Social work and you!

18 Mar 2022 Home / Blog / Social work and you! /

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We’re coming to the end of Social Work Week, with its theme: ‘Social Work and Me’. It’s been great to see social media come alive with well-deserved thanks and praise for social workers and the impact of their work, and to hear from social workers themselves about what drives and motivates them. Social workers shared their pleasure in “hearing change in children, despite the challenges” and about how “fulfilling and rewarding” it is to be working with families “going through some of the most difficult experiences of their life”. Each week as I send an email update to colleagues in Surrey’s Children, Families and Lifelong Learning directorate, I look for a good news story to include. I never have to look very far. I draw on stories from every professional discipline, and that includes regular examples of great social work practice, supporting families to change for the better. Sometimes these include heartfelt feedback from families themselves (anonymised, of course). It’s hard not to be moved and inspired by stories of successful social work and the positive difference child and family social workers can make in children’s lives. Who wouldn’t want a career with so much pride and purpose?

And yet … social workers can often feel as though they are under fire in the public realm. Too many stories of serious harm to children seem to act as lightning conductors for demonisation of the entire social work profession. Demanding caseloads, pressures overspilling from partner organisations and the challenges of working in pandemic conditions over the past two years can quickly suck the joy out of the work. We have work to do as Directors of Children’s Services to try to mitigate these pressures as much as we can, creating an environment in which great social work can thrive.

It would be over-optimistic to think that thanks and praise is all it takes to achieve that. All the same, I hope this Social Work Week, and World Social Work Day on 15 March (Leaving No One Behind) have gone some way to restoring public understanding of why social work is so important and social workers so valuable to society. I also hope they have reminded social workers that they are respected and valued (and reminded Directors of Children’s Services to tell them so!) I think we all hoped that a post-pandemic lull might have descended on us by now, but if anything, the world suddenly seems even more precarious as the suffering of children and their families from wars and conflicts around the world in recent years is added to by the misery of displaced families from Ukraine. Social work values rooted in human rights and social justice are needed more than ever if we’re to leave no one behind. To all those great child and family social workers out there, coming to the end of yet another demanding week: you’ve changed lives for the better this week. Thank you.