Views on assessing and supporting social workers. Private agencies only.

[Surburbia]

I'd love to hear views on the different social workers you've had experience with.

Social workers involved in foster care - from what I've read so far - seem to have a poor reputation (I personally have zero experience of social workers, so this is only from what I've read.)

The main thing is that they come over as judgemental, patronising, on the side of the child even if they are supposed to be supporting the foster carer (the cared for person having their own sw), the 'support' being interfering and non-supportive or obstructive.

I'm deducing that this might because because of the power differential between sws and foster carers, or that they're overworked or that they may not be the brightest people yet still wield a lot of power over people (ie. foster carers) in a 'profession' which is still seen as a vocation for which one shouldn't be paid but want to do for free. I think the latter point is possibly key to their bad reputation amongst foster carers as they are just not respected by social workers.

Am I wrong? I'd love to hear peoples' views - but only experiences with private agencies please.

Also: what happens if you don't get on with your assessing social worker? Can you ask for a different one? I assume it's pretty important to establish a rapport with someone who is going to be involved in what someone here called a 90 plus hour interview process.

[ApolloandDaphne]

Why do you want to know?

[Surburbia]

It seems my hunches are actually correct - just read this report on the subject:
docs.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/fulltext/63754.pdf

[Doingmybest12]

Name change just for this.
What is your agenda?
Bit of a worry if anyone thinks any SW shouldn't be 'on the side of the child'
Enough said.

[ginislife]

I'll bite....I had good experiences. In my 4.5 years I had 4 supervising SW. They were all incredibly supportive of me (who wasn't the best at ticking the admin boxes) and I think were all working on that side of the fence because they'd had bad experiences of working for the LA. I was very lucky as I only had 1 full time child ( who still lives with me on a stay put arrangement) and 1 child on respite for a couple of weekends and then on an emergency placement for 2 weeks when their placement broke down. The biggest issue was the agency managers. There were 3 in my time, each worse than the one before, and I actually resigned my registration in the end because of the last one being so useless. The biggest issue I had was with some of the other FC who made it clear in meetings they were doing it for the money. My child had terrible experiences in his placements from things they've said, as did his sister who also now lives with us and was also in FC. And don't get me started on the children's LA SW's !!!

[Surburbia]

@Doingmybest12 - no, you misunderstand me - can't seem to edit my post annoyingly. I meant they should be on the side of the child but that I had understood that the cared for person had their own social worker and the foster carer had a supporting sw to support the in supporting the child.

Bit judgey though, aren't you? SW, perhaps?

[TirednessButHappiness]

I think like in any job, there are some excellent, some average and some terrible social workers.

Some experienced and still effective, some experienced but burnt out, some inexperienced, some lazy, some who go above and beyond.

The relationship is really important and it goes both ways - both sides need to invest in it and work together.