Are All Social Workers In The UK Completely Incompetent?

Question

Why do we continue seeing these stories? Are we just going to be told 'mistakes were made but we will make sure it doesn't happen again'? But it always does...disgusting!

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23417069-details/Drug+addict%27s+baby+died+of+neglect+-+despite+47+visits+in+50+days+from+social+services/article.do

A baby died of neglect at his mother's squalid flat despite repeated visits by social workers.

Officials called to check on nine-month- old Perrin Barlow a total of 47 times in 50 days because he was officially "at risk".

Answer 1

Not all, but probably most.
I think you will find that to be a social worker, it is necessary
to subscribe to the politically correct school of thought. In consequence, by the time they have decided which action could never be classed as politically incorrect, they are too late to prevent a tragedy.

If you look at the "Situations Vacant", you will find that they prefer to hire people from minority groups, once again following the politically correct path.
If you couple this situation, with the premise that all the key staff will be ardent New Labour supporters and anxious to achieve whichever stupid targets they are set, you then have a recipe for disaster.

Answer 2

Social Workers have a very difficult job and are extremely overworked and short staffed. I think their hands are tied by certain policies, ie. no matter what the circumstances they will try and keep families together and give them support. In this case that support was not enough. Had they taken the baby away from the couple because they were unfit parents then there would have been an outcry by the civil rights and PC brigade demanding the child be with its natural mother. Yes, I think mistakes were made in this particular instance, but the social services are damned if the do and damned if the don't. There also appears to have been a lack of communication between medical services, police and social services. All this could be avoided in future if they would only realise that the child's welfare should come before the parents rights.

Answer 3

Social workers, like anyone else, make mistakes.
They can only work with the information they have and they are supervised, so if they do or do not take action, it will be for a reason.
Nobody wants things like this to happen, but unfortunately they do, and in some cases couldn't have been avoided whatever social services had done.
Every time there is a case like this social workers are targeted, but please remember that they are not the only people involved. Also, the good work that they do on a daily basis is never recognised, whereas cases like this end up all over the news.
Some social workers probably are incompetent, but that doesn't mean they we all should be tarred with the same brush.

Answer 4

I think the likelihood of all SWs in Britain being incompetent is rather remote.

I'm writing from much despised America to let you know that even the best social workers with the highest degree of ethic and moral integrity often fail.

One recollection occurred when I was working for the state of WV-an ordeal. The gatekeeper of our social services agency received a call about unattended children and dispatched a worker, who ran an assessment and determined that the children were NOT in immanent danger. A week later they died in a tragic fire, one that the mother allegedly escaped by literally stepping over her own children. The worker, sober, experienced, reliable and one or two other things, was summarily fired.

In this same agency, was an extremely uptight, judgmental supervisor. After years of reliable service, she "went south," as we say in the States and began drinking and made an overture to one of the young SWs she was supervising who wasn't interested. She had been "grooming" this young woman all along. Needless to say, she resigned.

Moral of story? Nothing is stranger than the world of social service, and usually, nothing appears as it really is.

Answer 5

I am sorry if I offend you but you are a drain on our taxpayers money. If you were in Saudi Arabia,you'd have the chop. Why don't you sober up and stop the substance abuse and lead a fulfilling life and contribute to the economy?You are clearly well educated, intelligent and just wasting away. I wish I could have had the help you have had when my family and I went through living hell-even if it was a dopey Jane. I almost lost my family but through sheer diligence and hard work we have made it.Maybe you ought to look within yourself.Why are you ranting on yahoo when you have psychiatrists and doctors to talk to or are they wise to you?Again,sorry if I offend but I do find your story a little old and repeated all over the U.K. My family and I lived in a stinking hostel for months but we came through it and bided our time,not trying to jump the queue up the housing ladder.Most of the cases in there were smack heads,lying,stealing and cheating their way through life.No abuse is tolerated at all though and you would have been perfectly safe.HOWEVER,if you are truly innocent then go see your M.P and write a letter to hand to him.Also go to Citizens Advice. Also send a copy of the letter to the council harping on the fact that you were placed into a dangerous situation as a vulnerable young woman.Lay charges of attempted rape or indecent assault if you have grounds to and see what happens.

Answer 6

No, its just they have the type of job where if there is a mistake made then they all crucified in the press. Of course like with every other career there are incompetent social workers and these are the ones that you are more likely to hear about. You never hear about the social workers who save children and families from these terrible tragedies happening.

Unfortunately in social work there is a lot of red tape and a lot of the time the social workers do want to act but bureaucracy and the local government prevents them from doing so.

Answer 7

Not all just most of them. It is a difficult job and we do hear horror stories. I remember one where the children were put into care despite the parents protests. They were then adopted, the parents didn't have any say. years later when it was too late for any of them, it was found the parents were innocent of any abuse! As I said a difficult job. Unfortunately they get it wrong too often, and its my belief that when they do heads should roll, but I bet they get moved either up or sideways instead

Answer 8

Its absolutely sickening. I can remember the Victoria Climbie case,all the so called lessons were supposed to have been learnt then,nothing has changed.. Social workers are trained not to ask leading questions. However, social workers are trained to think of families as fitting certain categories. It is a type of brain washing if you like. They are programmed to steer their questions along certain paths.Its very sad...

Answer 9

I answered a question about this earlier on today and blasted the social services.
I have now thought about it and its not only SS that are to blame. Where were the other so called caring professions?
babies that age have Health Visitors, they need medical attention and drug addicts may also have other services going in to support them.

ALL theses services are guilty of letting that family down, not only Social Services.

Answer 10

Like stormy highlights, this case was over 5 years ago.

since that time HUGE legislative changes have been made in social work training and practice.

for example, the primary piece of child porotection legislation, The Children Act 1989 was amended in 2004, the Government green paper, Every Child Matters has also changed social work practice and expectations on ALL people coming into contact with childre in a professional capacity.

In terms of training, the old social work diploma (DipSW) no longer exists as a qualification, you now need a minimum of a degree to qualify as a social worker. You now also have to register to practice as a social worker with the GSCC and like Dr's you can now be struck off for bad practice.

To suggest that all UK social workers are completely incompetant is a very narrow minded view, OK so we still hear about high profil cases, but when you look into these (beyond tabloid press reporting) there were other professionals involved NOT social workers (Dr's for example) but no referrals made to social services.

Out of all of the children social services work with, you ONLY hear about the very very high end tragic cases, you NEVER hear about the children who have been saved. These cases in the press are very rare but heardly surprising for a variety of reasons which I would not expect anyone on answers to be aware of let alone comprehend.

With caseloads of maybe 50 families all with multiple needs, I think social workers do a very difficult job with limited resources and ZERO respect. I wish people would consider that before making ignorant statements about their work.

You also ONLY hear about social work from a 'child protection' perspective whereas social workers work across a wide range of fields like, Mental Health, Older Adults, Fostering and Adoption, Physical Disability, Youth Offending, and more.