1.2 Role of a social worker
Having considered what your perception of a social worker is, you are now going to consider the role of a social worker and the work that they do on a day-to-day basis.
Activity 2 What does a social worker do?
Timing: 45 minutes
Part 1
Visit the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] website. To avoid losing your place in the course, if you are studying on a desktop you should open the link in a new tab or window by holding down Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) when you click on it. If you are studying on a mobile device hold down the link and select to ‘Open in New Tab’. Return here when you have finished.
BASW is the representative body for social work and produces a Code of Ethics for members. It is not, however, the legal regulator of social work.
Explore the types of roles that a social worker can do and the organisations where social workers are employed. Are there any particular roles that you are attracted to?
Now having considered the range of roles that a social worker might undertake, watch the two videos in Part 2 to explore the actual work of a social worker in more depth.
Part 2
Watch the following two videos from the Social Care Institute for Excellence, an organisation that provides training and resources for social care and social workers across the UK. While these videos explore the work of social workers in England, the role is broadly similar across the UK, except that in Scotland there is a third key area that social workers may work in, and that is as a Criminal Justice Social Worker.
Whilst you are watching think about your preconceptions of what social workers do and whether that is consistent with the social workers in these videos.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 1
Transcript: Video 1 Social work in an Emergency Duty Team
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR:
Sunday morning, and Sam Swan, an emergency duty social worker, is starting a long shift. Sam, like all EDT colleagues, works when others don't, weekends, nights, and bank holidays. The work is diverse, and the caseload usually heavy.
SAM SWAN:
We cover the whole spectrum of social work, really, in terms of working with children and families, mental health services, people with learning disabilities, and people with physical disabilities, and also old people. So really, we cover a wide spectrum. Predominantly, nine times out of 10, we work on our own.
We work through the night, which means that we have to prioritise work. We have to do assessments and investigations. And so there's a lot of responsibility and accountability, really, because obviously, we have to stand by those decisions that we make at that time.
NARRATOR:
After a handover from the colleague she's relieving, Sam's work starts.
[PHONE RINGING]
Almost immediately, the phone calls begin.
SAM SWAN:
That's custody. OK, appropriate adult, OK.
NARRATOR:
A 16-year-old is being held at Telford's main police station, suspected of carrying an offensive weapon. By law, an appropriate adult must be with him to safeguard his welfare and ensure that he understands all procedures and any charges being brought against him. As his parents are refusing to attend, that role will fall to Sam.
SAM SWAN:
So the officers are ready to go, but the solicitor's not there yet. OK, well, if you can give me a call when the solicitor has gone into consultation, I'll come along then. All right, then, so we'll give you a ring just before we arrive, OK.
NARRATOR:
Sam's next case is a woman at a local hospital who's causing staff concern. Sam may need to undertake a mental health assessment. She discusses the case with the co-cited community nurse crisis team.
SPEAKER 1:
She's been placed on a ward where she's continued to complain of physical complaints.
SAM SWAN:
But their medical investigations don't identify that there's any medical problem. OK, so she's known to us. She's care coordinated, is she?
SPEAKER 1:
She is, yeah.
SAM SWAN:
Presumably, they'll let us know if they become concerned about her behavior.
SPEAKER 1:
Yeah.
NARRATOR:
Jointly, they decide that no immediate action is needed, as the hospital will hold the patient until Monday.
And Sam's phone is ringing again. It's the call she's been expecting from the custody suite.
SAM SWAN:
It is. She's in consultation. OK, so we'll come over. See you shortly. Bye, bye. That was the sergeant from custody there. The solicitor's arrived. So we need to make our way over to custody.
NARRATOR:
The EDT role demands experience. And Sam has plenty. She left school at 16 and came into social work through an admin job.
SAM SWAN:
I was appointed a social work assistant. And I also had a varied caseload at the time. I worked at the local psychiatric hospital. I also had a few cases where children were on the child protection register, as it was known at that time. Qualified in 1995. And chose to come back into predominantly child protection.
I became team manager covering the north side of Telford. I stayed in team management for probably about four years, until the job came up in EDT.
Morning, how are you?
SPEAKER 2:
Very well, thank you.
SAM SWAN:
Good, good.
Very rare opportunity for a job to come up in the emergency duty team, where I am now. So it was an ideal opportunity, really, to go back in as a practitioner. Because you have that experience and knowledge base, I think it's fair to say that we all feel fairly confident in doing the job. But that's not to say that it's not tough at times. And sometimes you do question, is this the right thing to do?
