Social Workers – poncy, ineffectual and clueless

October 29th, 2007 Written by Biz

I make no apology for my sincerely held conviction that Social Workers, along with MP’s, Councillors, Estate Agents and Solicitors, must be amongst the most despised and least productive - yet overpaid members of our society. Of these groups, I would argue that Social Workers actually come in at number one in this ‘hit parade’ of ineptitude.
 

Anyone who has ever had the misfortune to converse with one of these people will no doubt, in the first instance, have been repulsed by their condescending, pseudo-calm, enfeebled mannerism; and having the wherewithal to look through this repulsive persona, anyone with a modicum of perception will have realised that these very people, entrusted with protecting and guiding the weakest within our society, actually know nothing about the real world.
 

Now, of course there are exceptions, but I put it to you that these exceptions are…well, an exception, who are never destined to go very far within Social Services, as stupidity must engender and promote more stupidity in order for the whole organisation to cover up it’s own self perpetuating folly.
 

Now anyone wishing to argue otherwise…DON’T…you haven’t a leg to stand upon!
 

Anyone who regularly keeps abreast of the national news will have noticed two re-occurring themes that typify Social Workers’ interactions with the world at large – here are some fictitious but suitably illustrative scenarios:
 

• Normal family who love their children and who look after them well, commit some imagined transgression of Social Services child abuse guidelines (for example ‘forcing’ their children to do their homework and then abusing them by insisting that they be in bed by 11 O’clock at night). The Children are then taken into care to shield them from such hideous abuses of their human rights and to protect them from such callous parents.
• Violent family who regularly knock ‘seven bells’ out of their children, starve them, sexually abuse them, let them abscond from school and roam the streets at night, receive 30 visits from Social Services…in spite of cuts and bruises, visits to casualty and broken bones, the family is assessed as ‘not at risk’ and left alone…two days after the last Social Services visit… one or more of these children die at the hands of their parents.

 

Now here is the second of the themes…no doubt it will be familiar to all:
 

• Perfectly sane, but somewhat troubled individual ( possibly suffering from mild depression or anxiety or just going through a ‘bad patch’…as we all do), is labelled a ‘danger to the public’ and instead of being offered suitable help, is ‘sectioned’ and taken off the streets.
• Perfectly, psychotic, deranged, violent, ex-rapist, drug abusing mugger, is assessed by Social Workers as ‘no danger to the public’ and discharged from his secure psychiatric facility and into society at large. Because he is now unsupervised, he fails to take his medication and stabs a passing stranger 105 times with a carving knife, because the ‘voices told him to do it’.

 

The final outcome is always depressingly predictable:
 

• After an internal investigation, the tragic events can not be attributed to any particular individual, but the lessons of the events would be ‘taken on board’ to prevent such an event reoccurring…i.e. ‘were going to cover this up’.
• After an internal investigation, the case worker is sacked, but after an appeal by the Union, is re-instated.

 

Now, as mentioned earlier, there is actually just one root cause for this staggering level of incompetence…Social Workers haven’t a clue about the real world…why not?…because many of them are newly graduated, single, socialist student types, who got their knowledge of the world from books written by other equally clueless writers, who have never had to earn their living in the real world.
 

So how can this mess be sorted out?
 

Well, here are a few guidelines that common sense tells me would dramatically improve the calibre of any potential Social Worker:
 

1.     Before even considering a cushy job in Social Services, candidates should work for couple of years in the real world so that they can understand what the rest of us have to go through.
2.     No one who isn’t married with kids should even be considered, as only married people with kids can ever possibly understand marriage and parenthood and thus, how to deal with family problems.
3.     No one under the age of 25 should even be considered…a certain degree of life experience is necessary for a job in this field.
 

And there we are…in the final analysis, all that is needed is for all those poncy ‘Roy Cropper’ types to be replaced with ordinary folk with common sense…hardly rocket science…is it?
 

Entry Filed under: Rants & Views