How social workers can help people live the lives they want


Julie Ridley reports from an inspiring conference about a series of Named Social Worker pilots in England funded by the Department of Health. An audience of self-advocates, families, social work practitioners and others heard about the positive contribution social work can make to the lives of people with learning disabilities when practice is based on knowing what works, and is developed in co-production with the people it supports.

 

Better Social Work Conference, Lancaster University Centre for Disability Research (CeDR)

September 2017

 

 

A Named Social Worker is defined as:

  • A dedicated social worker
  • The main point of contact for people and their families
  • A professional voice of challenge across the system

Lyn Romero, Chief Social Worker for Adults in England

 

Between October 2016 and March 2017 six local authorities – Calderdale, Camden, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, and Hertfordshire – ran the new Named Social Worker (NSW) pilots with people with learning disabilities. The pilots trialled different things including having experts by experience as paid team members. Chloe Grahame from The Innovation Unit, supporting the local authorities alongside the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), said that it had meant practitioners allowing time to really get to know people and really listen. In fact, some said it was ‘just good social work’! People with learning disabilities noticed the social worker was there for them and there was ‘less talk, more action’. A second six-month phase of NSW pilots is being funded.

Good social work practice with people with learning disabilities placed citizenship and social inclusion at its centre, the Chief Social Worker for Adults in England, Lyn Romero, said. Social workers need to support the social networks that can make a real difference in people’s lives and be a bridge to community resources and services.

The rise of managerialist and process-led social work was leading to poor outcomes for people with learning disabilities, said Rob Mitchell, Principal Social Worker for Adults in Bradford. Social workers often rely on a ‘box of tricks’, instead of working with people’s families and networks or listening closely to what the person is saying about the life they want. Referring to the Care Act 2014, he said that practitioners need to start from the assumption that the person is best placed to judge their own wellbeing and focus on their wishes, feelings, beliefs, and individual circumstances.

Advanced Practitioner Jackie Mahoney spoke about revisiting the profession’s roots in ethical and social justice approaches. Speaking about their involvement in Calderdale, and now the Bradford pilot, Nina Riddleston and Shvonne Nakoneczyni reflected that good social work isn’t about simply protecting people – people are experts in their own lives. Self-advocates want social workers they can trust, who treat them with respect, listen and do what they say they will do. It was important that social workers challenge the prevailing medical model and the barriers and assumptions that hold people back from living the life they want.

Bradford Talking Media showed a film of several people’s stories about their life hopes and ambitions. Having one person who knows them really well was top of many people’s lists. One man wanted to rent his own home and not have his parents cramping his style. He wanted to cook for himself, go out and come home when he wanted, have friends around, have a BBQ. He wanted his daughter to be able to stay at weekends. To achieve this, he needed recognition from a social worker that while his family can and do support him, they can also sometimes control things and want different things for him.

Reflecting on the Significant Incident inquiry they had led on following the untimely death of Judith Benn in 2014, David Blacklock and Louise Townson from People First Cumbria, quoted the shocking statistic that 37% of premature deaths amongst people with learning disabilities were avoidable, and concluded that people with learning disabilities with communication difficulties face a higher risk of having their health and social care needs overlooked.

Many questions were raised by delegates in the discussion they facilitated about the inquiry: why weren’t her family, who were involved in her life, contacted earlier?  Why wasn’t there a plan in place to deal with a known health condition? Such deaths are preventable with closer attention paid to the individual and their needs.

Key Discussion Points

  • Professionals need to work in true partnership with people with learning disabilities, breaking down ‘them and us’ barriers
  • Less person-centred

planning and more person-centred doing

  • Relationships are at the

centre of everything

  • Learning disability law similar to the Autism Act 2009 could mean better treatment under the law
  • We need to grow the people not the systems or the box of tricks.

Films of all the conference presentations are available at:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSCQCP7Aa-Q-a3goAqipk50yVRFjiCSAY

Webpage for the event http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/cedr/events/better-social-work-conference-2017/

(See also: Servants not masters: better social work for people with learning disabilities, page 26 of this issue).

 

Julie Ridley is Reader in Social Policy & Practice at UCLan and a Community Living adviser