Behavior of a Social Worker in Contemporary Social Work - Term Paper Example

SOCIAL WORK There are many changes that our world has undertaken in the past decades. These changes happen not just physically but also on the emotionally. Groups of people having a mutual attitude towards certain matters and a common behaviour are the ones who make up a society. As years pass, there have been changes within people in this society that contributes to the change the society undergoes (Greenwood & Guner, p. 1). The practice of social work therefore promotes social changes. It is a process of solving human relationships and the enablement and liberating people to enhance their personality and way of life. Social work exploits thinking and interaction of human behaviour and social systems (IFSW.Org). Social change can also be characterized as the shift in the outlook and behaviour in a specific society (Greenwood & Guner, p. 1). Social work as a practice deals with obstructions, discriminations and disparities that occur within the society. It answers back to predicaments that happen in one’s individual as well as social difficulties. Interventions in social work range from person-focused psychological development within the social environment to other related issues (IFSW.Org). Doing social work, just like other works, has its own requirements and guidelines. General Social Care Council (GSCC) is the designated regulating body who does social work profession and education in England. They act as the quality control for social workers to ensure that the workers are well-educated, skilled and devoted in helping out other people. GSCC is the implementing office for the approval of social work courses under the Care Standards Act 2000 section 63 (DH, p. 1). Being a social worker is not an easy job. It is not just keeping up with standards of work one must do everyday but also the dedication that the workers need in their job. All works are exhausting especially when a person does not put his heart into it. Working in areas that deal with social problems are not just physically consuming but also emotionally draining. Stephen Ladyman was the community care minister who announced that by April 01, 2005 social work would be a legitimized profession. People who are working as a social worker should be registered. It would be considered as a criminal offense if a social worker would continue practicing his profession and yet fails to get registered. The event made social work a formal profession that demands the quality guidelines that they need to provide to the people (Batty). Those who are aspiring to be a social worker undergo specific trainings and examinations before they can be registered to GSCC. Besides the education that a person should have before becoming a registered social worker, social work students are required to spend at least 200 days of practice to gain familiarity with the work itself and the environment they would be functioning in. Academic structured learning for aspiring social workers should amount to at least 200 days or 1200 hours. This is to ensure that the students will meet the mandatory level of proficiency (DH, p. 3-4). GSCC is not a lone agency in assuring the quality of social workers that are being dispersed for the service of the people. Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) operates closely with the GSCC in making sure that the courses being offered for social work are of high quality education and exercises. They operates hand in hand and also check and balance each other to assure that they would be able to produce social workers who are not just well-educated but also well-versed and well-aware of what their profession if all about (DH, p. 1). The council has 2 versions of its “Code of Practice.” The first was published in 2002 while the other was in 2004. As defined in the 2002 version of the code, it is said that the code is a list of proclamations that are used to describe the guidelines of professional behaviour and the required practice for social workers as they perform their daily tasks. These codes are made to mirror the good practices that are being performed and foresee what problems can occur which the worker and the employer will discover (GCSS, p. 3). With all the guidelines that a social worker needs to follow, social workers should have intelligence with a very good control on their emotions. Social work deals with people who need special attention. It may vary from the typical children who need basic care to the mentally challenged people who need a social worker not just physically prepared but also mentally and emotionally prepared. This is one of the reasons why social workers need special trainings and educations (DH, p. 3). It is not a joke practicing social work. It is beyond the blood, sweat and tears needed to succeed in the professional field. If a person decides to practice social work as a profession, that person should also be emotionally ready to face the circumstances awaiting him. This could be the reason why a specialized training program was designed for social work as it is not just the mind that is functioning but also the heart. Maybe taking care of a child is just simple for some even for social workers. It is a simple physical task but an emotional breaker. A child especially an infant’s innocence brings about a certain emotional attachment to the person who is taking