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’m a social worker, have been for 7 years. Never worked in child protection, always mental health.

I was a care coordinator and social supervisor and now I am an AMHP and BIA assessor ☺️
I am also a PE, was a designated safeguarding officer for adults and lots of other bits and bobs.

I absolutely love my job. I think the stigma about social work isn’t as prevalent outside of child protection.

Like any job, there are people that are good at it and people that are not. Think teachers! We can all remember teachers that were wonderful and those that probably shouldn’t have been in the job!

Feel free to ask me anything 🙂

I had a difficult childhood, lots of social workers in my young life.
One of them was fantastic really went above and beyond.
Sadly though the bad experiences left me jaded and I would find it very difficult to trust any now.

I think many people (1) have unrealistic expectations of what SW can deliver and / or (2) resent SW involvement even when it is required

If, as a nation, we were willing to pay more tax, we could have a well funded system that could really help to support the vulnerable

@Blossombo

Student MH nurse here What’s a PE? I tried googling and couldn’t find anything and I’m always keen to learn.

As a Foster Carer for ten years, I have found them all really lovely and supportive apart from one who I had to complain about - she was overly critical, talked endlessly about herself, shared information about other Foster Carers which was unprofessional and irrelevant, would ring me at tea time (with five children needing feeding) and waffle on about rubbish. I received some nice support from her management after I had complained 👍🏼

Real mixed experience. Through work, met some wonderful ones. One in particular, now retired, was a real diamond. But they're rare. Plenty of them are doing their best. A lot of them bear the brunt of frustrations people have that are systemic faults not individual failings. A few years back we got part way through a fostering assessment (our house is not suitable for the task, it's a weird old cottage thing and would require some serious remodelling, can't afford that) and had one decent SW who was suddenly let go for reasons not revealed, and then were assigned the most useless fish I have ever encountered. Felt sorry for any child lumbered with that one. People are people - we all, social workers (or teachers or NHS workers or any other of the many people working to help others) and people using the service, bring our prior experience to the field. You can't change that.

@JennieTheZebra Practice Educator - supporting training and newly qualified social workers ☺️

I come into contact with lots of social workers through my work. Some have been absolutely brilliant, so well attuned to what is going on and have really turned a situation around. Others have done incredible damage to the families they have become involved with. The vast majority sit somewhere between these two extremes. I wouldn't want their job; I suspect for many of them they don't have the flexibility and funding to work in the way that they know is best for their clients.

18:30CloseYourEyesAndSee

I know another family who adopted a little boy who had been abused by his parents. He was covered in cigarette burns and worse. SWs insisted he kept up a relationship with biological parents until he was old enough to refuse (which he did).

Social workers have no power to insist on any contact after children are adopted. Do you think you might have misunderstood the situation?
They do if it's mentioned in court and the judge rules there has to be contact. Plus they tell you that there is a chance that the child will idealise the absent parent(s) if they dont have contact

I work very closely with social workers on a daily basis and I have a very high opinion of them in general - the vast majority are kind, funny, tough and clever.

I work with children's services and they are overworked and under- resourced. As a result so much time is spent dealing with urgent situations and children in imminent danger that other things have to take a back seat. I think this is where a lot of the frustration and thinking social workers are 'useless' sometimes from as most families aren't involved at that level. It drives me mad as I'm always chasing for things and there are so many delays once the crisis point is over. But that's the system - not the social workers.

There are some crap ones.

And one thing I've noticed is that the vast majority of social workers I work with (prob 95%) are female. But once you get to management level the proportion of men is much higher - probably around 30%. Which is interesting.

To answer your question OP if I met you I would think you were awesome. I would probably be so gushing that that you'd feel massively awkward and run away.

Good luck!

And don't vote Tory.

I'm with your Dad through biter experience but I would just say, OP, go. Be a social worker. But please make sure you are one of the good ones. Don't be tainted by a tired system and people who should not be in the job.

Oh gosh yes… don’t vote Tory.

I come into contact with social workers daily through my work. Just like any other profession, there are some great social workers, some 'ok' social workers and some who are useless. The most common issue we have with social workers is lack of communication. As a school, we are often not told if Children's services have closed a child's case, if their social worker leaves or if a child has to move Foster placements. This causes no end of problems and it's the child who suffers as a result.

I've met some who are lovely. I've met some who were born without sense or compassion and have taken that with them into practice. I can say the same about doctors, police officers, counsellors....

@tkwal

18:30CloseYourEyesAndSee

I know another family who adopted a little boy who had been abused by his parents. He was covered in cigarette burns and worse. SWs insisted he kept up a relationship with biological parents until he was old enough to refuse (which he did).

Social workers have no power to insist on any contact after children are adopted. Do you think you might have misunderstood the situation?
They do if it's mentioned in court and the judge rules there has to be contact. Plus they tell you that there is a chance that the child will idealise the absent parent(s) if they dont have contact

So court ordered but social worker gets all the blame. I guess the messenger always gets shot.

Social workers, unlike NHS workers, the police and teachers get no support from the public, no recognition that without them things really would fall apart and because of this successive governments have been able to underfund them to the point that the other services such as the police have to step in much more often. They get such a bad rep, and I know a lot of social workers who just want to make a difference, work many extra hours and all they get is the constant complaining and insults from the service
users. Case in point a young man works for me, he has on going custody issues and had a visit from a social worker, he had not one word to say about how they helped him, just that he thought she was a bitch because the women was doing her job and safeguarding his child.
The fact is most people coming into contact with SS need them, and that makes them defensive.

PE practice educator
We used to be called Practice Teachers
Assess the competency and profession for student social workers in practice placements during their university courses that is part of their qualification process as is against key indicators and SW values etc

Sorry didn't finish phrase 'professional values' not 'profession'

It's a PW post qualification (post grad) Uni course and training to be a PE

PQ not PW

Not a fan personally due to personal experience of working with/dealing with 4. Awful bastards. All totally unprepared and useless.
Health visitors are MUCH more helpful.

Completely forgot, but just remembered.... when working with elderly people (15yrs and in management) there was ONE social worker who was excellent, one day, over the phone.
The rest, I stand by my initial post (which relates to child services sadly)

I do think there is an issue with young adults able to do a degree and go straight into the job. At one time this was not possible. You were expected to have more experience. A 21 year old who has just been to school and university does not.

@alltheapples

I do think there is an issue with young adults able to do a degree and go straight into the job. At one time this was not possible. You were expected to have more experience. A 21 year old who has just been to school and university does not.

I disagree.

Of my cohort of 15, most were mature students of varying ages but we had two 18 year olds straight out of a levels. They made a valuable contribution to group work and seminars and graduated as skilled and capable social workers. Both went into frontline CP and are excellent.

My opinion of social workers is that they are horribly overworked and therefore bound to make mistakes. Because there are retention problems, a sizable proportion of social workers are inexperienced and don't really have a "feel" for their job yet, and don't have experienced bosses/mentors readily available to them, so they will tick boxes instead, and therefore make mistakes. I admire anyone who wants the job, but I worry they will be in over their heads.

Also the fact that social care is becoming ever more risk averse means that it is hard to be properly "signed off" once on their books.

All of this fills me with fear, and I would do my best to avoid social workers.