A lot has changed in my 20 years as a social worker…

Former chair of BASW Gerry Nosowska reflects on two decades in the profession – and finds reasons to be cheerful
Gerry in Sheffield at the start of her career

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 1 December, 2022

Twenty years ago, I qualified as a social worker and took a month off to travel through Poland, Ukraine and Russia, visiting family and friends.

A lot has changed since then…

That journey is impossible now. The world seems more chaotic, unpredictable and conflicted than I remember 20 years ago. But I think that is mostly because I see more of what is happening through social media and constant news.

The fundamentals of social work remain the same: Some people still, for varied reasons, face overwhelming struggles to thrive at some point in their life. Social workers are still needed to come alongside, make sense of what is happening, and help people journey through this.

However, the way we do social work has evolved hugely. There are the obvious things, like computers, mobile phones and virtual meetings. When I qualified, we still used written forms in triplicate and we used to put marks on a paper for every new case to capture our Key Performance Indicators. Fax machines were still going in the 2010s, though every third page was always illegible. Smoking at desks was a fresh memory for many social workers and most had honed their craft through generic social work. 

More significantly, over my career, the application of social work values has developed and deepened, and this gives me hope.

Rights

I started work in adult services under a Labour government, who brought a huge sweep of policy change, for example laws to strengthen carers’ rights and investment in integrated care. The Human Rights Act had just come in. The Equality Act followed in 2010. In the early 2000s, we didn’t have a Mental Capacity Act in England. If someone in the hospital where I worked struggled to make a clear decision, a doctor might say they didn’t have capacity and we would make a plan about them. Through activism and lobbying, and therefore cultural change, there has been huge progress in embedding rights in law and in practice. Devolution has allowed for nuanced rights-based developments in different nations.

The opportunity to exercise rights ebbs and flows. Over the last ten years, under the Conservative government, politics of fear has fuelled populism and put human rights at risk. Most recently, the Police act 2022 undermines nomadic Gypsies and Travellers right to roadside camps. However, I believe social work increasingly sees itself as a human rights profession. Social workers’ expertise in using law and in advocacy has grown.

Justice

I went into social work with the 20th century idea that I knew what others needed. Over 20 years, I have seen a beautiful growth in people telling social work what they want from us and, crucially, what they don’t. Experts by experience inform education, practice, research and service delivery. Co-production is still far from universal but the word had only just been used in UK policy in 2002.

Social work has always been a political profession. I don’t believe this has reduced – look at the ongoing role of the Social Workers Union and BASW’s campaigns - but there are different manifestations through social media and online activism. Overall, poverty has reduced across the world, except in conflict zones. However, wealth inequality in the UK between regions, age groups and socio-economic groups is widening again so there has been a step-back in justice. Add to this the unequal impact of climate change and social work has a lot to shout about.

My social work teachers were rooted in anti-oppressive practice and committed to equity. Building on 20th century social work’s foundations, there has been a broadening and deepening of equality, diversity and inclusion work. Recently, the Covid-19 pandemic’s inequitable impact and George Floyd’s murder in the USA have been catalysts. Now, the advance of intersectionality adds an impetus and focus to the work. Social work is renewing itself, led by diverse voices in all areas of the profession. Missed areas and deep-rooted biases are being seen and acted on.

Integrity

I completed a Diploma in Social Work. It is now a degree or postgraduate qualification, with a register and regulator. We had debates at university about whether social work was a vocation or a profession. To my mind it is both, but professionalism builds trust through consistency of values and expertise. And we should not exploit social workers’ sense of vocation to permit poor working conditions.

There have always been attempts by the powerful to define what social work is and should do, with the risk of ignoring what minoritised people say. In the last decade these have seen opposition to including anti-oppressive practice in social work education under Michael Gove’s education department. At the same time, pressure that social workers are under from lack of resource and misplaced policy is growing.

In this context, the increasing articulation by the profession of what it stands for has been vital. The International Federation of Social Workers’ definition from 2014 and ethical principles, and the BASW’s code of ethics and capability statements that flow from these – such as the Professional Capabilities Framework in England - enable social workers to advocate for and to practise social work that is not at the mercy of vested interests. The rise of World Social Work Day provides an annual opportunity to celebrate with a joyful sense of our shared global social work identity.

We have more voice and influence than we often think. Membership of our professional body, BASW, has more or less doubled in 20 years. There is a strong social work voice informed by values and expertise, alongside people with lived experience. We have a clear sight on what we need to sustain us and a clear campaign for better working conditions. Every day, social workers provide exceptional peer support to each other.

Yes - oppression, inequality, inept policy and overwhelmed services have not gone away. Demographic, social and economic changes mean social work is needed as much as, if not more than, ever.

But also, and with a bigger YES - social work values, embodied in great people and strengthened by partnership work, are stronger than ever.