care of them. Though being trained to not have any emotional connection to their patients, an infant’s charm is not an easy thing to resist. A group from the Department of Education led by Prof. Eileen Munro submitted a report to the Parliament’s Secretary of State for Education in May 2011. The report’s final proposal was intended to produce the environments which will enable professionals to make the best decisions about the assistance that would be given to children, young people and families. The 2011 report was based on theories that were used in a report dated October 2011 to assess how the conditions have evolved since. The group is calling for the Government to revise constitutional, multi-agency management supervision to eliminate obstructive preparations so it can focus on the essentials of a good practice in social work (Munro, p. 6-7). This is the dilemma of the group with regards to the long trainings that a social worker needs to accomplish before getting registered. Sometimes, a social worker’s reactions to their patients are becoming mechanical due to the guidelines that are given onto them. Instead of the hours being spent on trainings, the group led by Munro suggested that unscheduled inspections can take place some of the hours. With these unscheduled visits, the social workers would be acting naturally towards their patients without the guidelines on their minds (Munro, p. 7). A social work task force was instituted during a time when the credibility and quality of social work is being critiqued. The Social Work Task Force was established on December 2008. The Task Force established a clear yet simple description of what social work is and what workers specially do. In 2009, social work has been defined by the Task Force as “helps adults and children to be safe, so that they can cope and take control of their lives again.” They also defined social workers as “[can] make life better for people in crisis who are struggling to cope, feel alone and cannot sort out their problems unaided.” Those descriptions became a strong justification for the significance of the profession not just for the workers themselves but also for the society they are working for (Social Work Task Force, p. 14, 19). The Social Work Task Force had recommended several changes to improve the social work being implemented by the government. These recommendations were submitted to the government on May 2009. Changes that will be implemented would not only constitute the workers but the program itself. It would be an overhaul to the social work system that is being implemented through the years. A reason that this needs to be done is that no society is stagnant. Social change occurs almost constantly and the guidelines, studies and programs that have been laid out in the past years may not be applicable anymore to what is already happening today or what may be the outcome for tomorrow. A Social Work Manager support programme has also been recommended by the Task Force (Social Work Task Force, p. 7-8). The Task Force contracted the first-ever wide-ranging research with regards to a social worker’s usage of their time while on duty. This research constituted to a survey where 1153 responses were gathered. Between March to June 2009, social workers kept diaries in order to comply to the survey (Social Work Task Force, p. 14). With the recommendations from the Task Force, social work is good on its way to improvements not just on the outside but also inside. Outside the social work means the facilities and the universities which are offering trainings and educations for those who aspires a profession in social work. While the inside means the social workers themselves being given a solid ground of formation for them as professionals with clear job description. The Implementation Plan for the reform is complemented by a commitment from the government to fund the program of more than £200M in 2010-2011 (Social Work Task Force, p. 13). Social Work will undergo a make-over in the next couple of years. The reformation program for the social work is divided into 3 phases. The first phase, which is scheduled for 2010-11, is the transition period. Phase 2, scheduled on 2011-14, is the system reform. Embedding improvement is the 3rd phase which is scheduled to take place on 2014-onwards (Social Work Task Force, p. 18). The task force also stated that for the recommendations to be effective and reforms to be properly implemented, employers, educators, the profession and service users should work cohesively. In the recommendation that they have submitted to the government, they have included a diagram to point out what they are intending to develop. It would not be a practice-centred social work; instead it will be a service user-centred which will constitute a more personal approach to each patient. It would not be the task of one agency only to improve the services being given to the public who needs attention from these workers. They would not be alone anymore in finding resources, educators and employers who would aid them in the transformation. The model below was taken from the Social Work Task Force written report in 2009. The Transition phase of the reform would focus on investments and programmes to address which issue needs importance in achieving change. To be able to improve the organization approach, instruments and guidelines would be established for a