Voices From the Front Line: State Social Workers and New Labour

Negotiating personal engagement and professional accountability: professional wisdom and ethics work

“…As these shifts in welfare policy and practice have taken hold, there has been a growing concern amongst professional practitioners, academics and researchers that the idea and reality of social workers as people who are personally engaged with their work is either under threat, or has indeed been lost in some work contexts (Banks 2004;Ferguson 2008;Jones 2001;White, Wastell, Broadhurst, & Hall 2010). This implies that important aspects of the work are being under-valued or are impossible for social workers to live out in their practice.…”

Social workers, resilience, positive emotions and optimism

“…Social workers obtain much satisfaction from their work with users, have high commitment and believe they can make a difference to people's lives (Eborall and Garmeson 2001;Huxley et al 2005). At the same time, there is much evidence of stress in social work, poor resources, limited support and high staff turnover, with shortages of social workers in many statutory settings, especially in childcare work (Jones 2001;Coffey, Dudgill, and Tattersall 2004). What might enable some workers to persist, endure and thrive in their careers, compared to others who may become ill and sometimes eventually leave the profession?…”

‘Connectivity’: Seeking conditions and connections for radical discourses and praxes in health, mental health and social work

“…) In a large-scale study of social service departments in the north of England, Coffey, Dugdill and Tattersall (2004) note respondents reporting that to improve job satisfaction they wanted either increased staffing, or lower workload levels, so that sufficient time could be allocated to the real needs of service users. Much the same findings appear in a smaller-scale study by Jones (2001) would-be health and social work professionals are well-aware of the need to engage with patients, service users and carers as people, rather than as targets to be processed (Davies, 2005). Here are opportunities to establish and construct partnerships at an early stage, both during professional education, and with and between the professions of health, mental health and social work, and with patients and service users, around what patients and users want.…”