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.
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.