Role of Social Workers in the UK - Essay Example

Role of Social Workers in the UK The UK has long promoted the principles of democracy. This implies that the individuals who constitute society are entitled to take part in civil life. Over time, such participation has come to include public services. Specifically, during the past three decades, service planning and development have attached considerable significance to the experiences and opinions of service users (Service User Involvement, 2007). A social worker who possesses extensive knowledge regarding the functioning of various systems is in the enviable position of being to evaluate or analyse the efficiency of various systems and programmes (Chechak, 2008). In addition, such social workers can assess the effectiveness of their interventions. Significant value is attached by service users to the variegated approaches employed by social workers. Some of these approaches are; first, providing advice, advocacy and information; second, assisting people in their negotiations with state agencies, such as those in the areas of financial support and housing; third, making available counselling and other forms of psycho – therapeutic support; fourth, providing practical help and guidance; fifth, obtaining access to financial support for service users (Beresford, 2007). User engagement can be promoted by social workers, by either assisting users to access advocacy or by acting as advocates. Advocacy does not always consist of conflicts of interests and in case where this is true, the social worker has to protect the interests of the user (Gallagher & Smith, 2010). The various advances in the involvement of service users in social work have been amalgamated in legislation. This establishes a basis for forging a novel relationship between service providers and service users. Several benefits have accrued to service users and services, due to the involvement of service users in the planning and delivery of services (Service User Involvement, 2007). Some of these benefits are enumerated in the sequel. Service users develop new skills, improve their self – esteem and efficiency, enhance service ownership and adapt services to conform to their requirements. On the other hand, social work benefits in the following manner. The services provided acquire a user orientation, greater efficiency in the services provided, recruitment of appropriate personnel, and promotion of the social reintegration goals of the services. This notion is indeed intricate to a significant extent and has constituted one of the mainstays of endeavours to restructure welfare (Service User Involvement, 2007). In addition, this concept is believed to provide substantial advantages to organisations and mainly to service users. The tendency to employ non – social workers to evaluate service users and the imposition of stricter eligibility criteria by councils has proved to be cause for concern. A note of caution has been struck by service users and social workers regarding the use of staff who do not possess social work qualification. The latter could be devoid of the skill necessary to promote the welfare of their clients. The responsibility for assessment has been increasingly transferred to community care officers and non – qualified staff from social workers (Dunning, 2011, p. 6). As such, social workers do have the necessary skills and exercise adequate care to safeguard the best interests of their clients. However, the active participation of users is indispensable for ensuring the success of social work. This involves greater participation by users and better evaluation of their needs. Furthermore, these users should formulate their own plans after consulting the relevant professionals. Such evaluation should identify the requirements of the individual users, their weaknesses, strengths and in general provide a reasonably accurate picture of the circumstances obtaining (Changing Lives: Report of the 21st Century Social Work Review, 2006). Success of the social work necessitates the active participation of its users. Since the 1980s, the involvement of service users in British social work education was random and could be attributed to individual lecturers. This state of affairs changed in the 1990s and the user movement was strengthened. The service users and carers’ involvement is based on respect, equality, true partnership, empowerment and social inclusion. Social work requires a significant amount of social work. This is possible, only if the various participants in social work combine their efforts. In the absence of such initiatives, carers and users will not be induced to promote and preserve such social work (Anghel & Ramon, 2009, p. 187). The equality agenda is based on social inclusion and the involvement of service users and carers makes available a very useful instance of this in social work education. In this endeavour, it treats carers and users as givers and not merely takers. The objective is to convince social work students that service users are active participants in the provision of service (Anghel & Ramon, 2009, p. 187). In addition, wiith regard to specialist palliative social care, the majority of the service users believed that such work had provided them with appreciable benefit. Some of the benefits reaped by these users were; improvement in their capacity to address difficult situations and help with the tangible problems that they were countenancing (Beresford, Adshead, & Croft, Service users' views of specialist palliative care social work, 2006). Moreover, these users brought home the fact that this