Today marks the end of Community Care’s Stand Up for Social Work campaign.
For over a year we have shared your views, promoted positive stories about social work and tackled issues that matter to social workers openly and honestly.
Now it wouldn’t be a true campaign about social work without some time for reflection. With more than 120 stories published under our stand up for social work tag, we have picked out 10 of of the highlights:
1. We published one of the largest studies about burnout among UK social workers
2. Social worker Kirsty Rowe challenged professional stereotypes in a frank piece about the realities of social work
3. Social workers shared their best and worst advice
4. We have celebrated 14 different social work heroes, nominated by their peers
5. A social work lecturer revealed they left the profession because the university wouldn’t fail social work students
6. Social workers told us why they joined the profession
7. A council and adoption agency, inspired by the campaign, encouraged social workers to be more open about their role by tweeting about their jobs throughout the day. Social workers also took to twitter to share their best and worst jargon
8. We have published free downloadable guides on issues important to social workers
9. We have shared the positive views of social workers from the service users they have helped, including children’s views of their social workers, and a mum’s experience of social services
10. Finally, a service user reflected for us on how a social worker saved her life
Parts of the Stand Up for Social Work campaign will continue, and of course we will never stop promoting positive stories of social work or sharing the voices of social workers and service users. But we hope the campaign has illustrated what you and others can do to stand up for social work every day. If you wish to contribute your social work story, please email communitycare@rbi.co.uk.
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Social work has changed totally since I started 45 years ago. It is not recognisable . Now it is to much part of local authority bureaucracy. When I started all those years ago we were a social work department. with a director who was a social worker . Now its dominated by a huge bureaucracy with a range of managers who rarely see clients Its a very costly exercise which ends in a marginal service to clients …. I have worked in all areas of social work fro social worker senior social worker team manager in children / families mental health adults and so on / I still occasionally work as a agency social work so am able to see from a very broad perspective what has happened to social work over the years . There is a very valid critic but I will maybe write a book about my experience and how social work could develop in the future independent of local authority.
The government need to raise the profile and respect what it is that social workers do. Ultimately we are working towards trying to ensure that there are no child deaths in society just as the police are trying to stop murders of adults. We need to find a way of asserting our profession at the same level as medical professionals. BASW do not do enough to raise our profile and need to think about how they can inspire social workers to become a member. I was in court where the judge raised concerns about security in courts and i wondered who worries about social workers security. Following the granting of a care order , there are situations where you can end up removing a child in a cab on your own.