There has been some lively debate on CareSpace about the qualifications and status of social workers in children’s services, with many contributors arguing how the social work degree is not preparing graduates for the realities of social work. The newly-qualified social worker status, being piloted this year, attempts to address concerns about poor supervision and high burnout rates for new recruits in children's services.

The government is now asking the Children’s Workforce Development Council to look into the other end of the spectrum and develop a new status for advanced social workers – see our story here.

Will this give experienced social workers the status (and no doubt higher salary) they crave, without having to move away from the frontline and move ‘upstairs’ into management? Or will it create an unnecessary hierarchy which could further detract from the morale of overworked teams of social worker?

Would be interested to hear your views.

It depends what you call experience and who defines it.

As an area social worker I was discriminated against when I tried to get back to area social work having been in other parts of children's services throughout my children's early years. I was expected to take a significant pay cut because I didn't have a PQ and my many years of experience were disregarded.

I tried to do a PQ to get back some status but couldn't write what the bosses wanted to hear and so failed miserably.

I left all of this two years ago and became a very poorly paid self employed school social worker and started to get to know people in high up positions such as the shadow children's minister who had my self published book sitting on his desk as one of his reference books.

I am now still poorly paid but very happy in my work doing something that matters and working with a fantastic boss [ headteacher] who believes in me and wants me to be part of the SEAL http://www.bandapilot.org.uk/secondary/index.html  revolution.

On 25 Sept I will lead an event called ' Believe in me' with currently five social work Professors attending who all believe in me plus many other folk.

So what's this advanced stuff all about? Is it purely for those who did PQ and then something else or is it for innovators like me?

Watch this space for new phrases such as ' talent not targets' and I'll smile knowing that I am really doing good work with children that I can trully be proud of and maybe some day I'll get an honourary advanced award because I'm sure I'll just not be able to write the right stuff again.

Rachel Bramble

Author of the Nameless social worker

Rachel, I am intrigued about your signature, what exactly do you mean about the soap? I think your point about  being an innovative social worker is very interesting. As to whether I think advanced status is a good thing, for me, my aim at the moment is to qualify at all, so I can't really comment.

Hiya

The soap is one on TV with social workers as the central characters.

I have spent a few years trying to get to know people in the media and in fact there is a conference this friday on Investigative journalism http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/pdf/IJ%20flyer2%202008.pdf full of media folk that i am going to, to try to spread the word.

One day someone will pick it up and do the soap its only a matter of time our stories are too good to miss.

Good luck at the conference Rachel - looks like a really good line-up. Would be wonderful to see John Pilger turn his hand to a social work investigation.

Anyone more up for the idea of advanced social worker status? I think we can see something of the kind emerging - for instance Hackney Council's reforms to children and families social worker involves setting up small teams, each headed by a social work consultant.

The social work consultant has some managerial responsibility so it may be that these advanced social work positions do not dispense with management altogether.

There's lots of detail to work out but it seems at least to be responding to some age-old issues for practitioners.

Be careful what you wish for! The soap will not only contain some very interesting - and let's face it you couldn't make some of it up if you tried - stories or scenarios, but the writers will make sure we don't like some of the characters; some of it will be too close to home and the potential is to give the wrong impression about social work right across the board.  The programme makers will not make much money from playing safe or keeping it fluffy!

 Will you like what you see?

I thought some years back there was some effort of a tv soap on social work, or am I dreaming that?

Frontline social work is so different these days - a lot of litigation and case files the size of a small car, well perhaps a few breeze blocks. In 1980 I completed a one year post-grad CQSW (which in academic term period was actually 9 months) and on qualifying I was from day one managing care proceedings and child protection, never before having worked in a fieldwork team. And of course in those ancient times it was still generic social work teams with an average case load (mostly children) of about 30. Being thrown in at the deep end you sank or swam, but that is (rightly) not an option these day as the cases are much more complex and there are more cases to deal with, albeit much smaller case loads.

I am amazed however how well some newly qualified workers do, whilst there are the few who struggle. Those who do well and those not so well is sometimes (indeed very often) influenced by the quality of the supervision/management and the culture within and available resources to the team. There is the rather scary position at the moment where a significant number of first line managers are themselves inexperienced and some social workers feeling a little unsafe about the guidance they have - that can be overcome by middle managers and training officers establishing a forum for first line managers to let off steam, share problems and learn techniques of management. It is the age old problem that a good social worker does not automatically have the skills in management, although given time and the right support most will get there - I did eventually!

Front line staff have a hard time of it, but wait till you become a first line manager and then you will have a whole new difficult journey, the most difficult one you will face in your career.

Thank goodness I left all that behind 18 years ago and became a senior manager - then I needed serious therapy having to deal with the Elected Members. And fortunately I left that behind 8 years ago to become independent - oh what joy!

I do not envy those front line workers and first line managers - the two hardest roles in the profession. But I think they are on the whole doing rather well, actually

Wilt 

As a newly qualified social worker I took part in the CWDC consultation meetings, and I have to say I was gobsmacked by how stressed some of my fellow NQSW were. Surely burnout should take longer than 1 year ??

Some local authorites appear to be scandalus in the amount of work they give to NQSW, and that along with the old 'poor management and supervision' is a disaster waiting to happen.

Though I have been very lucky in my first year of practice, I can see how easy it would be to become overwhelmed if you do not have the right support. I have just read the first NQSW pilot paper and though I feel it sounds a bit like a sutdent placement criteria list, I think anything that gets employers to consider the wellbeing of staff has to be a good idea. 

I think this role is absolutely essential.

It will provide the means to ensure that experienced social workers don't have to abandon their skills in the field and pursue a management career, simply to be able to gain a suitable salary.

The role would be particularly suitable for the big towns and cities where the high cost of living encourages experienced social workers to give up their roles, simply to be able to pay a mortgage. Although social work is a vocational undertaking, it isn't a profession that should by default be seen as low paid.

Advanced social workers will be key in mentoring junior staff, arbitrating in difficult decisions and, but only if their role is correctly defined, ensuring that the decisions made by management are fully appreciated for what impact they will have in reality in the field.  

 The concern would be that some managers will be unable to cope with advanced social workers, fearful of their status and salary. The only useful positive analogy I can make is that in the Army (not just the British Army) it isn't unusual to find experienced NCO's - Non-Commissioned Officers, such a Regimental or Master Sergeants, who earn more than junior officers. Since before the Vietnam War the US Army's master sergeants are invariably on a higher salary than platoon second lieutenants (source: We Were Soldiers Once...and Young -  Lieutenant General Hal Moore and Joseph L Galloway.) Obviously we don't want to associate social work with military practises, but the concept that experienced workers are recognised for their worth, to the point that they invariably earn more than their "junior" managers is an established and useful one.

For the likes of Inner London I would like to see the role of advanced social worker subject to a pay scale that tops out at 90k. For that salary I would expect to see the submission of academic papers, a proper degree and nigh-on god-like reverence amongst their peers. Certainly with the introduction of advanced social workers I would expect to see the incidences of well-publicised blunders like the Fran Lyon scandal become a thing of the past. We would expect senior social workers to impose and maintain high standards of professionalism, so that we don't hear of critisisms such as pooor grammar and spelling being applied to documentation, or junior staff being unable to cope when they are asked a simple question in a Family Court session. The idea is that the link between management and staff, which can be teneous at best and downright abusive at worst, is transformed.