type of social work had improved their capacity to cope up with their situation. As such, these users were emphatic in their declaration that it had improved their sense of control and safety; enhanced their self – esteem and diminished suicidal tendencies; mitigated social exclusion and improved opportunities for reciprocated solidarity and support among service users; enhanced support for members of their family; improved their quality of life and their capacity to deal with the medical aspects of their disease (Beresford, Croft , & Adshead, ‘We Don’t See Her as a Social Worker’: A Service User Case Study of the Importance of the Social Worker's Relationship and Humanity, 2008). As such, service user involvement with the social work enhances the potential and self- confidence of the participants. Moreover, service users were chiefly of the opinion that the success of the social work was dependent on the personal attributes of the specialist palliative care social workers. These users highlighted the qualities that they had appreciated in the specialist palliative care social workers, such as kindness, compassion, sensitivity, thoughtfulness and empathy (Beresford, Croft, & Adshead, 2008, p. 1395). The thoughtfulness of such social workers was stressed by the service users. For instance, one patient who had undergone major surgery was visited by the social worker, with a bouquet and kind words (Beresford, Croft, & Adshead, 2008, p. 1396). Any form of social work stands to gain by the active participation of its users. Such advantages can be clearly seen, due to increased efficiency and the provision of cost effective services. There is a dearth of direct evidence that correlates enhanced involvement by the users and improved economy and efficiency (Meenai, 2007, p. 40). Finally, such services are rendered more effective and responsive, by the participation of the users. As such, more cost- effective services would be provided to the users of these services. In addition, it is the responsibility of the social worker to promote the economic well – being of the service user. This has to be done by alleviating the poverty of the latter. Doubts have been raised regarding the capacity of social work to achieve this objective. Several of the policies of the government focus on the provision of support by the statutory services to individuals in ending jobs (Ahmed, 2011, p. 28). Some of the classes of users are those who can accurately evaluate their needs; on the other hand, there would be some users whose needs would be identified by their close relatives, friends or parents; and finally users whose needs would have to be determined by professionals. Self – assessment would prove beneficial to all the parties concerned. Users would exercise better control over the support being provided to them, while the practitioners would obtain more time to conduct intricate evaluations and arrive at improved therapeutic relationships (Changing Lives: Report of the 21st Century Social Work Review, 2006). Social work relies on the management function to the extent that a social agency has to exercise a certain degree of administrative responsibility. This happens in the context of identifying organisational objectives, in the acquisition and allocation of resources to conduct programmes, monitor assets and alter structure and processes to enhance efficiency (Barker, 1995, p. 8). As an educator the social worker imparts information and skills related to teaching to clients. This requires the social worker to be knowledgeable and to be proficient in communicating with others. The latter trait is indispensable for conveying information in a clear and comprehensible manner (Chechak, 2008). Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970, provides protection to vulnerable adults. This initiative applies to a number of agencies, with special emphasis on social services. To this end a policy involving several agencies was implemented, which was aimed at providing protection to vulnerable adults (Dwyer, 2008, p. 78). Social workers enact a significant role in evaluating and managing incidents of abuse. On occasion, abuse transpires in the domestic environment. In such instances, the social worker has to conduct an all – inclusive evaluation, furnish a social report and professional opinion to a multi – agency case conference and play an active role in the formation of a plan related to care. It is the usual practice for several team members to involve themselves directly in cases related to abuse. The latter could ambiguous or definite and the situation could be further complicated, due to the hostility of the alleged abusers. The latter could create a number of impediments to the investigators (Dwyer, 2008, p. 78). As such, a constructive partnership is indispensable between the professionals. With regard to the protection of children, the local authorities are duty bound to ascertain whether a child in their area is likely to be subjected to abuse or whether a child is being made to suffer significant harm. This requirement has been enjoined in section 47 of the Children Act 1989. The outcome of these initiatives is that child protection issues that could crop up in the course of work with service users has to be perforce conveyed, without any delay to the pertinent section of the department of social services (Dwyer, 2008, p. 78). As such, social workers involved with individuals who are inflicted with mental health problems have to interact with other professionals, in the course of discharging their duties. The UK has initiated several initiatives to