I think I have just seen the first indications that the battle has been lost. All that remains are some brave words. A few pockets of resistance will hold out for as long as possible, the fanatics will redouble their efforts as fanatics do when their cause is lost but the words of the new President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) give the game away. Sarah Pickup in her first interview on taking up her new post is quoted as saying there is still a role for qualified social workers working with adults. By saying” still” she concedes that it is no longer assumed that older people or people with a disability should be entitled to the same degree of professional support as children and young people. She confirms this interpretation by saying that in Hertfordshire she reduced the number of social workers working with older and disabled people. I am being a little unfair because what she actually said was there is still a big role for qualified social workers working with adults. But then she is the president of the Adult directors of social services and so is presumably the biggest defender of professional standards of social work with older people and people with a disability. If I wasn’t being generous I might interpret what she was saying as there is a diminished role for qualified social work with older people, people with a learning disability and people with a physical disability but still a need for qualified social workers to work with those with mental health problems. It may be that she did not intend to indicate that certain client groups were less in need of qualified social work support but that certain tasks weren’t. If so then I think she has already spent too much time sitting round tables with government advisors because that is not how it works on the front line. The corner stone of social work with adults is the assessment from this all else follows. When you receive a referral you can’t tell what the outcome of the assessment will be. The original request might be fairly low level phrased in terms of day care, help in the home or a hand rail and stair lift only when a skilled assessor gets to work would other more serious concerns come to light.I am not saying there isn’t a role for social work assistants. I am not saying that everyone who works with older people or people with a learning disability should be qualified any more than I would say every one working with children should be a qualified social worker. But as a profession we have been here before. In the days of generic social work and generic social work teams the qualified social workers were allocated the child care and mental health cases and most of the work with older people and people with a disability was carried out by social work assistants and students on placement.The result was that despite some very able, experienced and committed social work assistants the status of this work reflected the fact that it was carried out by unqualified staff. As a result there were fewer resources to help people say in their own homes and it was harder to challenge other professionals like ward sisters and GP’s who were more concerned with the risks than the rights of the individual.So let no one claim that the reduction of qualified social workers working with adults is anything other than a cost cutting measure and that includes the new president of the ADASS.Blair McPherson former director of community services and author of Equipping managers for an uncertain future and People management in a harsh financial climate both published by Russell House. Follow Blair on Twitter @blairmcpherson1
