After finding it difficult to secure my first frontline social work position – due to my ‘lack of experience’ – I was chuffed to be offered a job as a care manager in a complex care team* within adult services, writes social worker Zoë Betts. My only statutory experience up until that point had been a placement in a fostering and adoption team, where I was fortunate to get some well-rounded experience of children’s social work. To my surprise, I very much enjoyed it; I felt like I understood what was going on and what I was expected to do.
My early experience in adult services was quite different. I often felt like I just didn’t get it. I wondered why I was struggling to understand the process, why it was taking me so long and many a tear was shed through sheer frustration.
Then, one day a few weeks ago (and two months into the job), I was driving home and I had a revelation. It’s so simple I almost feel silly writing it, but recognising it did make me feel better. Children and families social work follows a step-by-step process; from, for example, a Section 47 initial assessment, to a case conference if required, to a decision, to a plan of some sort, to a review and so forth, with the legal status possibly changing at each different stage. You can, effectively, tick off the boxes.
I went into adult services thinking the logistics would be the same. I wanted to know how regularly we should visit service users, how each stage progressed to the next. But my questions were met with confused looks. In adult services, a case comes in via a referral in much the same way as children’s services, but it can be much harder to decipher what needs to be done. Certain formalities must be followed, but the overall process is more obscured. As a newly qualified social worker, I found it hard to get used to.
However, now that I am learning how to use the support networks in my local authority, the haze is lifting. Thanks to supervision, I can see the wider picture and assess what needs to be done, what can be done and how to deliver it. I aspire to become a practice educator one day and hopefully, when I do, I’ll remember that learning moves at a different pace for every individual and can be very fragile; some hands need to be held a little tighter for a little longer.
Join me, Community Care, the GSCC and more on 24 April at my event, Competence and Confidence, support evening solely devoted to social work students and newly qualified social workers. Jackson Lane Theatre, London, N6 5AA, 6-9pm. Follow @iamsocialwork for details or email me directly on zoevb@hotmail.com to register your attendance.
* Let me try and steer you away from the inevitable debate about care management versus social work. Like a lot of frontline social workers, I work within a very person-centered model, dealing with families as well as other agencies and professionals. Much of my work is currently based around assessments, which I hope will continue to build on my existing skills. Until social work can adapt itself to better cater to the growing needs of those training for and entering the profession, we must view first positions, in whichever field they happen to be in, as good experience.
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