Social workers’ jobs often extend beyond the nine-to-five.
So it would be understandable if they wanted a break from anything social work-related outside of working hours.
And yet, a recent Community Care poll, which received 881 votes, found that the majority of practitioners (64%) read social work-related books in their spare time.
Just over one-third (34%) said social work books were what they were into, while 30% said they they would pick up a work-related read depending on the book.
However, 36% said they preferred to switch off after work.
Find your next read
Whether you’re a social work book fan or not, we’ve got you covered.
Team members recently reviewed two books, one recounting a childhood in care and the second a collection of short stories written by a social worker.
The first was ‘Looked After: A Childhood in Care’, the autobiography of care experienced BBC journalist, Ashley John-Baptiste.
Ashley “reflects on his childhood and adolescence as a looked-after child, recounting times of hardship, trauma and confusion with such detail and introspection that you can’t help but be tremendously moved,” wrote Community Care Inform assistant content editor Gillian MacFarlane.
Gillian, a former social worker, called the memoir a must-read for social care practitioners.
Photo: Stephen Anthony Brotherton
The second was ‘Mum and Boy’, a short story collection by social worker Anthony Brotherton that explores the mother-son dynamic and the influence of a mother figure through the perspectives of four teenage boys.
While not about social work, some of the themes may be familiar to practitioners.
“These stories paint a vivid picture of what some youngsters have to deal with when navigating the loss of a parent, sibling rivalry and the insecurities of supporting a grieving parent,” wrote our senior careers editor, Kirsty Ayakwah.
Do you have any books to recommend, whether on a social work theme or not?
Celebrate those who’ve inspired you
For our 50th anniversary, we’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.
Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by either:
- Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
- Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.
If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 
Hampshire County Council 
Lincolnshire County Council 
Norfolk County Council 
Northamptonshire Children’s Trust 
South Gloucestershire Council 
Wiltshire Council 
Wokingham Borough Council 
Children and young people with SEND are ‘valued and prioritised’ in Wiltshire, find inspectors 
How specialist refugee teams benefit young people and social workers 
Podcast: returning to social work after becoming a first-time parent 
Podcast: would you work for an inadequate-rated service? 
Family help: one local authority’s experience of the model 
‘We are all one big family’: how one council has built a culture of support 
Workforce Insights – showcasing a selection of the sector’s top recruiters 
Facebook
X
LinkedIn
Instagram
Social workers don’t read, it’s too risky, they might change their opinions, they might discover independent thought, they might actually change their minds when presented with facts as opposed to their own personal cherished “truth”. We are an insular beast happy to bob along with the prevailing orthodoxy. Irrespective of whether it actually resonates with the people we are so vocal in claiming we support, enable, encourage, empower. That’s it.
Oh, so you speak on behalf of all Social Workers do you Samuel, and tar us all with the same brush. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, so don’t present you know all Social Workers, do the job and then come back and let me know how you go?
I don’t need to know every single social worker to comment having worked 30 years in various LA’s and social work roles. All I need to know is social work cultures which of course are underpinned by never ending claims of exhaustion and lack of a personal life. And the survey above. And the colleagues I asked before commenting.Which job should a do before I come back? Happy to have a cordial discussion.
Samuel a tad cheeky in their near accurate goading and Abdul a tad too indignant when it’s demonstrably the case from the CC survey that most social workers don’t actually read. For whatever reason. Personally I like a bit of tongue in cheek deflation of social workers, painful though it sometimes is even to me. Social work is richer for having a Samuel and an Abdul. More irony, similes and uncomfortable opinions please.
Steady in Andrew, you are in danger of straying into cogitation there. No end of trouble will follow.