"In part I hold my hands up and say we should ask social workers
to speak up more, but I find there hasn't been a strong enough
sense of the profession and their voice, demands and views - and
that needs to change."
It may not be surprising that someone says they don't know what
social workers want, but it is worrying that the man in question
here is children's secretary Ed Balls, speaking on the BBC's
Panorama
programme "Baby P - The Whole Truth?" last month.
There is however some justification for gaps in Balls's
knowledge. When a major news story breaks involving nurses or
doctors, the public know the Royal College of Nursing or British
Medical Association will be on hand to talk to politicians and the
media. Who does that job for social work?
Complaints
The obvious names are little known beyond the sector. It was a
common complaint from delegates at Community Care LIVE last month
that the British Association of Social Workers had failed to defend
the social work profession during the Baby P case, but it has a
limited mandate to represent social work when it has only 12,000
members.
Unison represents 40,000 social workers and is a national voice
for its million-plus members, but it represents so many professions
that it cannot realistically become synonymous with social
work.
The General Social Care Council was criticised as being quiet
during the Sun's coverage of baby Peter but has
repeatedly said it is a regulator, not a representative
body.
Unfair criticism
I called BASW to ask whether it had an effective media operation
to convey the social work voice to the public. Unfortunately, chief
executive Hilton Dawson (BASW does not have a press officer) was on
holiday, with no mention of that on his voicemail or e-mail. In
practice, a hard-pressed news reporter with little knowledge of
social work will not get the social worker's perspective.
But Ruth Cartwright, BASW professional officer for England, did
answer her phone. She says criticism of the organisation is unfair.
"I think that's a bit of a cheek. No one could have got blanket
coverage during Baby P and, given our size, we did well.
"But that's with the proviso 'given our size'. If there were
more members, there could be capacity to cover more outlets."
Unanswered phones aside, the organisation has increased its
efforts to promote social work. Dawson is starting a UK tour to
hear what social workers have to say. BASW is also looking to have
a dedicated PR person working on a forthcoming project.
The biggest shake-up would come from the
links that BASW is currently exploring with Unison. That would
potentially allow social workers to pay far less than they do now
to join both bodies separately, which could boost BASW's numbers
and allow it to claim a mandate to represent social work.
Other bodies
Unison has also spent a lot of time representing social workers
in the media and Helga Pile, national officer for social care, has
been at the forefront. However, she says there are limits to what
she can do herself, and that employers need to allow social workers
to talk to the media if the public are to hear what they have to
say: "Our experience has been that media want ordinary frontline
social workers. [Employers] have to lift the gagging order because
it doesn't help anybody for social work to be seen as a profession
that can only ever speak anonymously. We need social workers to be
able to talk about their work."
Cartwright says BASW has faced the same problem, even when
social workers want to talk about positive news stories. But it is
difficult to see how line managers can be convinced to allow
frontline social workers to speak for the greater good of the
profession, when there is a direct - albeit small - risk to their
own department.
Positive appearences
On the positive side, Pile and Cartwright agree that media
appearances that both organisations have made in the past six
months mean that journalists know they can call them to talk about
social work.
One organisation where arguably that has not happened is the
GSCC, which has been criticised for doing too little to make itself
known during the Sun's campaign to have social workers in Haringey
sacked for their involvement in the baby Peter case. But the GSCC
says that whenever a substantial article about social workers and
baby Peter was printed without mentioning its conduct
investigation, it would contact the journalist to make them aware
of it.
The GSCC remains firm in its belief that it is a regulatory body
that cannot represent the workforce. "Our aim is to promote the
professionalism of social workers and the fact that they are
regulated, something that we do regularly through the media, at
events and in our work with stakeholder organisations and
parliamentarians," says chair Rosie Varley. "Through our work to
ensure high standards and weed out those who are unsuitable to work
in social work, we are supporting the workforce by safeguarding
public confidence."
Impartial role?
But that isn't enough for Tower Hamlets social worker
John Davies. In March,
he wrote a column in Community Care criticising the GSCC for
failing to defend the profession. Although he now acknowledges
that, as a regulator, it must be impartial and has the potential to
help improve social work's public standing, he still believes it
can only do that if it makes more effort to speak up. "If the
GSCC's work raises public confidence in social work by 1%, then
100% is taken away by a campaign by the Sun," he says.
In the meantime, the political figurehead to represent
children's social work should be Balls himself. Cartwright is
critical of his comments on Panorama, and for his slow response to
letters from BASW sent at the end of last year. However, Balls is
due to meet Dawson soon, and the Department for Children, Schools
and Families says it is "very grateful" for the work that BASW does
in representing social workers, notably through the Social Work
Task Force.
There are other bodies with a lesser claim to being the voice of
social work, notably the Social Care Institute for Excellence. The
Department of Health is now reviewing the roles of the GSCC, Scie
and Skills for Care, and should report soon.
Those changes, alongside whatever the conclusions of the Social
Work Task Force will be in the autumn, may alter the institutional
landscape of who will be able to speak up for social workers.
But for now, Pile says that it is down to BASW and Unison. "If
we can create this partnership," she says, "then it will be a
pretty powerful voice for practitioners."
• View the
Panorama programme
• John Davies'
column
Tell us what you will do in
your
area to stand up for social work