This is nothing new. Recruiting and retaining. Social Workers to fill the vacancies is a constant struggle, leading to higher caseloads and not enough workers.
Maybe they could try not treating social workers as disposable work horses driven to burn out?
“Image”
Last I checked, it was the lowest-paying job that required a University degree.
(I initially went into the 2nd-lowest, Primary Education)
I’ve had my run ins with social workers both good and bad and I would say they are an absolutely essential part of our social structure. I am fully behind better recognition and rewards for such hard and essential work.
Social workers earn as much money as nurses and also require uni degree. Which is pretty crap money for uni graduates.
In addition it is a job in which you protect 1000 vulnerable adults and children without a single thank you and then you miss signs of risk of one of people under your care and whole nation acts like you couldn’t give a fuck about anyone and are worst than Hitler for some reason.
They are overworked and are expected to be miracle workers that can’t make a single mistake in 40 years of a career or are out of a job.
Pay them more stop treating individual social workers as scape goats for systemic failures of understaffed and overworked workforce
Have you considered paying them and not forcing them to work ridiculous days and hours in one of the most traumatic and taxing jobs in society?
Can’t help but think a lot of these jobs wouldn’t have a problem recruiting if they dropped the requirement for a degree.
I’m a children’s social worker, and sadly this is true.
Staff retention is incredibly low across the country, and we are not supported to do the job as it needs to be done, and its getting to a point where it becomes dangerous.
In my LA, experienced social workers are now expected to hold a case load of 35 children, despite us speaking out about how dangerous this is, and how mistakes will be made, and serious consequences will come as a result, Heads of Service push through anyway. For comparison, a case load of around 15 children is considered ideal in most practices.
In my service, in the last month alone, I have seen around 12 social workers hand in their notice, because they were overworked, under supported, and ultimately burnt out to the point that they felt they couldn’t do the job anymore. Some of these people are 1 year in, expected to be the new generation of SW’s and some have 20 years experience, its chaos.
Its such a sad state of affairs, and ultimately children will experience harm because of it.
I mean it’s no real shock is it? It’s a profession I would absolutely love to do for some of the most vulnerable out there.
Why don’t I do it? I don’t have a degree for starters so need to leave my job to go back to being a student which would financially screw the household. Then upon completing a degree after x number of years I would still be on less than I am now and would have a lot more difficult situations to deal with than I currently do that. As well as the known issues around caseload size, work-life balance and how often they can be shit on in the press.
Nowhere near enough recognition for these guys and all the amazing stuff they do imo
Tracy Beaker gave them a bad image, now all the children who watched it are at working age
That is very true they use the children’s act the law of “children’s best interests” to silence everyone but the report writer. The corruption is causing bad image fear of intervention.
I would consider it if it was a legit career that was invested in properly and support and pay reflected that.
It’s not worth it.
Same with care work. My mum earns minimum wage and does a heroic job, going above and beyond to try and help her clients that are being failed hard by everyone. Got a load of free trauma to top it all off.
“Image” isn’t the issue on why there are so many vacant jobs. Give it another go.
​
I’ll give you a clue: It starts with P and ends with Y. There’s also an A there in the middle.
Unless you have a big heart and want to earn less but contribute more, social work is anything but desirable.
If you want to earn good income, why bother a degree when you can compete in being a driver? Earn a lot more and strike more, backed by a powerful union
I dunno, the chronic underfunding, underpay, overwork, and scapegoating might – just *might* – be bigger issues.
But, like everyone else who hasn’t seen a proper pay rise since 2010ish, I’m sure we’ll have some Tory arseholes happy to explain why social workers are being unreasonable when they complain about being given doubled caseloads for a real terms pay cut, yeah?
I work with children and we have almost zero contact with social workers because they either leave so frequently or are just impossible to contact – quite literally, we have scores of numbers and email addresses that are no longer in use.
We had situations where children were sleeping 5 to a couch with drug addict parents who would leave them and not bath them or feed them properly, and another instance of parents making one child sleep quite literally in a cage ‘for his protection’ and we couldn’t reach anyone to do anything about it.