bring about the involvement of users in the planning and development of the services utilised by them. Nevertheless, there has been no proper evaluation or monitoring of the change and improvement effected in social care services, due to such participation (Carr, 2004). Several pieces of legislation have been enacted that promote change. Such change relates to providing assistance to disabled people, in order to enable them to achieve the goal of full participative citizenship. Moreover, the European Convention of Human Rights at article 10 had provided all with the right to self – expression, while article 6 of this Convention had established the right to a fair hearing. Despite these legislative initiatives, discrimination prevails and this is evident in the case of ethnic minorities and females (French & Swain). User involvement becomes effective, only if there is an unswerving political commitment among the upper echelons of a purchaser or provider organisation. As an enabler, the social worker assists the client to deal with transitional stress or to cope up with the situation. Some of the achievements of the social worker are; raising hopes, mitigating uncertainty and resistance, recognising and controlling emotions, identifying and promoting social assets and personal strengths, and ensuring focus on objectives and the methods for realising them (Chechak, 2008). In addition, the mediator has to resolve conflicts or arguments at various levels. Thus, at the macro level, the mediator assists the various subsidiary systems in the community and resolves differences. Moreover, at the mezzo and micro levels, the mediator provides help in areas, such as divorce resolution and child custody disputes (Chechak, 2008). While discharging his functions, the mediator remains unbiased. Coordination relates to collecting components in an organised fashion, whereas integration involves the collection of different parts, in order to combine them into a unified entity. The generalist social worker can function as a coordinator or integrator in diverse ways, such as advocacy and isolation of opportunities to effect coordination, provision of technical assistance and direct participation in implementing and developing service linkages (Yessian & Broskowski, 1983, p. 184). As such, the benefits attendant upon user involvement include, better satisfaction among patients, improved quality of care, enhanced health, better compliance with treatment and a much safer environment for carers and patients. Due to the absence of clear definitions in this area, considerable difficulty is involved in assessing the consequences of user involvement. However, it can be surmised that user involvement in social services, will make the role of social worker more meaningful and beneficial to the vulnerable individuals. In that endeavour, the social worker acts like an enabler, mentor, mediator, and educator of his clients. List of References Ahmed, M. (2011). Do the rights thing. Community Care, 1857, pp. 28 – 29. Anghel , R., & Ramon, S. (2009). Service users and carers’ involvement in social work education: lessons from an English case study. European Journal of Social Work, 12(2), 185 – 199. Barker, R. L. (1995). The social work dictionary. Washington, DC: NASW Press. Beresford, P. (2007, March). The Changing Roles and Tasks of Social Work. Shaping Our Lives National User Network. Beresford, P., Adshead, L., & Croft, S. (2006, November 29). Service users' views of specialist palliative care social work. Retrieved October 22, 2011, from Joseph Rowntree Foundation: http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/service-users-views-specialist-palliative-care-social-work Beresford, P., Croft , S., & Adshead, L. (2008). ‘We Don’t See Her as a Social Worker’: A Service User Case Study of the Importance of the Social Worker's Relationship and Humanity. British Journal of Social Work, 38(7), 1388 –1407. Carr, S. (2004, March). Has service user participation made a difference to social care services? Retrieved October 22, 2011, from http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/positionpapers/pp03.pdf Changing Lives: Report of the 21st Century Social Work Review. (2006, February 2). Retrieved October 22, 2011, from The Scottish Government: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/02/02094408/9 Chechak, D. (2008, November 10). The Roles of a Social Worker. Retrieved October 29, 2011, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/7852257/The-Roles-of-a-Social-Worker Children Act. (1989). Dunning, J. (2011). Service users 'lose out' due to non-social worker assessors. Community Care, 1857, p. 6. Dwyer, S. (2008). The role of the social worker. Psychiatry, 7(2), 76 – 79. European Convention on Human Rights. (1950). French, S., & Swain, J. (n.d.). User involvement in services for disabled people. Retrieved October 22, 2011, from http://www.radcliffe-oxford.com/books/samplechapter/7084/07%20KeyTopics%20Ch07-536d5000rdz.pdf Gallagher, M., & Smith, M. (2010). Engaging with Involuntary Service Users in Social Work. Retrieved October 29, 2011, from http://www.socialwork.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/44224/review_1_context_and_overview.pdf Local Authority Social Services Act . (1970). Meenai , Z. (2007). Participatory Community Work. Publisher Concept Publishing Company. Service User Involvement. (2007, February 21). Retrieved October 22, 2011, from http://www.serviceuser.org/show.php?contentid=69 Yessian , M. R., & Broskowski, A. (1983). Generalists in human-service systems: Their problems and prospects. Prentice Hall. Read More