Help Social Workers speak out!


Help Social Workers speak out! By Rachel Bramble Author of The Nameless Social Worker 'Rachel has been a social worker for more than 30 years' Since I first wrote on Fassit in February 2006 I have made a number of contacts including Sarah Harman (Harman & Harman Solicitors) Families denied justice who is trying to open the child courts. As a social worker I have no problem with this as I believe that things should be as open as possible as long as children are protected. The difficulty would be if the press decided to do a witch hunt of the social workers on the case. Social workers currently have no training on understanding the media and it may chase thousands out of the profession. I wrote back in 2002 to many influential people including MP’s asking them to look at social work’s relationship with the media. I have had several emails from parents and grand parents who are not happy with the way that they have been treated by social services and I wouldn’t condone practices but what is important is that the actual law gets changed so that social workers don’t have to go for care proceedings. In the majority of cases the reason for going for care proceedings is because there is nothing between an EPO [ Emergency Protection Order] and ICO [ Interim Care Order] and so how else do social workers protect children legally? Support for families is poor because so much money is spent on care proceedings. I have been trying to get the law changed so that social services can have temporary shared parental responsibility rather than having to go for a Care Order. The reason why I think that this is important is so that social workers have time to get to know the family properly and find resources to help them through the crisis that lead them to being referred in the first place. I need Fassit members to put themselves forward for test cases and then the law could be changed. I also need Fassit members to contact their MP’s to ask questions in Parliament about the ridiculous rules that social workers have to work under. At the second looked after review which is 3 months after a child has become looked after [ in care] social workers have to consider twin tracking [ home and permanency]. Most social workers resist doing this as they don’t agree with it but they are pressured by their managers because if they don’t it will affect their local authority star ratings and then their local authority will receive less money from the Government. Social Workers are often at this 3 month stage trying to get help from other professionals such as Psychologists for parents or children but waiting lists for initial appointments regularly are at least 6 months. So social workers are forced to recommend twin tracking before they have even been able to access any of these resources. Social workers need Fassit members support to fight this nonsense. The only place that social workers have to speak out is Community Care Magazine and they select whatever they want to include in their magazine as they are just one of several magazines published by Reed publishing. I want social workers to have a voice and thank Fassit for letting me write on the site. The money that is currently spent on care proceedings could be used to support families. I have started working two mornings a week in a secondary school as an independent social worker paid directly by the school. I have taken a massive cut in pay to do something I believe in and will continue to support Fassit. If I go quiet its only because I’ll have to find some way to back up my finances but won’t stop speaking out for long. by Rachel Bramble Email Back