I’m not shaming social workers, they are stretched so thin with so much to do that I completely understand why so many burn out.
It’s a pleasant surprise to see the BBC produce an article that outlines the job.
I worked in CP for seven years. It was brutal towards the end and I completely burnt out. Case loads were huge and I left everyday worried about the families I worked with. The resources for support just weren’t there and staff retention was a big problem too.
I moved to paediatric palliative care which i loved and while terribly sad, I felt I was making a difference.
Im now on a transplant team within the NHS and work mostly with people who experience addiction.
Social work is a specialist career that requires knowledge and skill. A bursary that helps with the cost of the degree would be beneficial. It cost me 25k to complete my Msw and I had to work while studying.
Ah yes social workers, even worse paid than nurses.
It’s fuck all to do with “image”. It very hard work both physically and emotionally that had obscene hours and pays pennies. There is nothing more to it
Yeah it’s not bad PR, it’s the eye-wateringly high workloads and spirit-crushing level of stress that comes with the job.
I have seen so many good, talented colleagues reach burnout, work beyond it, and/or leave the profession.
The issue in social work is really clear from my point of view. Systematic issues are seen as individual failings.
If you wait at A&E for 7 hours no one blames nurses. If you call police and you wait 20 minutes on hold to 999 no one blames Emergency services workers.
However if, as a social worker, you are unable to carry out your work on your caseload then it is always presented as an individual failing. It’s not a public facing role in that same type of way as other public services so there is less understanding of collective image. And the concern regarding retention and high caseloads are never really considered by social work management in regards to direct supervision. You must be accountable at all times.
My degree could be easily converted to social work, but why would I pay to be treated like shit, if something goes wrong your scapegoated, often because the resources aren’t there. Moreover, your client base often hates you. Same with nursing,I’d rather be skint without stress rather than skint with it
Honestly no matter the pay children’s social work isn’t worth the stress. Utterly miserable experience
Lets face really hard job, money not great esp new & EVERYONE blames the social workers if something goes wrong. My sister is a docial worker in psychiayric care – her caseload is HUGE
26 comments
[deleted]
This is nothing new. Recruiting and retaining. Social Workers to fill the vacancies is a constant struggle, leading to higher caseloads and not enough workers.
Maybe they could try not treating social workers as disposable work horses driven to burn out?
“Image”
Last I checked, it was the lowest-paying job that required a University degree.
(I initially went into the 2nd-lowest, Primary Education)
[We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOTyUfOHgas)
I’ve had my run ins with social workers both good and bad and I would say they are an absolutely essential part of our social structure. I am fully behind better recognition and rewards for such hard and essential work.
Social workers earn as much money as nurses and also require uni degree. Which is pretty crap money for uni graduates.
In addition it is a job in which you protect 1000 vulnerable adults and children without a single thank you and then you miss signs of risk of one of people under your care and whole nation acts like you couldn’t give a fuck about anyone and are worst than Hitler for some reason.
They are overworked and are expected to be miracle workers that can’t make a single mistake in 40 years of a career or are out of a job.
Pay them more stop treating individual social workers as scape goats for systemic failures of understaffed and overworked workforce
Have you considered paying them and not forcing them to work ridiculous days and hours in one of the most traumatic and taxing jobs in society?
Can’t help but think a lot of these jobs wouldn’t have a problem recruiting if they dropped the requirement for a degree.
I’m a children’s social worker, and sadly this is true.
Staff retention is incredibly low across the country, and we are not supported to do the job as it needs to be done, and its getting to a point where it becomes dangerous.
In my LA, experienced social workers are now expected to hold a case load of 35 children, despite us speaking out about how dangerous this is, and how mistakes will be made, and serious consequences will come as a result, Heads of Service push through anyway. For comparison, a case load of around 15 children is considered ideal in most practices.
In my service, in the last month alone, I have seen around 12 social workers hand in their notice, because they were overworked, under supported, and ultimately burnt out to the point that they felt they couldn’t do the job anymore. Some of these people are 1 year in, expected to be the new generation of SW’s and some have 20 years experience, its chaos.
Its such a sad state of affairs, and ultimately children will experience harm because of it.
