Do social workers need parenting classes??

I recently spoke to a number of care leavers who said they would have liked their social workers/residential care workers to have behaved more like parents, in the way that foster carers are able to do. 

They said this meant things like: spontaneously deciding to take kids on trips/shopping/to football matches or allowing them to do activities without having to constantly risk assess e.g. fishing or climbing trees. They said these were all things that would have helped them to feel 'normal' but instead they felt like they were constantly wrapped in cotton wool or kept at arm's length by professionals...

One young person even suggested that social workers should take parenting classes! It got me thinking about corporate parenting, and the need to be a 'parent' rather than just a 'carer'...

Of course many social workers will already be doing this, but is it realistic to expect all professionals to act as a parent to the children in their care? What do people think are the biggest barriers to this type of corporate parenting? High caseloads? Lack of time? Red tape? Or are (some) social workers reluctant to get too close to children in care after having had a bad experience of something going wrong?

Any tips/advice or examples (good or bad) of this would be brilliant! Thanks. Camilla

• Filed under: care leavers, parenting, social workers, children in care, corporate parents

Yes, the statutory role is very restrictive and the issues you mention are also factors. A corporate parent is not a parent and never will be. Neither are foster carers come to that- although many are fantastic. Sadly, what these kids need is what they haven't got- parents who can meet their needs. Quite a few years ago, I would take children out, but that role tends to be done by unqualified staff these days.

I think many social workers would love to have the chance to take children out and be more involved....I know I would have, when I was a LAC social worker. But caseloads and service constraints preclude that generally speaking. The times that I did spend on 'quality time' with the young people on my caseload e.g. attending awards evenings or performances of the drama group that they were in etc was generally in my own time which I was not paid for. And having my own young family limited that time as well.

The idea of corporate parenting is just that - an idea.

have actually taken parenting classes and facilitated them as part of my old job and i recommend them to anyone who works with children and even more so if you are becoming a parent

theres a few moral arguments against them (state sanctioned behaviour modification being one) that will mean the academic elite will never be in favour but they definitely are of value.

one of the things thats good about them is that they give the same techniques as are used by other childrens services and so the child has continuity and consistency

im not sure that would mean less risk assessments tho!