2 The work of social care professionals
Having explored some kinds of social care/social work roles, you can now look in a little more detail at your own experience and understanding of these. It can be confusing reading about practitioners with similar sounding roles or tasks or learning about different practitioners working with the same people. However, they work together to ensure the needs of service users and carers are met.
Practitioners and professionals may approach their work in a similar way because social care and social work practice is relationship-based work. This requires social care practitioners/professionals to have caring relationships with service users and uphold good standards of practice. They need to be caring, reliable, honest, trustworthy and respectful towards service users. In the following activity you will identify the similarities and differences in some aspects of social care and social work practice.
Activity 2 Comparing the roles of social work and social care
Listen to the following audio featuring Natalie and Robyn. Natalie is a senior social worker based in an adult team; Robyn is a care worker based in a nursing home but working in the community with service users receiving palliative care.
When you have listened to the recording, identify what you think are the differences and similarities between these roles.
Transcript
| Similarities | Differences |
|---|---|
Comment
There are many similarities between Natalie’s and Robyn’s roles. They both support older people and their families, and both are concerned with promoting people’s welfare, independence and choices. Both work with a wide range of other professionals and services, and both are required to undertake training for their roles. However, there are some important differences. As a registered social worker, Natalie has undertaken training and registered as a social worker with Social Care Wales. ‘Social worker’ is a protected title and so, in all nations of the UK, there is a requirement to meet the professional standards of training and practice in order to maintain the registration that allows you to call yourself a ‘social worker’. While Robyn has also undertaken training in her role, this is not essential to work as a care worker and there is no registration requirement. There is a legal obligation to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, but beyond this, the training is optional. Robyn describes the in-house training required within her own agency and the training she has done to develop her career, but this is not a national requirement. Within social care there are lots of different job titles such as social care worker, care assistant, family support worker.
Both Natalie and Robyn mention undertaking assessments, but the assessments they do will be different. Robyn’s will only inform services provided by the Garth team, while Natalie’s will recommend the provision of services from a wide range of potential providers. In summary a key distinction is that social workers tend to organise and monitor care services to make sure they meet peoples’ needs. Social care practitioners deliver care, undertaking more practical task and working more directly with service users.
Natalie and Robyn work in different ‘sectors’. Natalie is employed by the local authority and so works for a ‘statutory’ employer wholly funded by the government. This gives her both powers and duties arising from legislation. Social workers carry more responsibility for safeguarding and protection work, to keep children and adults safe from harm.
Robyn works for a small ‘private family-owned’ service, the Garth, which provides residential and community services. It is approved and registered with the local authority but is run independently. This means that, while some of its funding comes from the NHS or local authority, some services are paid for privately by people who use the service.
Natalie and Robyn work in different locations. The Garth, where Robyn is based, is a residential unit with outreach services in a community in Herefordshire, England. Meanwhile, Natalie works in a local authority office offering services across Powys in Wales.
The interview with Natalie and Robyn provide a good insight into two individual social care professionals, both supporting older people and people nearing the end of their lives. They also illustrate the diversity that exists within the professions of social work and social care, and that the concept of care is a very broad one.
In the first two activities of this session, you have explored similarities and differences in social care practitioners/professionals through the context of service provision. You have seen that both social care and social work professionals provide services with a range of roles, to people who have a wide range of needs, including those with disabilities, mental or physical health needs, and people in need or at risk. They also work in a variety of settings. You will now move on to consider the contexts in which social care takes place.