Local Government Service Group Conference 13-14 June 2010

Social Work under pressure - time to take control

John Stevenson	Helga Pile

A packed fringe meeting on 14th June, entitled "Social work under pressure: time to take control" heard from social services members and activists of the day to day pressures faced by social care staff; about management who know nothing about the social work task and about performance indicators taking priority over the quality of service and practice.

We heard of too high workloads and social work staff unable to say "no" and members working 50 hours per week just to keep their heads above water.

We heard from Helga Pile, National Officer for Social Services about what UNISON is doing to improve the working conditions of our social work members and to improve the image of social work in the eyes of the public and the media.

Scotland's John Stevenson presented the Social Work Issues Group's guidance on supervision, which forms part of the Supervision and Workload Management negotiating tool. He outlined the key elements of the effective professional supervision that all our members in social work are entitled to and should receive.

"The key to our stratgey is that you cannot have successful supervision without effective workload management. They are different but part of the same process", said John

He stressed the need for shared decision making to, "Ensure clients’ safety, civil liberties and other interests are protected so that decisions affecting these factors are shared and reviewed - shared decisions to avoid scapegoating".

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