Thursday 24 March 2016

Sickening caseloads

I am probably not alone in being saddened, but not surprised, by the account in the Guardian of a child protection social worker being overwhelmed by the size and demands of her caseload.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2016/mar/23/overwhelmed-new-social-worker-child-protection-workload

Even sadder is that there will be some to whom the account will be water off a duck's back. For years and years it has generally been accepted that far too many children's social workers are chronically overworked; and over-burdened by time-consuming and unwieldy administration systems which put meeting bureaucratic requirements above doing the job well. But still it goes on in far too many places, with key people at the top simply shrugging their shoulders and doing nothing.

It ain't right.