Is adult social work better off outside local government?

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Mithran Posted: 5 Apr 2011 2:58 PM

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Hi All,

We're planning to do a piece about whether adult social work will be better off outside local government; this is driven by a few things:-

• The government piloting social work practices for adult social care, in which social workers will be "outsourced" and contracted by councils to manage the cases of groups of clients.
• The government's emphasis on setting up mutuals and social enterprises, run by staff, to deliver services currently in the public sector.

Possible advantages include the idea that practitioners will be more liberated from management diktat to work alongside service users; possible disadvantages are loss of terms and conditions for staff and a fragementation of accountability for care.

It would be good to hear people's thoughts on this.

Cheers,

Mithran

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blackcat44 replied on 5 Apr 2011 8:31 PM

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My gut instinct say's no. From my perspective in Community mental health the changes required could be delivered with imagination allowing social workers and others to use their prof judgement to deliver services rather than the tickbox culture we have at present.This could give workers more face to face time with service users which is the most common complaint i hear from them. Teams should be able to do this without losing the support and framework you get from a good social services department