OK, then, cheers. Well, this one actually was record time, I would say. We were in and out, really, within probably an hour, which is pretty amazing. That's pretty good. He admitted it. He was charged. And he's been bailed to go to court, a week on Wednesday.
NARRATOR:
Back at the office, there are concerns that an elderly woman is not coping alone at home.
SAM SWAN:
Because she's having four calls a day, isn't she? So she'll have had a morning one.
NARRATOR:
Sam checks in with the woman's home care service.
SAM SWAN:
So it's the same carer going in. So that's good. So she'll notice if there's any change, won't she, if there's anything she's worried about? OK, all right, then. Thanks, Linda. Bye.
NARRATOR:
It seems to be good news. And Sam will continue to monitor the situation. In the meantime, there's a new message waiting.
SAM SWAN:
That is our shop doc, our out-of-hours GP service, who wants help with a lady who's suffering with severe anxiety and some symptoms of depression.
NARRATOR:
A phone call to the doctor who has visited the patient reveals the woman's condition could be serious.
SAM SWAN:
The fact that she's not eating and drinking, from a medical point of view, how will that impact? She sounds very unwell. All right, then, bye, bye. Right, so I've got to coordinate a full mental health assessment on this lady.
She's a 64-year-old lady who, he says, is not actually previously known to mental health services and has had problems with anxiety now for the past month or so. Things have escalated in the last 10 days.
NARRATOR:
This assessment now takes priority over Sam's other referrals. And she swings into action. Several phone calls later, she's on the road. As an approved mental health practitioner, Sam's job is to coordinate and take an active role in the assessment.
SAM SWAN:
I've arranged to meet the psychiatrist and another GP at the address. The three of us have to assess and agree a plan, really.
NARRATOR:
It's up to Sam to look at alternatives to hospital and ensure the woman's rights are protected.
SAM SWAN:
We need to talk to the husband and get his views about the situation. And then make a decision then about the best way forward.
NARRATOR:
Over the course of two hours, Sam and the doctors decide the woman does need to be admitted to psychiatric hospital. The woman's husband agreed to support the decision of the team.
SAM SWAN:
Oh dear, OK. It was-- mental health assessments are always, well, they're just difficult, really. It's quite stressful. She was really very sad. And I think the way we wrestle with that is you have to decide what's in the best interests of the service user, really.
Video 1 Social work in an Emergency Duty Team
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Download this video clip.Video player: Video 2
Transcript: Video 2 Social work with older people
[TEXT ON SCREEN: What is social work? Rachel Daurat and Lisa Gourley, Services for older people]
NARRATOR:
9:00 AM at Sunderland's Adult Services, home to the eight teams providing services for older people. For the City West division, the day starts with a diary share meeting.
RACHEL DAURAT:
Hello.
NARRATOR:
Heading today's meeting is Rachel Daurat, who's acting up whilst her manager is on leave.
RACHEL DAURAT:
A couple of things are just reminders, really. The first one is the new RAS forms, Community Care Assessment documents?
NARRATOR:
Rachel qualified as a social worker nine years ago and began her career in the team at Sunderland Royal Hospital. She joined older people's services three years ago and reached a senior level a year later.
RACHEL DAURAT:
Every team have a diary share once a week. The team managers attend SMT, a Senior Management Meeting. And they basically trickle down information from the directorate.
NARRATOR:
Also in the meeting is Lisa Gourley, whose social work career began just 12 months ago. Lisa's colleague, Bertha, has an important issue to raise.
BERTHA:
There was an incident over the weekend with one of the members of the staff. And the manager of the home now wants him out.
NARRATOR:
An unwell elderly man has assaulted a carer at his residential home. And the home wants him to leave. Rachel and the team are concerned that it could be a hasty reaction.
RACHEL DAURAT:
He's had one incident. And it was a serious incident.
SPEAKER 1:
I think the challenging behavior team need to be involved.
NARRATOR:
It's a difficult situation with potentially serious consequences for the elderly man. As acting team manager, it's now Rachel's job to speak directly to the home.
RACHEL DAURAT:
Bertha said that you wanted to speak to her manager in regards--
NARRATOR:
The man was placed in the home just three weeks ago, after he was assessed as being unable to cope living independently. So Rachel already knows his case history.
RACHEL DAURAT:
The gentleman unfortunately lacks capacity to make his own choices about a place of accommodation. He wasn't able to manage his insulin. He wasn't able to judge when he was having a hypo. We had a big case conference. And really, the feeling was in his best interest, it would be safer to be within a 24-hour care environment.