I mean it’s no real shock is it? It’s a profession I would absolutely love to do for some of the most vulnerable out there.
Why don’t I do it? I don’t have a degree for starters so need to leave my job to go back to being a student which would financially screw the household. Then upon completing a degree after x number of years I would still be on less than I am now and would have a lot more difficult situations to deal with than I currently do that. As well as the known issues around caseload size, work-life balance and how often they can be shit on in the press.
Nowhere near enough recognition for these guys and all the amazing stuff they do imo
Tracy Beaker gave them a bad image, now all the children who watched it are at working age
That is very true they use the children’s act the law of “children’s best interests” to silence everyone but the report writer. The corruption is causing bad image fear of intervention.
I would consider it if it was a legit career that was invested in properly and support and pay reflected that.
It’s not worth it.
Same with care work. My mum earns minimum wage and does a heroic job, going above and beyond to try and help her clients that are being failed hard by everyone. Got a load of free trauma to top it all off.
“Image” isn’t the issue on why there are so many vacant jobs. Give it another go.
​
I’ll give you a clue: It starts with P and ends with Y. There’s also an A there in the middle.
Unless you have a big heart and want to earn less but contribute more, social work is anything but desirable.
If you want to earn good income, why bother a degree when you can compete in being a driver? Earn a lot more and strike more, backed by a powerful union
I dunno, the chronic underfunding, underpay, overwork, and scapegoating might – just *might* – be bigger issues.
But, like everyone else who hasn’t seen a proper pay rise since 2010ish, I’m sure we’ll have some Tory arseholes happy to explain why social workers are being unreasonable when they complain about being given doubled caseloads for a real terms pay cut, yeah?
I work with children and we have almost zero contact with social workers because they either leave so frequently or are just impossible to contact – quite literally, we have scores of numbers and email addresses that are no longer in use.
We had situations where children were sleeping 5 to a couch with drug addict parents who would leave them and not bath them or feed them properly, and another instance of parents making one child sleep quite literally in a cage ‘for his protection’ and we couldn’t reach anyone to do anything about it.
I’m not shaming social workers, they are stretched so thin with so much to do that I completely understand why so many burn out.
It’s a pleasant surprise to see the BBC produce an article that outlines the job.
I worked in CP for seven years. It was brutal towards the end and I completely burnt out. Case loads were huge and I left everyday worried about the families I worked with. The resources for support just weren’t there and staff retention was a big problem too.
I moved to paediatric palliative care which i loved and while terribly sad, I felt I was making a difference.
Im now on a transplant team within the NHS and work mostly with people who experience addiction.
Social work is a specialist career that requires knowledge and skill. A bursary that helps with the cost of the degree would be beneficial. It cost me 25k to complete my Msw and I had to work while studying.
Ah yes social workers, even worse paid than nurses.
It’s fuck all to do with “image”. It very hard work both physically and emotionally that had obscene hours and pays pennies. There is nothing more to it
Yeah it’s not bad PR, it’s the eye-wateringly high workloads and spirit-crushing level of stress that comes with the job.
I have seen so many good, talented colleagues reach burnout, work beyond it, and/or leave the profession.
The issue in social work is really clear from my point of view. Systematic issues are seen as individual failings.
If you wait at A&E for 7 hours no one blames nurses. If you call police and you wait 20 minutes on hold to 999 no one blames Emergency services workers.
However if, as a social worker, you are unable to carry out your work on your caseload then it is always presented as an individual failing. It’s not a public facing role in that same type of way as other public services so there is less understanding of collective image. And the concern regarding retention and high caseloads are never really considered by social work management in regards to direct supervision. You must be accountable at all times.
My degree could be easily converted to social work, but why would I pay to be treated like shit, if something goes wrong your scapegoated, often because the resources aren’t there. Moreover, your client base often hates you. Same with nursing,I’d rather be skint without stress rather than skint with it
Honestly no matter the pay children’s social work isn’t worth the stress. Utterly miserable experience
Lets face really hard job, money not great esp new & EVERYONE blames the social workers if something goes wrong. My sister is a docial worker in psychiayric care – her caseload is HUGE