Social Worker Sharing

  It can be very difficult especially in the early days of being a Social Worker to realise that no matter what you offer or do for someone it may still not be enough. The longer you are in the role the more you learn ways to come to terms with it or manage your own feelings on the subject. It is definitely still not easy. We come into Social Work initially to help people or when we very first apply we think we are coming in to save them. We are coming to make everything better, to swoop in and fix everything. This is definitely not the case. I have sat on panels interviewing for Social Work students to get on the course at my local higher education university and these are the types of things that you hear people say. That and the word vulnerable quite a lot which is an entirely other topic that I have also written a blog about. As I mentioned in a previous blog I am now classed as an experienced Social Worker so that has meant that I get allocated more complex cases includ...

It is coming to the time of year where a lot of people have time off. Me included. Some practitioners can find this difficult because they are concerned about what may happen with their cases whilst they are off. With the team that we work in you never know what is going to happen. This discussion brings us back round to how you find a work life balance or how you switch off from what is a difficult job. We can hold people's lives and futures in our hands so taking a break from that can feel difficult especially when there are situations where carers are struggling with carer strain and certain groups or social inclusion are their lifelines but they close down for Christmas. Especially the ones which are run by volunteers. I have noticed the same when it comes to playgroups and groups for young children. They all stop over the Christmas period which is understandable but it can also cause a lot of anxiety and make situations more difficult for people. Christmas and New Year...

One thing that I think you discover fairly quickly once you qualify is that a lot of the time you are thinking about what comes next. Don't get me wrong some people become level 2 and are happy there but a lot of the time managers want to know what training course or self improvement you are doing next to further expand your skills. I am quite happy doing more and am looking forward to upcoming courses to achieve this. I have discussed in depth with my manager and included in my appraisal what I would like to do long term. I am lucky to have a very good manager who at this stage I have worked with for about 3.5 years who knows me well and is very supportive. She cares a lot about the mental health of her staff and will encourage use of paid time off to give us a break when we feel that we need it. She encourages us to be mindful of what we are doing and how we are using our time. This makes me feel very supported and that I am more than a number who is there to make sure th...

  I always find it interesting when I am speaking to colleagues who are either students or new to Social Work. There are so many aspects of Social Work that you don't realise are a thing until you attend certain training courses or get a particular case. I was having a discussion regarding the various type of Mental Capacity Assessments that are carried out and although this is something we complete on a semi regular basis in our team we generally complete them for either place of residence or finances but there are a lot of situations where they are also done. One example of this is whether someone has the capacity to consent to marriage which is something that we do not see often, whereas for Social Workers in other teams this may be something they come across a lot more often. There are so many different teams in a council that will all deal with completely different situations even though we cover the same geographical area because our client group is different. As I hav...

  One of the most difficult things I have found since going back to work is the change to my working hours. I now work 3 days a week. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Which is brilliant don't get me wrong but also it is one of the hardest things about going back. I get a 4 day weekend which is lovely but as I regularly remind people that does not mean I just get to chill. I have a 15 month old so I am in mum mode as soon as I finish work and everyday I am off. I solo parent 2 days a week so they are definitely busy. The tricky thing about the days I work is that Thursday to Tuesday is a long gap. If I am working with a family regarding a situation that needs sorting fairly quickly if I have not completed the work by the end of Thursday then it will be almost another week before I work on it again. They have the option to contact my team in my absence but that is not the best continuity for the family. I am lucky that I am in a role where I manage my own diary so that means I ca...

So as you may or may not have noticed it's been a while. There is a good reason for this though, I became a mum. It has been an incredible journey and also the hardest thing I have done in my life. What I am interested in professionally is how it is going to impact me as a Social Worker. Am I going to struggle with certain aspects of the job more than I did before? I wonder if I will find it more difficult to focus because I would rather be with my child or am I going to be more focused because I want the time I am spending away from her to mean something. Work life balance is a tricky thing for everyone regardless of their role but I think when you are in a profession such as Social Work that is so emotive this can bring its own set of challenges. Prior to being a mum I could finish for the day and decompress especially when I'd had a tricky one or something happened that stayed in my head whereas now I finish work and immediately put on my mum hat. I don't have the ...

