Why we must reaffirm professionalism in social work

Care professionals have a long way to go to achieve the level of recognition they deserve, writes Neil Thompson

Governments in the UK have not valued public services in general and social work in particular. Beginning with Margaret Thatcher’s – highly questionable – belief that public services should be as much like businesses as possible, through the New Labour mantra of modernisation, with the emphasis on targets and performance indicators (focusing on counting rather than on what counts), to the coalition’s rose-tinted view of the capacity of communities to solve their own problems as part of a mythical notion of a “big society”, the role of public services has been devalued.

Part of this has been a strong element of deprofessionalisation (more central control, less autonomy). There has been an emphasis on consumerism as a misguided attempt to promote a liberal conception of citizenship. Such consumerism has put an increasing emphasis on service delivery and, because demand will always outstrip supply, the need for rationing. As a result of this, the traditional role of the social worker as a problem solver has tended to be de-emphasised. This shift away from the (highly skilled) problem-solving and empowering approach to a much more bureaucratic service-rationing approach (far less skilled) contributes to further deprofessionalisation.

The less professional and the less valued our work becomes, the harder it is to cope with the significant pressures and challenges that are part and parcel of social work. Low morale has a tendency to make the work harder. It can also act as a barrier to teamwork. Which lowers morale further. The result of this can easily become a culture of negativity, defeatism and even cynicism, a form of low-level depression that has much in common with burnout.

It is hard to feel professional or take pride in our work in such circumstances, but that is the challenge we face. In a low-morale culture, accountability can become distorted into defensiveness, with all the associated dangers.

We have made a number of significant strides in terms of professionalism (development from diploma-level to degree-level qualification, professional regulation, protection of title), but it would be naïve not to recognise that we still have a long way to go to raise social work to the level of professional recognition it deserves and needs.

So, what is to be done? There are, of course, no easy answers, but there are steps we can take. For one thing, we can look closely at how we pull together collectively as professionals. This is an important lesson we can learn from other professional groups. For example, in nursing and occupational therapy, it is the norm for staff to be members of their professional association (as it is for social workers in Australia). In the UK, social work has a much lower sense of shared endeavour.

If we are to break free from a low-morale culture, then we need to make concerted efforts to reaffirm our professionalism – individually and collectively. We all have a part to play in this, so start talking now to your colleagues about how you can support one another in reaffirming professionalism and contributing to the wider programme of getting social work recognised for the important role it plays.

Dr Neil Thompson is an independent writer, educator and adviser