Lack of leadership in soicial services

I listened to 'Any answers' on radio 4 this lunchtime. The whole show was given over to callers regarding little Arthur's demise. Very interesting and enlightening contributions were made by ex social workers, a policeman and a lawyer. Indeed the system seems to be bogged down in paperwork with little sign of urgency when required. What has stayed with me most is two of the social workers - in separate areas and with different bosses - were told their standards were too high. Also the guile and the ability of offending parents to 'work the system' I found astonishing.

Ilovecheese

However we voted individually, as a country we have a Conservative Government.
The Conservative party are the party of low taxation and a smaller State.
The State is responsible for providing social services.
A smaller state means less for Social Services.
A smaller number of social workers leading to a higher caseload.
Less training and less oversight.
Less police officers.
This is what a smaller State means.

exactly, combine this with a tabloid press who blame SS when things go wrong, but never list their successful interventions, a press who witter on about 'nanny state' and you have the perfect storm.

Any Answers was very good today. Callers were given space to express their views clearly. I was impressed by the retired police officer. He’d worked on one of the specialised police child protection teams so worked closely with social workers. He is now working with social workers involved in family group meetings. So his experience is extensive. He reported positively about social workers, paid for a 37 hour week but usually putting on 70-90 hours yet still only scratching the surface. He reported guidelines are social workers have 18 children on their case loads but carry 30 plus. He went on to say social workers are involved with families where drug/alcohol/domestic abuse are endemic, along with hostility and threats to social workers.
What he said resonated with my own experience. When I retired my case load included 29 children from a number of families. All needed safeguarding/legal proceedings.
I wonder of those who so easily blame and dismiss social workers are prepared to be influenced by this experienced ex police officer

Who would have thought at first glance that Emma Tustin was a bad parent: spotless house, devoted partner, answer for everything, and a monster.

A well trained social worker with the awareness and nous to know all is not as it seems, especially when reports are coming in from different people.

Who would be a social worker?
The torrent of abuse from a few ignorant posters, the attempt as always to blame the Tories, the sneering at social workers, who are damned if the do and damned if they don't.
I am not a social worker and could image nothing worse, but the ones I worked with loved their job and in my opinion were good at it.
They have no obvious yardstick to measure performance and prove their worth to the world: no patients recovered, pandemics contained, improved academic results, better housing, increased sales, speeding punished, crime tackled .

Their success lies in preventing these cases, but nobody sees that; visiting a distraught family on Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day; finding homes for destitute families, preventing children from living with abusive parents, spotting and stopping neglect and abuse, tracking children across the country, endless case conferences with people who smilingly agree with all the recommendations but have no intention of doing a thing.
Only known about when there is a failure. The people to blame are the manipulative, cunning, sadistic parents who know every trick to prevent their children being removed, mainly because of the income they bring, and a delight in outwitting the authorities.
Who would have thought at first glance that Emma Tustin was a bad parent: spotless house, devoted partner, answer for everything, and a monster.

The Any Answers programme was excellent and a number of social workers were given space to explain procedures.
I don't think anyone hss directly attacked social workers, most understand the pressures only too well. For the record, I have been a Labour supporter all my life and would rather be strung up than vote Tory!!

A sw was quoted in The Guardian “Ellie was let down by the entire system.”

They sometimes get it wrong and they definitely failed in their duty of care with little Arthur. It’s not as if other people weren’t alerting them.

That case went to court and the female judge made the decision to return the little girl to her parents. She’d been living happily with her grandparents and they fought to keep her. Terrible case but his wife ( child’s mother) stood by him.

It’s exactly the same with teens the social workers are bound by the rules, children run away from home, at some stage they are out of control and taken into a care home, where they run away again. The police take them back only to repeat the same cycle, there is no way to restrain them unless they commit a serious crime, then when they do get harmed it’s the social service that get blamed.

Ilovecheese, exactly, thank you.

However we voted individually, as a country we have a Conservative Government.
The Conservative party are the party of low taxation and a smaller State.
The State is responsible for providing social services.
A smaller state means less for Social Services.
A smaller number of social workers leading to a higher caseload.
Less training and less oversight.
Less police officers.
This is what a smaller State means.

Hetty58

For Heaven's sake! How very predictable - on Gransnet - to start bashing Social Services, while ignoring the ridiculous caseloads, the awful lack of funding for councils, the police, the NHS etc, since, at least 2010.

Ah - but then of course, all you Tory voters actually did vote for that, didn't you?

Snidey but not actually surprising that you offer your usual vile insults on people who, through their own life experiences, think differently to you.

For Heaven's sake! How very predictable - on Gransnet - to start bashing Social Services, while ignoring the ridiculous caseloads, the awful lack of funding for councils, the police, the NHS etc, since, at least 2010.

Ah - but then of course, all you Tory voters actually did vote for that, didn't you?

Big debate is going on now on Any Answers

Galaxy, I remember that case and others where children were returned, or not removed, where abuse continued.
The Children Act remains the legal structure under which social workers/police/Health and others must work.
Amongst factors influencing what I believe is a poorer safeguarding system includes devastation to support services, alongside increasing abuse of drugs and alcohol.

Yes, that was awful galaxy

Who would be a social worker? Always to blame, never praised.
I think it's true that the profession doesn't generate good leaders but I also think that much training and mentoring has been scrapped or skimped in budget cuts because not regarded as 'front line'.
Also true that the care system is run off its feet in children's services as well as adults.
Social workers did not kill this child. His father and stepfather did.

I give up I need an edit button.

A year later thay should say.

I remember the case on This morning where there were accusations of child cruelty against a man, he fought it legally and the child was returned. Everyone criticising social workers for taking child away. Social services obviously not allowed to comment. He killed the child about a later.

It always was damned if you do and damned if you don’t. A cant win situation.
Unless abuse can be 100% proved it is hard to take things further and some parents can be very plausible in explaining the odd bruising etc.
I am not excusing poor practice but it’s a very hard stressful and often thankless task.

I know someone who has stayed in social work all her life and ended up in a senior role. I like her and she is a caring person but I always noticed what a bureaucrat she was. I think box ticking rather than going beyond the surface may be behind some of the problems.
In the past, one used to hear of social workers being attacked and of course, the other side of the coin is over reaction like that long ago Orkneys child abuse case where children were removed en masse from their families and it turned out to be unfounded.
Sometimes it seems as though the more controls get imposed from above, the less room people in face to face roles have for acting on their own initiative or gut feeling.

sodapop

It was quite usual in the upper echelons of Social Care for those who were incompetent to be promoted or move to another Government Dept. Nothing changes it seems.

The Peter principle?

Katie59 If things are as you say, and I think you are right, then something is very rotten in the whole management and organisation of Social Work, compounded by an immense complacency among those who run it, and it is truly shocking despite the regular occurance of cases like this no one at a senior enough level has stood up and said that the whole profession needs to be shaken up and restructured from tope to bottom.

I have real sympathy for social workers, they do what they can with the very limited resources they have, most of their cases are from very damaged families with lots of problems..
Because they are widely demonized they work within a framework of rules, which set out when they can intervene and to what extent. It is very high emotion and stress, the staff turnover is very high, you have cases that you know are high risk but you can’t prove it and serious harm is caused. To protect yourself you strictly stick to the rule book and tick all the boxes, trying to be detached.
You don’t make the rules, you do the best you can for as long as you can.