A cracking life

The Other Interview.

I went for a second interview yesterday. I was met at the door by the Actual Person Who Was Going To Interview Me. Which makes a nice change. She didn't try to lord it over me either, which is also unusually refreshing. This Local Authority is now infamous for the deaths of 2 children after a catalogue of procedural errors. In the main the Social Workers were villified in the press, although the errors made by the health services and police were largely ignored because the pap press knows who their market is and who the readers hate the most.

I was interviewed by Little Tough Lady and Calm Joan. LTL was obviously the most vocal and kicked off with the first and most obvious question: Why do you want to work in H? Let me tell you it is a given that no one wants to work there because of it's reputation and let's be honest, nobody wants to have their picture splashed all over the tabloids and made scapegoat for ills of the various managers, departments, governments, rules, procedures and general all round madness that is created by inadequate and yet over zealous bureaucratic pen pushers.

I told her that it was purely because I had understood that there was a post available carrying out parenting assessments, which is what I do now and which I love. LTL clarified that I wasn't interested in taking on conventional case load management. No is the short answer. Been there, know the score, which is nil-nil-nil to the families, the children and the Social worker; yes, I know, but it's hard not to be cynical. There was a silence and a couple of sideways looks between them. LTL asked me what I thought were the key components of a Core Assessment. Here we go: Parenting capacity, children's needs, environmental factors, capacity for change, understanding of concerns, chronologies, risk assessments, ability to work with agencies, previous involvement. Her ears pricked up and she asked me to tell her how I would carry out a risk assessment. I asked her in what respect? To the child or the workers? To the child. Yes. Tell her about the child. For example Domestic Violence. How I would I assess this in relation to the Child.

DV is a real hotty at the moment. research shows that children can be quite resilient in many ways even when there are sinificant issues in relation to drugs, alcohol,mental ill health and so on. But put DV in the mix or even on it's own and the risk soars, both physically and emotionally. I touched on all the necessaries: Ability to recognise the risk; ability to protect; level and frequency of violence; whether victim can access help; childrens' behaviour and how the stress is showing itself; protective influences around the family; planning. At this point the planned interview came to a halt.

We had a long conversation about the various merits (or otherwise) of having a 'parenting assessor' in the team. I said that I thought it would be quite difficult but do-able. Both seemed quite interested in pursuing the idea that they could have a worker who was available to other staff to assist and train. They told me that they would be taking me to their senior management! Calm Joan interjected here and there with her full understanding of what I actually did. They asked me what models of social work I used: interactionist, systemic. I said one thing that I had picked up on recently that I had never noted being done as a matter of course by frontline social workers was Family Observations. By this I mean specifically going along and watching them for an hour or so, rather than just visiting to talk about the concerns the department had and interviewing each family member separately; to me it s very important to see how people operate with one another rather than seeing each individual as the proverbial 'Island'. It is the same with chronologies. Social workers have to spend sooooo much time filling in bits of paper that they inadvertently see the family as a Series Of Unfortunate Events rather than a whole organism, moving through time and space, acting and responding to life and their own previous experiences. This is often where The Bigger Picture gets missed. Let me say it is REALLY important to have thinking time. Social services in this area (i.e. Child Protection) is often operating as an Emergency Service, which it is not. It needs very careful thought and planning. Thinking Time is just not built into the equation.

We talked about money. I said what I had been offered elsewhere. LTL said you would be looking to get x amount, which was a pound less than I had been offered. Calm Joan said "No, she is looking to get the same". It doesn't do in Britain in Social Services to state your worth, but how much is the prevention of death of another child worth? It's not question of how much I am worth, but how much the child and their reputation is worth to them. They're gonna let me know. It was interesting, I liked them. I hope they come back with the right answer!!