‘I want young people to see social work as one of the most attractive careers’

What do schoolchildren want to do when they grow up? A survey a couple of years ago asked nearly a quarter of a million secondary pupils that question.

Creative and media industries featured highly. As did sports, beauty and wellbeing, animal care, digital and business and finance.

Social work was not among the top ten career aspirations.

It’s something Ann Graham, set to be inaugurated as the first Black president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services on 14 April, would like to see change.

“We want social work to be one of the most attractive careers a young person considers working in,” she says.

Public perception

There’s some work to be done before that happens, as Graham acknowledges, not least in terms of changing the public’s image of the profession.

“I don’t think social work is well understood by the public,” she says. “It is an incredibly complicated role and task. There is always that question people pose – what exactly is social work?

“When I was a student that was the questioned asked and I was speaking to someone yesterday and they asked the same question.”

So how would she answer the perennial question? “If I am talking to someone who isn’t familiar with social work or hasn’t experienced it, I’d say social work is about working with people. 

“And in my case, it is about working with families and children. We support them and get to know about them when there are issues and problems they have in life that they haven’t easily being able to resolve themselves.

“We get beside them to help find the solutions to those problems.”

As director of children’s services in Haringey, Graham is all too aware social workers can be targeted for bad press, even vilification.

The London authority was heavily criticised following the deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007, both of whom were known to children’s services.

Graham, who took on her role in 2018, speculates one reason for the public’s lack of understanding of social work could be its lack of dramatic representation.

“There hasn’t been a consistent television programme as there has been for the police, with The Bill or [for health] Casualty. We don’t have a programme that helps show the complexity of the work we do.”
Social work’s “complexity” is, of course, is part of the problem. “It would be incredibly difficult to get across,” adds Graham. “Social work is so varied even when you are in it. Social work with those who are care experienced is different from those going through the court process, is different from those who are in the youth justice service, and so on.”

Early intervention

Graham is pleased to see a shift to early intervention in government policy.

“All my career we have been talking about early intervention: getting the help and support children need as soon as identified so they can thrive and do their best,” she says.

“It is very positive and encouraging that this is what the system is now talking about.”

The schools white paper published earlier this year put much emphasis on early intervention. But Graham stresses success will depend on “implementation”.

“We all wanted something different. More will be delivered in schools – I think that is a good thing because schools should be inclusive for all children. 

“If we get this right schools will be places where all children are happy and thrive and achieve well according to their abilities.

“But it has to be properly funded. Any system that is not properly funded will not be able to be fully implemented.”

Working conditions

The white paper’s ambitions will also largely depend on developing the workforce around children and families.

Graham acknowledges concerns over working conditions highlighted in campaigns by BASW and the Social Workers Union.

“No system works well if there isn’t the capacity to deliver the system,” she says. “In order to do that [there] has to be manageable workloads, strong supervision, all the factors we know are conducive to good social work outcomes.

“But it is not just about social work – it is about having enough educational psychologists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, teachers… We need the whole set up to be stable and well supported with the training to be able to deliver government policy.

“We are not there yet – we have shortages in those professions.”

Social workers in schools

Ofsted’s latest report on Haringey praises the emotional wellbeing support provided to

young people, much of it delivered through schools.

The location of social workers in schools has been previously advocated for by BASW England. However, a two-year trial commissioned by the Department for Education concluded has concluded there is “no evidence” it reduces the need for social care and is not worth investing in.

Graham favours social workers in schools if the circumstances are right: “It wouldn’t be appropriate in every school but there are some where that really helps because it is an early intervention approach. 

“A child comes into school and you can see that they may not have had a change of clothes for a few days. The social worker in a school with support of teachers can look into that.

“Also, if you are in a schools’ setting, parents probably might be more willing to speak to you because you are in a schools setting.”

The far right

Graham shares concern at the growing popularity of the far right and its impact on communities and social workers, especially those with global majority backgrounds.

“No one can work at their best if they are feeling scared and frightened,” she says. “Social workers live in communities – we heard [recently] about ambulances being burned in a community close to me. 

“You immediately feel empathy for our colleagues from that community. We support our workforce so they feel safe and we also communicate with schools because we know people feel vulnerable.

“As a society one of the things we want to do is be sure everyone can live freely and happily. We know children pick up on all these issues, not just in this country but abroad. They are listening.”

Toxic masculinity

Another thing children and young people are picking up on is negative representations of manhood through social media. 

Louis Theroux’s Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere exposed the shocking misogyny of online influencers portraying themselves as male role models.

Partly to counter this, a ten-year cross-government strategy to tackle violence and abuse against women and girls was launched by the government at the end of last year.

“I’ve not yet got to watch the Louis Theroux programme but we do know that online influences have caused harm to children,” says Graham.

“We cannot put the internet back in a box. We have to learn to live with it and make sure it is a safe place for children and young people. We don’t want our children to be radicalised online.”

The government is currently consulting on following Australia in introducing an age limit for accessing social media. Other countries have indicated similar plans.

ADCS will be feeding into the consultation and has yet to say what its position is.

With this and so much more impacting on children and young people, it will no doubt be a busy year ahead for Graham…