Why won’t social workers tell people what they do?

The Health and Social Care Bill has now been approved – but as the biggest reorganisation in the history of the NHS takes place it has never been more important for people to understand what social workers do, writes Blair McPherson

However, unlike their healthcare colleagues they are very reluctant to talk about their successes. Why are all those human interest stories that show the profession in a good light never going to get written?

When I worked in a local authority, we had the of coming up with one good news story about our department every week. The task defeated us most weeks. The idea was to present the local media with a positive human interest story showing how on a daily basis we help people and improve the quality of their lives. The idea was to move away from simple damage limitation or providing “no comment” press statements in relation to yet another graphic account of ineptitude, inflexibility or basic lack of kindness.

The aim was to change from ‘Uncaring council closes homes’/’Cuts funding for much loved day centre’/’Takes home helps from the vulnerable’ to ‘Innovative council scheme helps Joan enjoy life again’.

I am convinced even after years of trying and failing that there are hundreds of good news stories that could be written about children’s services or adult social services – but they won’t get written.

There were good stories provided on a regular basis but always from learning disabilities day centres about sponsored events the staff had organised to raise funds. Nothing wrong with that and often providing a good photo opportunity. But what we lacked were stories that showed how our intervention in a young person’s life turned it around. How we had helped someone with a learning disability find a flat, a job and a meaning to life.

The source for these stories would be social workers because that is what they did – turn people’s lives around. But social workers would not provide the stories. The reasons were “too busy, issues of confidentiality, sensitive area with the family”.

We offered to write the stories all they had to do was be interviewed. We gave assurances about confidentiality, change names, make it impossible to identify individuals. If the social worker didn’t want to be identified that was okay. We said we were not journalists, we were their communications team, we were not looking to sensationalise, we would explain the dilemmas, the difficulties families faced, the tensions between rights and risks, and we would present the story in a sympathetic light.

But still no doing. Some just didn’t want a light shone on their work. Some thought it would only provoke a backlash like “holidays abroad for young criminals” or “money for care spent on cigarettes, alcohol and gambling”. Some just thought it wasn’t part of their job.

In the end I put it down to a battered profession that lacked confidence in what it did. Or in many cases felt that what it did wasn’t what it felt it should be doing.

As a social worker once said to me: “Most of the time we can’t give people the help we recognise they need so we are hardly going to boast about it, are we?”

Blair McPherson is author of ‘Equipping managers for an uncertain future’ and ‘People management in a harsh financial climate’, both published by Russell House.