‘Ultimately your professional legacy is how you leave us and how you make us feel’

Hybrid working, the trend to a four day week, the rise of AI and government reforms in England were among hot topics in a webinar on the future of social work.

The session, hosted by Social Work England to mark Social Work Week, included talks by the country’s chief social workers.

Opening up the session Sarah Blackmore, an executive director with the regulator, highlighted some of the demands and strains on the profession.

She said factors such as the cost of living crisis and increased mental health problems meant social work was being “relied on and called on as never before”.

At the same time, data published by Social Work England last year showed two-fifths of the workforce said they are likely to leave the profession in the next five years.

The survey also found a fifth of workers left their first social work job because they felt unsupported by managers, rising to 30 per cent among those from a minority ethnic background.

Blackmore said: “In this post-pandemic world, we need to reflect on the changing face of work and more generally, differing expectations of new generations of workers, the balance of in person versus hybrid working, the growing trend of four day weeks and the use of AI.”

As a “people-facing, relationship based profession” the move to hybrid working presents issues, said Blackmore.

She emphasised  the importance of the support and “camaraderie” gained from workers sharing space and newer staff learning from more experienced colleagues.

Blackmore criticised “very demoralising” negative portrayals of social work in the emdia as contributing to only one in ten in the profession feeling respected by society.

She said: “The stereotype shown in TV programs like EastEnders and others and films where social workers are seeing violently tearing children from their families perpetuate some of the worst headlines and social media posts."

Blakemore stressed more work was needed to promote equality, diversity and inclusion within the social work workforce.

“We are hearing across social work at all stages how people experience discrimination and disadvantage, from the Black students who has no academic role model and whose class might receive an hour's teaching on anti-oppressive practice to the Black male social worker who is more likely to experience disciplinary processes from his employer or to be referred to a formal fitness to practice process.

“We’re hearing from social workers from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds that the same opportunities to progress are not open to them, be it promotion or access to leadership programmes, or LGBTQ-plus social workers who are discriminated against.

“We've heard from those who have had to give up social work courses due to inaccessibility, and from newer, diverse social workers who don't have the support they need to meet the challenges of their role.”

England’s chief social worker for children and families Isabelle Trowler also highlighted the need to improve diversity and inclusion in the profession.

She said: “We know that the leadership, particularly senior leadership, is very white and we have to do something about this.”

Trowler claimed publication of a public dashboard highlighting data on children’s social care could help bring a “radical transformation” to this.

Trowler also emphasised causes for optimism within the profession. She pointed to the latest children’s social work workforce data showing a 6.9 per cent drop in vacancies last year, a 9.2 per cent drop in agency workers and a 3.7 per cent rise in social workers. Turnover also fell by two per cent to 13.8 per cent and average caseloads fell to a record low of 15.4 per full-time worker.

“We’ve got more social workers than we’ve had before – we had 28,000 in 2017 and we’ve not got 34,000 while the numbers of children in need are fairly steady,” said Trowler.

“So that means we’ve seen a reduction in caseloads and agency staff are down almost ten per cent which is really striking.”

Trowler said ringfenced local authority funding of £500 million for prevention work with families was a “huge win” for social work.

And she anticipated more funding for children’s social care in the forthcoming spring budget.

Trowler also maintained the values and ambitions of social work are “becoming centre stage” and pathfinders promoting family group decision-making and kinship care are "going great guns".

The children’s social care national framework outlining the purpose and principles of the sector was also impacting on practice, said Trowler. She added: “In the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen that Ofsted have used the framework outcomes and enablers in the report that they're starting to publish.”

England’s chief social worker for adults and mental health social work Sarah McClinton stressed the importance of social work in context of a shift to community-based preventative work within health provision as outlined in the NHS's ten year plan.

A review into adult social care being led by Louise Casey that starts it work this April will also have a major impact on adult social care, she said.

“It’s really an opportunity to reframe some of that narrative about how we work with adults in their community and is the first steps to developing a national care service."

McClinton commended the recognition of social work in amendments to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill currently going through the Westminster parliament. 

“It’s recognising that this is a specialist area of work, and the profession is very much in the frame in relation to that debate,” she said.

While AI raised some “tricky issues” around ethics, McClinton said it also presented “clear opportunities”.

“When I was in Greenwich, for example, we worked with people with learning disabilities and autism to really think about how they could benefit from this, using AI to enable people to participate more by translating jargon and using AI to enable people to have a stronger voice.”

However, Sally Parker, a Social Work England national advisory forum member and a mother of children with special educational needs, warned the “jury is out” on AI from a service user perspective.

“I hope it means we get more contact, face-to-face time with social workers, because that is the way forward,” she said.

“But I also think it's forgetting those who are already forgotten on the digital platforms. There are people I've worked with who used to be relatively independent, but because everything's gone digital, they're now having to ask for help and support.”

Parker drew powerfully on her own experience to underline the importance of social work remaining a “human” profession.

“I reached out to my social worker last week, and just a gentle conversation for no more than 15 minutes made me feel a little bit little less alone, a little less broken, and a little stronger to fight the next day,” she said.

“Why am I telling you that? Because ultimately what I want for the future of social work is it to remain human and remain relationship-based and remain connected. No amount of technology can do that, nor should it do.

“In all walks of life, it's not necessarily what you've done with somebody, but how you've made them feel. And that ultimately is your professional legacy: how you leave us and how you make us feel.”