CWDC urges potential social work recruits to ‘be the difference’

By Mithran Samuel on September 11, 2009 in Children, Workforce

Potential children’s social workers are being invited to “be the difference” in a new recruitment campaign that highlights how practitioners use everyday objects to assess young people’s needs and improve their lives.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council is launching the second phase of the government’s high-profile social work recruitment campaign on national television this evening, starting a six-week burst of advertising across all media.

The ‘Be the difference’ campaign’s two adverts depict a bouncing ball and a boiling kettle, with a voiceover outlining how social workers can use such everyday objects to make major breakthroughs with children who are in need or being abused.

The script for the boiling kettle advert reads:-

“It’s not just a cup of tea; it’s a chat about EastEnders; it’s laughing at a joke; it’s listening to a story; it’s noticing the track marks on her arm; it’s asking why she does it; it’s hearing how she pays for it; it’s believing her when she says she wants to get clean; it’s the moment a 16-year-old girl asks you to help her; it’s a step in the right direction; it’s an excuse to come back and see how she’s doing; it’s a celebration; it’s not just a cup of tea; it’s one of the most important tools we use.”

The campaign’s website says a children and families social worker needs to be a “good listener, have masses of patience and possess great observational and investigatory skills” and warns that the profession is not for those looking for an easy life.

Besides information on training, salary expectations and career progression, the website also carries video testimonials from social workers and students, illustrating the different routes into the profession, different job roles and potential job satisfaction it can provide.

Despite the campaign’s focus on encouraging people into the profession to work with children, one of the testimonials features a hospital social worker dealing with the discharge of an older person.

The Be the difference campaign comes on the back of the Help Give Them A Voice campaign, a short government recruitment drive which used celebrity videos to highlight the sorts of situations social workers in adults’ and children’s services are confronted by.