College of Social Work gears up to fix the profession's image

Variously described as hard-hitting, controversial, sympathetic and thoughtful, it is fair to say that last year’s BBC2 documentary series shadowing children’s social workers in Bristol divided opinion.

But in the aftermath of the sensationalist headlines that followed the death of Baby P, the Protecting Our Children documentary arguably opened the public’s eyes to the nuanced and challenging environment social workers inhabit.

So it is apt then that Bristol’s director of children’s services, Annie Hudson, will soon be tasked with enhancing the image of England’s social workers on a full-time basis.

Hudson was among the people at Bristol City Council who decided whether the BBC’s camera crews should be given access, but will leave the authority in the summer to become the College of Social Work’s first chief executive.

Conceived by the Social Work Task Force in 2009, the college was created to provide leadership for the profession, drive up standards, contribute to the policy debate and promote social work.

Hudson says her experience with the BBC2 documentary has given her a solid idea of how the media can be used to improve the tarnished image of the profession.

“The work that I did with the BBC in Bristol has provided me with a very positive view of how we can work with the media to achieve a better and more authentic profile with the public,” she says.

“The producers managed to explain very successfully to the public how we work with families. It showed the problems that families are facing and how social workers have to constantly walk tightropes.

“Most of the reaction from the press and public was that people came away with a much more grounded understanding of what social workers do. We must do more of that; we have to take the risk of standing up and being accountable in that way.”

Hudson says the benefit of positive perception can make a great difference to the mindset of social workers. “Children’s social workers can sometimes feel very battered and embattled,” she says.

Sense of pride
“After the programme, I had a lot of emails from social workers around the country, saying they felt so gratified to see something on television showing what they do so their friends and family can understand. They don’t feel ashamed of what they do, but they feel that the public is ambivalent about it.

“Something that shows them in a more realistic way gives them a sense of pride. The general media portrayal is sometimes very distorted, but if you take risks and are proactive and prepared, you can use the media to get a better profile. The way you have to do it is through telling stories about what you do.”

But the college is not all about image: improving the standard of social work is another crucial aim for the organisation.

Hudson is optimistic that ongoing reforms to social work, set in motion by the Munro Review of child protection in May 2011, will lead to improvements.

She says the revised Working Together guidance, published last month, will help social workers.

“On the whole, the guidance is putting more trust in the professional judgement of social workers and endeavours to unburden them from an over-prescriptive approach,” she says.

“That’s what social workers want to hear and I am confident they will rise to the challenge. Moving away from some of the timescale prescriptions is useful. But we have to make sure that we don’t revert back to the previous era when perhaps things took too long.”

Hudson says the introduction of principal social workers, another Munro recommendation, should help encourage “reflective practice and high-quality decision making”.

A recent survey by the college found that 70 per cent of children’s services departments in England have principal social workers in place, and the college has already started its work to engage with them.

Raising standards
Last month, for example, it held a national conference for this new breed of social worker, in conjunction with the Department for Education and the Children’s Improvement Board.

“Principal social workers provide a fantastic opportunity to develop leadership,” Hudson says. “They are experienced professional social workers who can help to drive up standards in local regions and nationally. The college will want to prioritise helping that group drive up standards to make sure there is consistency and quality.

“Principal social workers could be consulted for their views on social work and adoption, using their expertise around specific areas to help them contribute to developing social work policy.”?
But for the college to be taken seriously as the national voice of social workers, and make a real difference to standards, it will need to increase its membership significantly. The figure currently stands at 5,312, which represents just 6.4 per cent of the 83,421 registered social workers in England.

Jo Cleary, the chair of the college, says the organisation is seeking to attract members en masse by offering corporate membership deals to local authorities and other employers of social workers.

An “opt-out” system allows emplo