Archive

Q: I am a social worker with a local authority children's disability team. I love the direct work with children and their families but that is a very small part of my job. I estimate I spend an hour a day with service users. The rest of my time is spent on paperwork and driving long distances to visit children placed out of county. I am bored, disillusioned and unsure how to proceed.

A: Consult your colleagues as these issues are likely to affect the whole team. Suggest to your manager that everyone keeps a log for a month or so to monitor time spent on administration, duty, travelling and contact with service users. This information can be used to assess the problem comprehensively. A joint approach will establish whether responsibilities are evenly distributed within the team.


The results, particularly for time spent travelling, might surprise managers. If you can demonstrate how often you are on the road, you could possibly influence the council's placements policy or contracting arrangements.

Your team manager might authorise train travel where suitable and buying and using a team laptop, (subject to protecting confidentiality), could mean you sort out admin during journeys and make better use of travelling time.


Increasing regulation means administration has grown and while you can't avoid it, you can reduce the burden. Can record-keeping be streamlined, or redesigned? Perhaps money can be found for admin support? Or designated time and a quiet space could be allocated for team members to update records without interruption.

Pauline Moignard is a freelance HR consultant specialising in social care