Janet Iles raises some questions about the developement of the role of Social
Workers as Gatekeepers and as I work attached to a Social Services Dept. I
must agree that this is the way things are going.
I was never a great fan of Social Workers but, since working closely with
them, I have discovered that the ones I came into contact with just did not
see things the way that I did. I work around creating employment
opportunities for disabled people and I was drawn to this field because of
the political (with a small 'p') consiquenses of the work. If I get a person
into work their live can change very considerably for the better but there
are also knock on effects around practical integration issues, active
anti-disciminatory work and the simple fact that if one disabled person who
thought that they couldn't work gets a job they will tell other people who
don't think that they can get a job and the benefits snowball.
A good (in my view) Social Worker does the same things. They can empower the
people that they are allowed to have contact with (eligability criteria
permitting) and the benefits of the work done will spread out. There is
nothing wrong with being a professional, there is something wrong with being
a bad professional or a jaded professional (not that I'm suggesting Janet is
either) and these are the things we have to continually monitor about the
work that we do.
Paul
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