This is social work...
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 17 October, 2022
Social work is often hard work. There are easier ways of earning money and unlike our colleagues in medicine, public attitudes towards social work can be a mixed bag.
So what is the purpose of social work and why does it matter?
If I ask nursing colleagues about the purpose of nursing the answer goes something like, “the purpose of nursing is to promote health, prevent illness and provide care for the ill, disabled and dying.” Doctors “maintain and restore human health through the practice of medicine. They examine patients, review their medical history, diagnose illnesses or injuries, administer treatment, and counsel patients on their health and wellbeing”.
When I first came for my interview to study at Ulster Polytechnic, I was asked why I wanted to become a social worker. I mumbled something about wanting to help people. The interviewer gave a weary nod, somehow I was offered a place on the course, and I didn’t really consider the question again for quite a while.
Of course, the desire to help is a feature of the purpose of social work. The historical development of social work is intertwined with the concept of altruism but it’s not enough.
It was when I began to supervise social work students that I noticed how they often struggled to explain to people why they were being contacted by a social worker.
I encouraged students to be as transparent as possible about why individuals had been referred to social services and left it that.
Fast forward to the period between 2008 and 2012. This was a difficult time for social work both in Northern Ireland and in the UK. Public confidence was shaken by cases where social services were involved which had ended in tragedy. In Northern Ireland we had the McElhill case. Arthur McElhill killed himself, his partner and their five children by setting fire to the family home in Omagh, and in Haringey we had what became known as the Baby P case.
Periodically cases like these come to the public attention and for a variety of reasons they can create storms of public, media and political outrage. Social work is always a challenging job but at times the whole profession can feel under siege.
A lot of the commentary from the press and politicians seemed to be based on a limited understanding and unrealistic expectations about the role and purpose of social work.
Particularly there seemed to be a belief that social work should and could eliminate all risk of harm to vulnerable people, especially children. This is of course a fallacy, but it has been a remarkably persistent one throughout my time in social work.
As a profession we didn’t want our response to be a negative one – too often that has been the case when responding to these sorts of events. So, in Northern Ireland, we started the process of developing a government-led strategy for social work.
A theme quickly emerged. While we felt aggrieved that the media did not properly understand social work, we found that the problem was a bit more complex.
When we dug a little further, we found that colleagues from other professions - though normally very respectful - struggled to articulate what the purpose of social work was. And when we started to talk to social workers, we found they complained that the unique role of social work was not understood but then struggled to explain what that unique role was.
When we were developing the NI Social Work Strategy we talked to a lot of people and asked them about the unique contribution of social work. And very quickly a lot of them started talking about processes, not purpose.
They talked about things like doing assessments, case management, care management, care planning, discharging statutory functions, writing reports, reviewing cases and so on.
These are important activities, but they are not our purpose. They are means not ends.
Worse than that, our focus on processes can put a barrier between us and the people we are seeking to help. It can alienate them.
Over the past few years, I have spent a lot of time in meetings with people whose loved ones have been harmed in our care; with relatives of people living in Muckamore Abbey, but also some nursing homes.
In those meetings I have witnessed time after time, the frustration of relatives whose questions about their loved one’s safety were responded to with endless descriptions of process after process.
Social wellbeing
And so, in our efforts to describe the purpose of social work, its added value, we developed the concept of ‘social wellbeing’ and identified four dimensions:
- People’s relationships and sense of belonging
- People’s level of independence and responsibility
- The extent to which people have purpose and meaning in their lives and
- The extent to which they are and feel safe, secure and protected
When it comes down to it, a social worker’s job, regardless of who the person seeking help is, should be to improve that individual’s social wellbeing. Finding things we can agree on is more important than ever in these divided times - I don’t think many people are ‘against’ social wellbeing.
It’s one of the reasons Gus O’Donnell, former head of the UK civil service, has become an advocate of what he calls the politics of wellbeing.
He says that your state of wellbeing can be determined by your response to four questions:
- Do you think your life is worthwhile?
- Are you satisfied with your life?
- What’s your happiness level? and
- What’s your level of anxiety?
Having worked with politicians from around the world O’Donnell says he has never met one who was not in favour of improving the wellbeing of citizens.
Measuring wellbeing
The biggest challenge is that some people think “it’s too fluffy”. His answer to that is that it becomes a lot less fluffy when you measure it.
And you can measure it by simply asking. I would argue very strongly that this is a far more useful way of assessing the impact of social work interventions than counting the number of assessments undertaken or the number of care orders granted.
Measuring things like social wellbeing allows you to begin to understand its importance in relation to other issues.
For example, a key element of social wellbeing is about relationships and connectedness. In this regard the absence of social wellbeing can be said to manifest itself in loneliness. When we start to measure this, the importance of social wellbeing starts to become apparent – not just for the individual but society as a whole.
