Okay, so I think we have got the message that Social Workers have a difficult job - we get you - but you know that when you become one and if you can't do your job properly - resign!

[thenewme]

Your job is to protect children, not to be best mates with the parents.

I am just so sick of hearing how hard their jobs are like that is an excuse for the fact that yet another child was under their "care" and they failed them.

Nothing has changed in decades and I doubt it ever will.

How many more cases do there need to be before the service is funded properly? That may mean a tax rise - anyone?

SW DO shout about the state of their services but it falls on deaf ears - the local SS I have to liase with is in crisis - there is a potential Baby P waiting to happen here. Just hope I am not one of the poor saps who is unfortunate enough to be involved when it occurs.

I refer
I monitor
SS go in.
They refer back to parenting classes
Children still live chaotic lifestyles

Unfortunately you cannot remove a child just because Mum has 7 kids by 6 fathers and they are all filthy. If they are fed and go to school and the other "reassuring" factors are there then you are stuck. Sadly you have to have a bit more evidence than that ... and believe me "suspicions" are not evidence.

fgs, it's a really fucking hard job, I can not even begin to imagine how difficult, unsettling and frightening it must be making significant, life changing/potentially life destroying decisions for a living. They have paperwork coming out of their ears. I used to have a job, I designed clothes, and the worst that would happen if I screwed up, which I often did, is that a bit of cash might be lost or a garment would go in to production with the wrong stitching. Social Workers have a tough time, have some sodding sympathy!

A social worker is expected to go to a house and visit parents - yet that same home when police visit, they go in three's, they are not allowed to visit the home alone.......

No sympathy for the ones who don't do their job and don't do anything about abused or neglected kids.

huge sympathy for those that try.

Really is good night now.

This is just not what I set to do when I posted.

Bye for now.

Just had another scan through, and am to hear you say that you have not been influence by the media, that is total bollocks!
I'd lay bets on the Daily fucking mail!

it seems Shannon Matthews and her brothers and sisters often weren't fed, though. So why was she taken off the child protection register? Are SWs in Kirklees under pressure to cut the numbers so the council looks good in official league tables?

My father's girlfriend, a primary headteacher, tells stories about children whose parents just don't feed them - no tea, no, supper, no breakfast. The staff buy them food out of their own pockets, contact SS till they are blue in the face, but get nowhere. Same seems to apply in the Matthews case if The Times is to be believed.

Spoke to someone today who works for Haringey PCT.
They are ALL feeling incredibly demoralised. They are all on edge. THey are all aware of hte lack of funding and feel impotent. It's what happens after years of being ground down by the management and ground down by the public.

I work with adults and am not a SW but a CPN but I do work with SWs, and in answer to Edam I would say that yes I do think people are ground down by their work. I am relatively new but did write to the director to protest against the deletion of a pivotal post in our team. In the same letter (signed by all colleagues) we expressed concern about the impact this would have on quality. All our SWs are agency (not permanent staff), and in the last 3 months 6 staff have left and only 1 replaced (with agency. The average caseload in our team is 35. Most of the clients allocated to those colleagues who left have not been allocated to anyone. It is an absolute scandal. I enjoy my job, but it is overwhelming at times.

Definitely needs to be a serious case review with regard to Shannon Matthews - especially as it seems she wasn't fed well. Having said that she looks well nourished in the photos - and if this is what you see when you go in.....well.

How do you monitor what a child is eating? How do you know if their healthy looking weight is from normal food or from junk food? By asking the parents who tell you what they think you want to hear - which is even worse as it shows they know what they should be doing but for whatever reason are not doing it.

I work with families like this on a regular basis. At the end of the day all I can do is advise - what they do then is up to them.....

A thread entitled 'all those who can't do their jobs properly should resign' would at least give a more balanced starting point to this debate.

I am still a sw, rhuby. Adult mental health one, like Perkin Warbreck. Thankfully. I was never attracted by child protection work and certainly wouldn't be in the current climate. Too distressing and stressful even before you add in the (understandable in the face of such awful tragedies) vitriol of the public.

