Exploring How Social Workers Experience and Cope with Public Perception of Their Profession

4 May 2017 3 mins read Research In Practice Families/Parenting Social Care

Social services are highly susceptible to public scrutiny, and public perception of the profession has implications for staff recruitment, acceptance of social work practice, and the vitality and effectiveness of the profession.

A small sample of 16 UK social workers took part in semi-structured interviews in which four main themes were identified.

1. The experience of negative public perception

Social workers experience a stigma and a public mistrust of the profession and felt that they were often singled out as the "failing" profession in the wake of a negative event: "Quite often, in cases, education had been lacking or health had been lacking, but you don't see doctors, nurses or teachers being villain-ised in the same way."

Participants identified a lack of public awareness regarding the complex nature of a social worker's role: "People just think ‘social worker, oh my God, they're going to take my kids away'." Social workers also felt undermined by professional colleagues - concerning for a sector that depends on the multi-professional collaboration.

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