Reframing social work - Expectation, reality and change

Reducing harm is the goal, not eradicating it. This does however ask us to question how we work with families to achieve our aims and balance the power.

An important lesson is to realise the role of social worker is to reduce the concerns held for the children so they are not exposed to significant harm. However, in my opinion, an important distinction is that it is not the role of a social worker to make children safe. We do have safeguarding responsibilities, but it’s about empowering the parents and network.

Is it a misconception that we can facilitate change through our relationship with parents? It is presupposed that through ‘relationship-based practice’ we are trained and capable of having conversations and delivering interventions that facilitate change. Undoubtedly this is desirable and perhaps a primary motivation for social workers entering the profession, yet, it may often remain an unattainable ambition.

From the perspective of parents in the examples above, they are having their right to a private family life taken away. Many parents express dissatisfaction because of what social workers represent. A statutory organisation.

They don’t want social work involved, not necessarily because of who you are, but because of what you represent. There are at least two reasons for this.

• First, there is often a disagreement about the legitimacy of the concerns identified about the child.
• Second, most parents fear that social work involvement could result in the loss of their child. It is hard to imagine many people would want to work with a system where that could be the outcome, even if it meant access to some much needed help.

It is hard to build therapeutic relationships in limited time. In many cases, even when children are subject to a child protection plan, social workers visit parents once a fortnight at most

While there might be telephone contact and core group meetings, the statutory Svisit provides the best opportunity for building a relationship. During a statutory visit, as social workers, we have to share any recent concerns with the parents (which some will object, minimise, or deny causing friction), check the home conditions and the bedrooms, and speak to the children.

Therefore, a social worker typically only spends limited time with a parent. This short amount is the only time we have to influence someone's thinking, way of dealing with feelings, patterns of behaviour, addiction, and relationships.

Other factors include their childhood and current relationships, such as children, parents, brothers and sisters, neighbours, and a partner.

Although social workers utilise learning from counsellors and therapists we are not in those fields.

One idea we have used, perhaps uncritically, is that social workers can be therapeutic agents of change. When we fail to establish a therapeutic relationship - which we inevitably do - we become demoralised and either:

• Blame ourselves; or
• Blame the system for not providing a context to build the type of relationships we were told would be possible.

We have an important task in clarifying where and how we can navigate relationships so all parents who come into contact with social workers are treated with dignity, respect and in a way that maximises the chance of bringing about change.

If we can achieve this, it might remove the unnecessary burden of responsibility that social workers feel. Instead of focusing on relationship-based social work, maybe we should aspire for a principled and ethical, rights-based social work.

An example we could look at is one from my own life experience. At age 11 a social worker came to our house. I was guided into the living room, where we sat opposite a middle-aged woman with white curly hair, leaning forward with her arms crossed over a notepad covering her knees. She asked several questions about my life, and then I was allowed to leave.

At the time, I had no idea why she visited or what the purpose was. I never saw her again. Looking back, however, I suspect the social worker undertook an initial assessment due to my dad being in rehab for his drug and alcohol use and my mum suffering from depression and chronic fatigue syndrome.

A few weeks later, I began attending an organisation called Young Carers. Through them, I attended weekly groups where we did fun activities and group work. By attending, I filled out many wishes and feelings sheets which I would subsequently use with children in my role.

I also went on activity days during half terms, and a few times I went on a residential trip in the summer holidays. As I got older, I was provided one-to-one counselling.

According to research by Donald Forrester and his colleagues, a very common way of helping parents is for a social worker to tell them what their problem is and why they need to change.

This is a very understandable approach, especially if you believe it is your job is to make people change.

Another example from my own is experience is my dad. He was abandoned by his mother, removed from his father, subject to multiple placements, attended 27 different schools, and then in adulthood was a chronic and severe drug addict. I can see starkly the absurdity of expecting him to overcome his trauma, entrenched personality issues and addiction as a result of a social worker telling him he had an alcohol problem – or that he needs to prioritise his child’s needs – or that he was harming his children – even if those things are all true, it would very unlikely bring about change.

However we still, as social workers, continue to do it. For many other parents like my dad they are profoundly fearful of losing access to and giving up a behaviour that helped them cope and deal with their suffering.

It isn’t simply a case of giving up a drug or a relationship or whatever it might be.

A critical element of working with change is to help parents see some of the benefits that could be derived from changing.

This functions as a bridge between where they are and where they want to be, and the support services that would enable them to take on that journey.

This is very different from telling them what they need to change, how they need to change, and making expectations for them to engage in the support service we’ve identified.

There are three steps to this. We have listed them below, click through to read each step. 

There are three elements that underpin rights-based social work that we have covered so far:

1. We must uphold the child's rights and manage these with the rights of the parents. When the child’s right to protection supersedes the parent's right to private family life, we explain these processes transparently and humanely. Social work is a rights-based profession.
2. We can endeavour to collaborate with the parents, build upon their strengths, establish shared goals, and allow them to determine how they will achieve the goal of increasing child safety.
3. We can’t make parents change, nor can we force them to access support services. But we can have a conversation with them where they are provided the space to consider the possibility of change.

When we think about our work, the challenge of building a relationship with parents in a child protection context cannot be underestimated. It requires courage, humility, and tenacity.