I can see why social workers aren't popular right now. And I think there are some endemic problems in some areas of social work, especially child protection, not least attracting good social workers to the job, something that I can only imagine is not going to get any easier. Few of you who have said how awful social workers are have offered to join the profession to improve it, I notice. However, I think it's interesting that we aren't also condemning doctors, lawyers and teachers, all of whom arguably also have some questions to answer in the Baby P and Shannon cases. I think perhaps that because these are universal services everyone knows from personal experience that there are loads of good ones out there, even though mistakes are sometimes made. There are some good social workers out there too.

edam, I am sure that children's SWs are trying to make their voices heard, but sadly few want to listen, if my experience is anything to go by.

In adult services, there is a new mental health act (operational as of last month). When changes were mooted, SWs were "consulted". Their recommendations were ignored by the bill. The bill was heard, SWs were consulted again. Their recommendations were ignored.

We try, but deaf ears pervade.

Warbeck, even.

Mistakes happen. Awful when it involves a child - but life. It always did happen and always will regardless of restructures, all the funding in the world etc. Most of us make mistakes all the time and the consequences are small. SWs make mistakes and the consequences are big. But if all people doing jobs where the consequences of mistakes are awful stopped doing it, where would we be. Doctors, nurses, social workers, ambulance drivers, dentists etc all gone. Great. Give SWs a break. There will be one or two poor ones - as in any profession. Its just you dont hear about the person who constantly writes the wrong order when waitressing for a restaurant, or the teacher who constantly spells incorrectly. The fault is with society not sorting out parents who abuse their children. At the end of the day it is not the police or SWs or doctors who abused the kids. The responsibility is with the parents.

excellent post frogwatcher

frogwatcher - totally agree - excellent post

but the police, SWs, doctors and everyone else who came into contact with Baby P or Shannon in a professional capacity also bear some responsibility, too. The status and power of being a professional come with some heavy responsibilities - deprivation of liberty for adult social workers, taking into care for children's.

Social Work like any profession has employees who struggle, except that when mistakes are made it can have major life or death ramifications. Doctors, lawyers and even teachers (currently) are paid far more to shoulder this type of responsibility and potential fall out from human error.

I am not suggesting that Social Workers should necessarily be paid more but when placed in the context of 'value'= how much you earn, especially in relation to the responsibilties inherent in the job, SW come out somewhere near the bottom. I would imagine nurses could empathise similarly.

I would find it hard to believe that any SW who had chosen to go into child protection as their specialism would deliberately not do everything within their power to protect the children on their caseload.

For all the reasons outlined on this thread by those who work within the field, it is easy to become demoralised and ill while trying to help a client group you care about, and ultimately this can lead to mistakes.

Under these circumstances (baby P case and shannon Matthews), surely a thorough investigation into the reasons why such mistakes occur and the correct funding and implementation of training/supervision and systematic changes should be called for.

Asking those working under immense difficulties to resign will only put further pressures on an already demoralised and creaking public service.

Sorry frogwatcher x-posts I see we have similar views.

izyboy - thats ok! tired and red - cheers. I am off now to put one poorly child to bed, and two other lively ones to bed!

Good luck, just done my lot!

of course social workers should be paid more. We have heard people bumming on about market forces dictating what people are paid, based on their high level of skills and the small number of people who can do what they do.

I've said it before and I'll say if again - bollocks.

People who create big money, earn big money. People who help others don't get paid much.

I can quite believe sws are too ground down to spend large amounts of their time campaigning. They would know that all they would get would be the usual cries of public sector slackers, bumbling through red tape, wearing sandals , cocking up lives and knowing nothing about Real Life.

Of course there are some rubbish social workers, just as there are rubbish all-sorts-of-everything out there.

But my god, there are very very few who would do their job.

pointydog you forgot 'tree-hugging guardian readers'

I work in child protection and have done for 8 yrs. I had to take some time off due to stress - not because of what I was dealing with but because of the sheer amount. It is relentless. Karen MAtthews is not unusul, I see parents like her all the time.
i love my job, but get frustrated by the lack of resources and lack of credibilty.
I am not a SW I am a Police officer and although we are told we are important it is rarely backed up with extra staff and resources. It is not seen as ' serious' crime like robbery or burglary is.

DoubleBluff the most depressing aspect of your post is the 'sheer amount' comment. I am sure it might even be possible to become immune to witnessing horror and degradation on a daily basis, even if that is for self protection purposes.