If you are a social worker from overseas, you shouldn’t expect the
British press to be your best friend. Melissa Ganser, originally
from San Diego, USA, and now working in a children’s team at
Havering Council learned this the hard way.
In February, the Mail on Sunday published
an article claiming that inexperienced US social work graduates
were being attracted to work here due to the "party lifestyle", and
quoted comments Ganser had made on a recruitment website.
At the time of the Mail on Sunday
coverage, Ganser had actually worked in the London borough for more
than three years. She is now an acting advanced practitioner on the
children’s duty and assessment team.
"I think I’m going to work here for a while," she
says. "I’m committed to Havering and the job, so there are a lot of
opportunities for me here. But if I do decide to go back, I will be
able to take my experience with me."
It’s hard to imagine why a social worker would want
to leave San Diego (currently a sunny 21ºC) to come and work in
Havering (11ºC and a steady drizzle) and be slated in the national
press. But we should be grateful that Ganser and the 6,884 other
foreign social workers have come to work here. They now make up
almost 10% of the UK social work workforce, keeping vacancy levels
Seeking social workers
Ganser is different from many overseas social
workers in that she came to the UK before obtaining her job with
Havering. Instead, it has become increasingly common for local
authorities to pro-actively seek social workers from abroad. Jackie
Lindsay, the head of social care at recruitment agency Pulse, says
that such international recruitment has only really taken off this
decade.
"It can often be easier to obtain them from
overseas," she says, "and since the need for a degree in social
work was introduced, it has upped the standards of our
workers."
Lindsay says that Canada, New Zealand and Australia
are good countries to recruit candidates because of the common
language and the high standards of social worker training there.
About 60% of social workers in the UK who qualified overseas did so
in just four countries (Australia, South Africa, the USA and
India). Every overseas-qualified social worker is either from
Europe, the English-speaking world, Commonwealth countries or the
Philippines. It is for this reason – and the fact that social
workers are recruited by councils on an ad hoc basis – that a
genuine global market does not exist.
But the number of new international social workers
registering with the
General Social Care Council is plummeting:
there were 1,425 in 2006; 1,043 in 2007; and only 518 last year.
Why this is happening is hard to ascertain because there is
still need for social workers, particularly in children’s
services.
One reason could be the tighter controls that have
been introduced recently. The GSCC considers each application on a
case-by-case basis but since October last year, social workers
coming to work in the UK must have qualifications that are
comparable with the social work degree and 130 days of
post-qualifying training.
There are also workers of a higher standard who
won’t work for the lower wages that UK organisations offer for
their knowledge. Nadine Warren, originally from Kent, emigrated to
British Columbia, Canada, in 1996, and is keen to return to the UK,
but only if that means not taking a massive pay cut from her
current job.
"I flew over for senior practitioner job
interviews, which held the promise of becoming a team supervisor
within two to three years," she says. "In both cases I was told –
after the interview and incurring the expenses – that qualifying
outside the UK and not knowing the Children Act 2005 thoroughly
would mean that I would not qualify for senior practitioner
pay.
"Legislation is legislation, it is not rocket
science. I can read, digest and apply 10 different child protection
Canadian provincial legislations, why would there be an issue with
assimilating UK legislation?" she says. "What is important is good
social work practice and demonstrable social work skills in the
field, mentoring experience, and the ability to engage service
users – skills that do translate, if you are familiar with UK
society."
Paperwork bureaucracy
Paperwork is also thought to be putting off
potential social workers. They have to deal both with the
bureaucracy associated with social work and immigration. Lindsay
says that Pulse plans to recruit from the eastern EU member states,
in part because there are fewer barriers to entry from there.
International social workers also need support in
their own lives once they arrive. Kate Harris, commercial director
at Pulse, says: "There are the practicalities of
opening bank accounts and obtaining visas, and being able to become
a member of your community. That’s particularly important with a
job that involves working in difficult circumstances and having a
large case load."
Creating those support networks for people new to
the country is vital to ensure they are successful, but Lindsay
says that current provision of everything from help in securing
housing to meeting local people varies significantly between local
authorities.
For now, social workers from overseas are a small
but important section of the social care workforce. But their
recruitment is being motivated by a shortfall in experienced
home-grown social workers in particular areas or sectors. While
overseas workers are needed in the short term, many believe that in
the long-term it is not a sustainable position. Harris says:
"There’s a lot that we can do here in terms of attracting people
into training and degree-level courses but in the short term that’s
not possible. Right now, we need to recruit from overseas."
CASE
STUDY
Sashnee
Naidoo, social worker from South Africa
‘Here, it’s more about meeting your targets’
Sashnee Naidoo, originally
from Durban, South Africa, qualified as a social worker in 1995.
She moved to work in a children and families team at Reading
Council in 2001, with the intention to pay off her student debt.
She worked with children for three years until changing
jobs.
"When I worked in South
Africa I enjoyed it because it was more interesting," she says.
"Here in the UK, it’s more about meeting your targets; whereas my
work in South Africa was more grass roots, working with very poor
people and focusing on education, running community projects and
fundraising.
"I raised funds for a
borehole in a school because the kids didn’t have running water. It
was very rewarding and people were more appreciative.
"When I came to England it
was a bit of a culture shock. In South Africa we had a big
HIV-positive and Aids problem. Lots of people were dying and
children were often placed with their grandparents. But here, the
system of adoption is totally different, and I couldn’t understand
why families didn’t help in the same way."
Naidoo says that one of the
most frequently-made criticisms of social work in the UK –
paperwork – is actually a problem everywhere and not specific to
here. She also says that there were far more unnecessary meetings
in South Africa, "to develop policy and practices and nothing got
done. Here, everything is in place".
She adds: "In terms of career
development, in South Africa I would have been a chief social
worker and then been stuck in that post for 10 to 15 years. Here
you receive more career progression and support."
But she also says that the
onus of sticking to rules and structures was a problem when working
with children in the UK, as "we always had to be seen as working
with the parents, no matter how much abuse you
received".
In 2004, Naidoo stopped working with
children, choosing to move to Stevenage to work as a hospital
social worker.
More information
The number of overseas social workers in the UK