guided future work. The 2nd phase or the System Reform stage is when the fundamentals would be placed in for the new system to take effect. While the 3rd phase or the Embedding Improvement is the phase where all of the researches and the reformed programs would be in implement. It would be the phase where actual changes not just in one aspect would be seen. Improvement in the whole social work field would be practicing the new guidelines and educations that has been the end product of experiments and adjustments made in the previous phases of the reforms (Social Work Task Force, p. 18). Social work should complement the social change that is happening. Nothing is constant therefore improvements should be done regularly in the social work area so that social workers would be competent in handling situations that they would be facing. At the end of every phase, reviews would be done to ensure that the aim of each phase is met. Milestones and further activities are set to be presented at the end of each phase, these dates would be early 2011 when the 1st phase ends and on early 2014 when the 3rd phase of the reform program would end (Social Work Task Force, p. 12). With high hopes from the submitted programs, social work would be a work in progress in the next couple of years. There would be changes which will take effect immediately while some of the changes would still need time before changes can be visible. The reforms do not focus on one area; it needs collaboration from different sectors to have a concrete and fast improvement in social work. It cannot be said anymore that only one sector of the government is liable for the unchanging practice in that area which do not anymore contribute to the needs of the people. The Implementation Plan for these changes was refreshed early this year to take stock of the program’s progress and to keep the momentum of the changes that are happening. This was also done to confirm monetary funding guarantees meant for the continuation of pending programs for the succeeding years (Social Work Task Force, p. 13). The reforms that are lined up need full cooperation from different entities. When one entity would fail to their part, the reform would not take effect as efficiently as it is expected to be. It would take as much hard work from one entity to another to ensure that the aims of the projects would be reached on target dates set in the report of the Task Force. There 3rd phase of the reform stated that it would be from 2014-onwards. This means that improvements would not stop. Social change does not end. There is no set date for changes to expire. The only constant thing in this world is change. Especially in a society that is as fast paced as the technology that it is developing. Social work education and projects should be able to answer to the needs of the society that they are working in. Even the goals and visions of social work may not be suitable anymore for the needs that the society desires from them. In the next couple of years, more improvements are expected to take effect in the area of social work. Some may be major changes and some may be just need a little tweaking in the current policy. These changes are aimed for the better not just for social work as a profession but social work as an entity being driven by goals and dreams of people to help those who are in need. References Batty, D. (2004, February 16). Fine Warning as Social Work Turns Professional. Retrieved November 30, 2011. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/feb/16/1. Community Care Magazine. (2011). http://www.communitycare.co.uk/residential-and-domiciliary-care-jobs/News/. Department for Children, Schools and Families, Department of Health & Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. (2010). Building a Safe and Confident Future: Implementing the Recommendations of the Social Work Task Force. Retrieved December 1, 2011. http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk. Department of Health. (June 2002). Requirements for Social Work Training. London: Crown. Department of Health. (July 2009). Facing up to the Task. Dominelli, L. (2002). Anti-oppressive Social Work Theory and Practice. New York, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. General Social Care Council. (2010) http://www.gscc.org.uk/. General Social Care Council. (September 2002). Code of Practice for Social Care Workers and Code of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers. Greenwood, J. & Guner, N. (May 2008). Social Change. Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor. Humphrey, C. (2011). Becoming A Social Worker: A Guide for Students. London: Sage Publication, Ltd. International Federation of Social Workers. (2011, August 09). Definition of Social Work. Retrieved November 30, 2011. http://www.ifsw.org/en/p38000208.html. Jordan, B. (1998) The New Politics of Welfare: Social Justice in a Global Context. London: Sage Publications, Ltd. Levin, E. (2004). Involving Service Users and Carers in Social Work Education. London, United Kingdom: Social Care Institute for Excellence. Martin, H. & Atkinson, M. (2000). Developing Reflective Practice: Making Sense of Social Work in a World of Change. Bristol, United Kingdom: The Policy Press. Munro, E. (May 2011). The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report A Child-Centred System. United Kingdom: The Stationery Office Limited. Read More