How were/are your experiences with Social Worker?

[AnxiousLand]

Mine have been not so good until 2 years ago. My SW now has been a Godsend. Shame he married hehehe xx

we dont have one but used to work for them, so hoping people say nice things.

ours is awful!!

On the fence yet she seems ok ,

There are some good ones, and some crap ones, same as any profession,(have been one, have had one and now spend time teaching people how to become one!)
All my student SWs are in no doubt about the things that piss parents ( and other service users) off, and how to avoid them, my biggest hope is that I can part of the process of improving a profession that I care passionately about. I don't mean to deny anyones experiences, but we are not all the same....

PS I have had more probs with medics than SWs to be honest

SW OT is absolutely fab and very helpful, actual SW has been M.I.A for some time now!

We needed one for dp and because of equipment for ds3 but wish never bothered but will. See how it goes

but saying that dd one is nice don't really see her at all but she has one aotomatically as has a life shorting condtion in fact lol she's greedy has 2

I have 2 SW lol

We've had several over the years and it has worked mostly very well which, I think , has a lot to do with MY "management" of the situation. I agree though with whoever said don't argue with one, arse licking goes a long way! Mind you, after a bit of light arse licking at first, it then isn't so necessary. I do have some respect for them as I think its a very tricky job but I don't like the risk that go with upsetting them.
If you ever want access to adult services you will have to deal with Soc Svs afaik.

I struggle to know what is the point of some SW's in the children's disability team or what help they are to parents.

The only thing that counts for our family is practical help and, although I like our SW his almost sole function is attend Looked After Child (LAC) reviews because it is a legal necessity. He will try and answer questions when I have them, but these could be answered just as well by someone without a SW qualification (and are often answered more quickly and efficiently by myself and Google).

What I would really like is someone to take my son out regularly, a team to work directly with children with challenging behaviour, someone to set up a club that caters for SLD children, or someone independent to fight on our behalf. It strikes me that people without SW qualifications could do this perfectly adequately and cheaper, but the system is set up to employ expensive social workers who do not do much hands on work and simply provide a barrier between you and the paltry amount of practical help out there.

Obviously they are needed in child protection and probably in managing respite facilities and DP's, but otherwise, I would like to see resources redirected into practical help, overseen by a much smaller contingent of SW's.

My Soc Worker also attends our LAC reviews and she visits DS between reviews. She is responsible for our Care Plan which means we get a good level of DPs when DS is home. I feel I have built up trust with her that goes both ways. She came round a couple of weeks ago to see DS at home and I was quite grateful as I was in 2 minds about whether he should attend a scheme the following week. She listened to me and did not dismiss my concerns but gave me some good advice about preparing the Scheme staff beforehand and gave me the confidence to send him - which worked out OK and gave me a well needed break due to his poor sleeping.

We don't have one, but our specialist HV is on a team with one and we occasionally talk to her. She generally only checks that we're up to date with nappies, DLA etc.

Hi starlight,sounds like your area has a fair number of the crap ones. have to say one of the ones we have had was rubbish, didn't do what she said, sent stuff to wrong team holding things up, closed us when we still had questions etc etc. But have dealt with brill ones too. Makes me feel sad cos I've seen good social work make a real positive impact in families lives (kids and adults)according to them, and feel like we are all tarred with same brush. Think donkey derby made some really good points and lots of the SWs I know really bemoan the loss of the hands on direct work they were more able to do 10 or 20 years ago. Too much paperwork and stats.

I can not seem to get one for love or money in sefton. We have alack of them here though as LA refuse to pay enough, have been referred to SW OT but they have a 12 month waiting list, joke.

pitchforks and horns i like it. yeah I tend to judge workers on what the clients say about them rather than what they say about themselves, or each other.

Was based in Deaf/HI/VI team so did lots of joint working with other SW teams, with service users we knew well and had been working with sometimes for years (decades even ) so they would give us honest feedback. Deaf culture very direct so not unheard of to get "social worker crap, knows nothing, fucking useless"

Also did work more with older people and adults with physical disabilties, also fostering and adoption, but less in dis children's teams, so you may be right they may just attract rubbish workers, oh dear

PSJust a thought I have a new group of students each year and if you, or anyone else want to feel they are impacting the profession for the good, making it better for those who come later I am happy to use feedback, dos and don'ts case senarios that you want to share, to try and make sure the students that qualify have a better awareness and attitude, I already use lots of my experiences as parent carer and carer for dh.

PPS, fancy the idea of sitting of next to you at dinner party, step up from the pint of cider from the lurkers thread,

SW make up anon callers?

OMG!!!

I had an anon caller to social services

OMG!!

OOh ok thank you StarlightMckenzie

How did the SW get away with that?

Isn't that cruel and against the law?

Yeah see so far sw seems ok but there's a lit if frightners put on here with aim of making you stop asking for resources and it works

I went through something similar to starlight accused of making ds disabled yet I pointed out nhs it/physio had scored him below 1% compared to nt his age also that his speech stuff showed was below 1% lol

his sw had never seen this reports or others before the meeting was meant to be after being scared to death of being told cp meeting next week so cancelling holiday to attend then it was cancelled and told oh not cp case as we had not seen all the reports sw then went on holiday not heard thing from her though there is meant to be a team around child meeting soon

But I will never trust her same with my HV who said been offering support lol I saw her twice asked one question about nappies which was misunderstood

But then to balance out dd sw is lovely has enabled us to access holiday scheme for dc with life threating illness arranged hospital transfers when wards taking to long