There is another advantage for social work taking as its business the improvement of social wellbeing. Instead of focusing in on a single problem or pathology it requires you to take a broader view of someone’s quality of life. Over the past number of decades, driven at least in part by the public reaction to cases like those I mentioned earlier, social workers have been forced into what can be described as an unbalanced view where safety and risk are not placed in a wider context.
This is difficult because protection is certainly part of what social work is about and being safe is a dimension of social wellbeing - but it cannot be our only concern at the expense of everything else.
Lord Justice Munby [former president of the family division of the High Court for England and Wales] hit the nail on the head when he said: “What good is it making someone safer if it only makes them miserable."
I think that social workers are driven by a desire to help, that they want to do so in a holistic way and that their values and skills make them singularly well equipped to promote and protect social wellbeing and that is a worthwhile goal.
But all too often we value the process rather than the outcome. We box social workers in to narrow roles and burden them with accountabilities that have more to do with covering our backs than improving lives.
What matters to people
Things are changing. There is a growing recognition that compliance with process is one of the things generating the bureaucratic burden that actually prevents social workers even having time to see people much less help them.
I think the Three Conversations model which is starting to gain traction in adult services is a promising development.
In Northern Ireland, we are testing out new job roles which are aimed at giving the social worker far more freedom and autonomy to focus on what is needed to help focus on improving people’s social wellbeing.
Complex assessment frameworks are starting to be replaced by much more straightforward approaches that are about asking people what matters to them, what they would like to change and working in partnership to achieve those changes.
I don’t know where this will all go but I do get the sense that there is a real change underway, and my best guess is it’s for the better for everyone concerned.
Top tips for new social workers
I would like to share some random thoughts that I hope you might find useful as you move towards becoming social workers. These are not ordered in any priority, but here goes:
Be an optimist - It’s not optional for social workers. You have to believe things can change and that in the right circumstances things will change for the better. This will not always be easy but no matter how difficult the situation cling on to it. I once had the privilege of meeting some social workers in Kiev in Ukraine. They were working in the grimmest conditions working the basement of an old soviet era tower block running a domestic violence project. There was damp on the office wall, it was cramped, and they were barely being paid for their work. I asked one of them if they ever lost hope working in such conditions. Very indignantly I was told, “We must have hope, if social workers are not hopeful who will be”. It was an important lesson I have never forgotten.
Find a mentor or even better mentors - I have always been really lucky in finding people wherever I have worked who were willing to take the time to help me understand things. When you find someone like that take the gift that is being offered to you. Listen to them when they tell you their history. It’s important – as someone said smart people learn from their mistakes but the really sharp ones learn from the mistakes of others. A good mentor can help you with both.
Imagine how people will feel - Whenever you find yourself writing about people try to imagine how they will feel reading what you have written about them. This is especially true of children who may access their case files years later. To you they may just be notes that need to be done in time for your next supervision session but to them it’s their life, their history, always be respectful of that.
Be sure social work is the right path for you - While you are studying and preparing to be a social worker you will face challenges. You may fail an assignment, or an exam or a placement. You may have to have a difficult conversation with someone who will question whether you are right for this business. It’s really hard but be open to that possibility and be honest with yourself. If after reflection you think they are wrong dig deep and go forward.
I have met too many people who have been miserable in their jobs and their lives would have been a lot happier if they had chosen a different path. Equally I know people who have had to ask themselves this question and after reflection have chosen to carry on.
Be an ambassador for social work - Whenever you meet someone in your capacity as a social worker remember that people may form a view about the entire profession of social work based on their dealings with you. Take that responsibility seriously. And remember they won’t care about what marks you got or the classification of your degree. Or if your boss thinks you are great. They will remember if you turned up on time, if you listened to them, if you did what you said you were going to do, if you treated them with compassion and respect.
Read and read widely - One of the elements of the international definition of social work I really do agree with is that it draws on a range of disciplines including but beyond social work theory. Your understanding of the challenges people face in their lives will be enhanced by reading everything from academic papers to literature. Remember that as a member of a profession one of your responsibilities is to maintain your continual professional development. You cannot do this if you don’t read.
Look after yourself - Pay attention to your own social wellbeing. Do not underestimate the impact your work may have on you. Not just the long hours and hard work but being with people facing the most awful adversities. Resilience is not pretending these things don’t affect you. Social work professor Eileen Munro said: “I don’t want hero social workers. I want ordinary people who go home happy and do the job well.” She also recognised being a part of a team as being crucial to this. Looking after yourself and those around you is about being a good team member.
Think about the least powerful - This is advice from one of my mentors, Fionnuala McAndrew, who is now sadly no longer with us. She said to me that whatever room you find yourself in think about the least powerful people in that room, whether they are there in person or being talked about. Your job as a social worker is to make sure they are treated fairly. I haven’t always lived up to that advice, but I think it might have been the best advice I have ever had.
The above is an abridged version of a talk by Sean Holland