  I attended a seminar this week which was provided as a space for practitioners to discuss Social Work in a pandemic. It was an interesting session to attend and allowed me to link up with people who work all over the country and hear their perspectives. I always forget how different my experience of Social Work education and starting my career has been because of the pandemic. I think because it is all I have known it doesn't feel strange to me. It was not until I mentioned that I have been in my team in various capacities for approximately 14 months but have never been in my office and saw the reactions that I was reminded. People in the session who have been practising for many years were so shocked and this led to an interesting discussion about the amount of information you can learn from being in the office and overhearing it. They talked about working somewhere for a while and only knowing about certain paperwork because a colleague mentioned it in passing. I explaine...

  How often do we have conversations with carers talking about how they don’t need to feel guilty for needing a break? How they are only human and can only give so much to others because they need something left for themselves. Now how often do we take our own advice? I imagine a lot less than we should. We seem to find it easier to explain to others how what they are doing is what they need to do for their own mental health, but we don’t do the same for ourselves. The rate of burnout in Social Work is high and the average length of a Social Work career is approximately 8 years. There are a lot of reasons for this such as high caseloads and low resources, but I do think that some of it comes from Social Workers who want to make sure they do the best for the people they support and put themselves on the back burner to achieve it. I follow a lot of Social Workers on twitter and see regular conversations about how people are having to work weekends and late into the evening ...

  I was in a workshop this week for my Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) and the focus was self-care, resilience, and wellbeing. These are topics that are discussed a lot in Social Work practice, especially resilience. One of the questions that was asked was what in your job do you have control over? My initial gut reaction was not a right lot. Until we discussed it further as a group. I found that actually we have a lot more control than I realised. When I had initially thought about it, I automatically thought about control over what happens, how long something takes or how a process is done. We definitely do not have control over those, but we do have control over the smaller level day to day things. It was mentioned about managing our own diaries, this is something I am so used to doing in different roles I have worked that I didn’t realise until I thought about it afterwards. For the Local Authority I work for that includes start and finish times because we ...

  Safeguarding is something that underpins all Social Work practice regardless of what area of Social Work you are in. It is drilled into you throughout your studies and although I don’t work in children’s services, I still know exactly which section of which law it is. There are a million different ways we safeguard the people we support. It can be higher level at risk of harm or neglect, or it may be that they need money for heating so that they can survive. It could be that their child takes £200 every time they visit and the difficulties in situations like this is that the person may be happy with that and if they have the capacity to decide that then it is not up to up to say otherwise. I have heard a lot of examples of situations where it is financial, but the person is happy with that, I have experienced these types of safeguarding situations myself. I have been fortunate that because I am still new to this I have yet to experience a high-level safeguarding situation whi...

  I think unpaid carers are such heroes. It’s all good and well people saying it must be tough or they are good but since working in my role I have seen just how incredible they are. I have heard amazing stories from people who have slept on the floor to be there for a loved one or not gone to bed until the person has fallen asleep because they get anxious. They give up their time, energy, space, relationships, and lives to support the people that are important to them, and I applaud them. It’s all good and well me speaking to them and getting home care in place or respite but this doesn’t take away the strain that is on their shoulders. I may be able to try and help or see what can be utilised to give them a break, but they still come back to it. They still lose sleep because they are worrying if that person is okay, and I cannot even begin to imagine what that feels like. I am in a role that cares about people, and I definitely don’t always take my Social Work hat off at t...

Self-care is so important; of course this isn’t just the case in Social Work. It seems that we live in a society that encourages the hustle, always being busy, fitting more into the day or getting paid for everything we do. When I am working, I put 100% into everything I do but I think it’s also important that once I log off from the computer at the end of the day that I can also switch off. I remember when I very first qualified and I was having a conversation with someone, and I said that I log off at 5 o clock and when I step away from my desk and close the office door I am done. They responded and said but you’re a social worker and I said that I am a Social Worker and when I am in work time, I will be the best one I can be, I won’t just switch off at 5pm if I am in the middle of something or I need to get something finished but whenever I do log off for the day it’s important that I can switch off from my cases. Don’t get me wrong my Social Work brain is running all of the t...