But after that one incident, the home manager has been quite quick to then want him out. We haven't really investigated the cause of the incident. We haven't looked at getting psychiatry involved. And furthermore, we haven't really looked at challenging behavior team, which is accessible for you to directly refer to. To look at changing the home now and him moving out after three weeks, I think we need-- it's a bit hasty, I feel.
All right, thanks.
She's going to refer to the challenging behavior team. And homes can directly refer to them to get their input as to how to manage someone's behavior. I've also advised, if any other incident happens again, she really needs to get on to look at a mental health assessment.
NARRATOR:
As Rachel writes up the case notes, Lisa is heading out to visit a woman who she helped to retain her independence after a serious illness jeopardised it.
LISA GOURLEY:
She had a brain aneurysm back in March, which set her back quite a long way. She spent quite a lot of time in hospital. She spent six weeks in Farmborough Court, which is our intermediate care centre. And then she's had a couple of weeks of re-ablement, actually, in her own home. And she's just recently finished that. We're just going to go and see how she's doing.
NARRATOR:
66-year-old Olive was very poorly when Lisa first met her. It was Olive's best friend Kathleen who persuaded Lisa that there was potential for recovery.
LISA GOURLEY:
Morning, Olive. How are you this morning?
NARRATOR:
Lisa needs to be sure Olive is getting all the support she needs.
LISA GOURLEY:
Okey-doke. I've just popped in this morning just to see how the carers are doing, Olive, because you've just changed over from the girls who were coming previously, haven't you?
OLIVE:
Yeah.
NARRATOR:
Lisa spent eight years as a senior care worker in a residential home for elderly people before embarking on her social work degree at Teesside University.
LISA GOURLEY:
It was a general social work. And we did kind of-- such as social policy, ethics and values. The counsellor modules, I found really helpful. Therapeutic communication, I found really good. And I find that they most have benefited us since I've come here.
She just lives local, does she, your carer?
OLIVE:
Aye.
LISA GOURLEY:
Yeah? She just live around the corner.
Probably decided to do older people because it's what I was comfortable with. And for at least my first year of practice, I wanted something I was familiar with.
Does she treat the home with respect, Olive?
OLIVE:
Oh, yes.
LISA GOURLEY:
You're happy with the way she-- yeah? And you feel that she's meeting your needs OK, Olive? You're happy with that, yeah? Because I've obviously worked with older people since I was 18, I know their values and things like that. So that's helped. But also, because I'm now reviewing care homes, I've got an idea of how care plans should be devised, and stuff like that. So I know what to look for.
So you've been looking forward to going to visit Kathleen in her new house then, yeah? How do you think you'll manage a bus at the moment, Olive? How confident would you feel?
OLIVE:
I don't know.
LISA GOURLEY:
You don't know. I think maybe do a couple of trips with Kathleen?
OLIVE:
Yeah, that's good.
LISA GOURLEY:
And then maybe you never know.
We're focusing a lot more on community living now and personalisation, and stuff like that. We do get quite a few referrals in for 24-hour care. But they are starting to kind of fizzle out, now that I think the mindset of a lot of older people, especially here, are that you get to a certain age and that's kind of where you go. But I think we are starting to change that now. And people are accepting support at home and the extra care schemes that we want to do. So that's really good as well.
See you later. Bye. No bother. Bye.
I think it went really well. It was a positive review. I think Olive's really happy with a new bungalow and her new surroundings.
KATHLEEN:
If it wasn't for Lisa, she wouldn't have been where she is now. When the doctors told me that she would be in a home all her life, and then Lisa came in. And me and Lisa had a talk. And then she got another bungalow, so.
OLIVE:
I try to be as much busy.
LISA GOURLEY:
I think it's been positive for Olive, but also for her family and her friends to watch as well. Three months earlier, we thought she was going to have to go into a nursing home, which-- her potential wouldn't have been met because people would have been doing for her rather than showing her what to do. So it's been a really good experience.
Video 2 Social work with older people
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Comment
You will see from the British Association for Social Work website and the videos that the role of the social worker is extremely wide-ranging and covers everything from work with young offenders to work with older people or those with mental health issues.
You will have seen that working with older people has many challenges. It is regularly the case that work with older people includes providing support so that they can remain in their home and also helping them to transition into residential care when it is not possible to remain at home.
Working in the emergency duty team requires an ability to make decisions based on limited information. It also requires a wide-ranging knowledge, as the duty team deals with all aspects of social work.
It is important to understand that while the types of social work roles vary greatly, having professional values is the crucial element of social work practice. In the next section you will consider some of the key professional social work values and how they impact on practice.