Social Worker shouts out for redistribution of resources
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Social Worker shouts out for redistribution of resources By Rachel Bramble Author of The Nameless Social Worker 'Rachel has been a social worker for more than 30 years' For six months I have followed the stories on FASSIT and been in contact with a number of distressed people from FASSIT and other sites. I have contacted MP’s, Journalists and other people who have influence. I have watched the development of the site. The anger, the passion and the moves to action and I have sympathised with individuals circumstances, been embarrassed and ashamed by the actions of some social workers and tried to tell the truth about the others, the good ones who are frightened to speak out. They are the ones who work regularly 50 hours a week for their £20,000 a year if they are lucky. They are the ones who want to get rid of their idiot £100,000 plus bosses who don’t give a damn about individual people and can’t stand up to the government about their nonsensical star ratings. They are the ones who are forced to change reports to support the department view and are sent emails threatening them if they don’t do as they are told or who are given references to say that they aren’t up to whatever the next job is if they try to leave. Why do I write under a pen name because I was scared that I wouldn’t get another job and be able to feed my kids. My real name is Rachel Mulcahy and you will see me registered on the GSCC register and all the places that I worked are in my book the Nameless Social Worker. The GSCC know I am Rachel Bramble. I offered to pay to be both but they wouldn’t do it. I support your speaking out but it must now be tightened up. There is no point naming and shaming individual social workers that won’t change the system unless you just want to make yourself feel better [ sorry for the cynical view]. They will just leave and join the NSPCC or other organisations. You need to look at the resources and how they are being spent. You need to question why there is such an increase in looked after children on Care Orders when both the children act 1989 and 2004 emphasises supporting families. I am asking these questions but you need to do it too because the more people that do it the more chance that someday someone will wake up. My main aim now is redistribution of resources. I am trying to campaign to get a social worker into every school in the UK to support families. Let the police do the child protection work and social workers support families. Let money be put back into communities to create imaginative local support systems for example utilising the many retired people who might be quite happy to help out when times are stressful. Contact the Professors of social work in your local area and tell them what is happening to you and what it feels like to have a core assessment done or what its like being at a case conference. They are the ones who have influenced these systems. They are the ones that need to take some responsibility and like the bosses are earning more money and they are the ones who are training the new social workers and updating the knowledge of the existing ones. Note that social work academics can still register on the GSCC register even if they haven’t actually practised as a social worker for years. If you need any help to do any of this I am still happy to help but my main task now is to get social workers into schools. by Rachel Bramble Back |
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