Although I spend a reasonable portion of my time criticising social workers in the course of my job, I know and acknowledge that they work very very hard in impossible circumstances and a hostile environment – on both the micro and macro level. I don’t condone poor practice, but it is worth remembering what social workers have to put up with. They are almost as disliked and undervalued as a profession as we lawyers – it is not an easy job and it takes its toll on many social workers. I sometimes think that the only way for them to survive long term is to stop caring.
‘What went wrong’ – are we asking ourselves the right questions?
Some commentary I've heard and read in the wake of the murder of Sara Sharif features the familiar questions that have...
My mother was a social worker. When she left for the day she switched OFF.
This is so true
Social workers are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Remove a child and they are family-wreckers. Leave it there, and if it dies, it’s as though the social worker is the murderer.
Twas ever thus. Sadly.