circumstances could have been a good friend.

My son’s SW was a lovely and well meaning but quite frankly cluless. She was a disability SW who knew nothing about adoption. That wasn’t her fault, but if she had read his file properly if would have helped. She was also incapable of seeing the havoc her visits caused.
My son’s brother is in residential care and has had a series of useless SWs, I made three safeguarding complaints about the home he was in - all were ignored. The decision making was appalling and has resulted in a total mess.
I had a fostering assessment done by a lovely, compassionate, knowledgeable SW who actually listened to me.

My advice to you is try and remember why you went into social work in the first place - presumably because you wanted to do some good in the world.
Be compassionate and empathetic, remember that the people you are dealing with are human beings, not case numbers. Remember to listen and learn how to observe
Whether you are a children’s or adult SW, treat your clients as you would want a family member to be treated.
Good luck, its a tough profession.

My advice fwiw is do not be gullible especially when dealing with child neglect/abuse. You should always take the side of the vulnerable child, regardless of what the teaching tells you.

@Oldh

When I was considering fostering, I was in contact with three social workers. I felt they meant well, but were on a different planet. Not one of them actually had a child. Dealing with social workers later, regarding my mum's care when she had dementia was a different story, they were truly horrible.

Why is it important for a social worker to be a parent themselves?

I have no opinion on social workers. I don't know any and have never had involvement with one.

There is no social care anymore.

Social workers are trying to do an impossible job of caring and supporting when the whole system doesn't 'care'. It just distributes inadequate funding to a few and leaves them to try and help themselves.

Peoples opinions will depend on what contact they've had with social care services. What field are you hoping to work in?

From my experience leaving care workers seem to be some of the most content in their work. I can imagine it being really satisfying to support kids into adult life, and professionally challenging/stimulating to be there for those who have a tough time and get wrapped up in eg justice issues.

Comparatively, many parents aren't pleased to see a CSW for a parenting assessment. Many people have high expectations of adults services for older people and are often disappointed. Parents of disabled children & adults get a rough deal all round - you're yet another professional they never wanted to have to have in their lives.

😒 Ugh, sorry to be so cynical! I often find SWs do enjoy their work even if the perception from others isn't great. I work in social care as an OT and in comparison no one knows what we do! 😂 i talk about it a lot to people and a couple have gone on to qualify because of how enthusiastic I am about it as a career. So, don't keep quiet about your work, it's a great job!! Let people know what you do and why, you might change a poor opinion 😉

I think it’s the system that’s broken, hobbling the SW chances of being effective. They’re overworked and underpaid, stuck in a slow and bureaucratic system.

I’ve had two close friends go through foster to adopt, four times in total. Following their journeys has shown me that the needs of the child are completely disregarded in each case, with the foster/prospective adoptive parents having to fight and fight for the best interests of children that they have cared for from newborns, babies they were encouraged to take on give them stability while their adoptions were put through, fight to keep them from being shunted around horrific placements with birth family members who can’t even take care of themselves. I look at those children now (thankfully three of the four had adoption placements eventually approved, one still waiting) and feel sick about how the system designed to protect them almost got it life threateningly wrong.

I suppose there are rubbish social workers, just as there are rubbish teachers/nurses/police officers etc, but our public services in this country are crippled with underfunding. No wonder these professionals aren’t doing their best (and I’m a teacher, I speak as an insider).

I've had one experience of dealing with a social workers.

The first person was absolutely useless.

She had no understanding of what she was talking about, jumped to conclusions with zero information to base those on and was generally rude and hostile. For us she simply caused more of a problem than provided any solution.

The second social worker I spoke to was fantastic. Intelligent, understanding, knowledgable, supportive and reassuring. Everything the first one wasn't.

It's a bit of a lucky dip I think.

Unfortunately my encounter with the first dreadful person has meant I would go out of my way to avoid dealing with any social worker ever again. I'd rather sort any problem alone.

My experience with my disabled daughter's SW when she was under 18 was that she was fairly pleasant, not particularly helpful but she managed to organise a very low direct payment.

Transition to adult services done by a competent SW who seemed to want to help.

Dealings with recent SW under adult services, horrific. She lied at meetings, was impossible to contact and generally obstructive to my daughter's best interest. My husband and I obtained court of protection deputyship (expensive, difficult and a lengthy process) for my daughter to protect her after dealing with this individual.

I think they work very hard

Me and my children had ss involvement because of they're dads abusive behaviours the 1st sw wasn't all that great she also wrote in her report that my dog was aggressive absolute horseshite! She was removed from our case after it was found out she was my ex's sw when he's was a child. After that me & the Dc got a lovely new sw, she hadn't long graduated/qualified and I can't sing her praises loud enough. Her attitude was completely different to the 1st sw, she's made it abundantly clear that she had zero intentions of taking my kids or anything in that regard. She knew she was there simply because of dc's father and all the blame laid with him. That my dc where at no risk or harm with only me & that she knew it was the courts/judges not doing their jobs of locking him up which put me & my dc at risk. It was through her we finally got a panic alarm & all out going 999 calls from our home meant a police car was immediately dispatched. I wish after our case was closed & he was locked up I'd got the chance to thank her personally, she did wonders for me & my children and I'll be forever grateful. Good luck in your career op & I wish you nothing but the best.

dirtyjoan it's not important that you're a parent if you're a SW - particularly if your SW sphere of expertise does't involve children.

If CYP is your 'specialism' then if you don't actually have any CYP yourself then quite naturally most users of your service won't take you seriously.

But you get paid pretty good with great T&Cs so if nothing works out as you had expected at least you can transfer - not like the people you were supposed to be helping who have little choice in the circumstances they are in and not much they can do to change it.

I’ve worked with many social workers during my career and my experience is this; the permanent ones are (mostly) incredible… overworked and underpaid. The contract staff are quite the opposite.

Good luck with your new venture. You’ll certainly be challenged and have your work cut out. You have the chance to help people change their lives for the better, but remember this - not everyone wants to change their behaviour, and some aren’t ready yet. As long as you have amazing supervision, I’m sure you’ll do great.

Some are good, some are bad

I think they all go into it with good intentions, wanting to change things for the better - but I think a lot of them want to hold people to perfect standards, which noone - including them - could ever hope to meet if they are entirely honest

I had a social workers as a child and she was brilliant! She took my sister and I out to a cafe when she visited and listened to us which didn’t happen with other adults in our life. She had purple hair and we thought she was so cool. She was such a positive person. I think it’s a very worthwhile vocation and wish you the best of luck

I dealt with one for my dad who was as much use as a three speed walking stick,

I dealt with one for my mum who was so good she made me cry with gratitude, she was amazing