Practical help for hard-pressed social workers

Aspect’s new handbook on the duty of care gives practical advice to social workers and other social care professionals who face excessive workloads, inappropriate skill mix, inadequate professional supervision and support and pressures to breach their Code of Practice. It explains why staff are required to speak out for users and carers and how best to do it. What if? is a practical guide on how to use the duty of care to the benefit of service users and to create a safe working environment for social care professionals.

Using the common law “duty of care”, the GSCC Code of Practice, and statutory requirements, a 100-page booklet What If? provides a contractual framework which explains how social work staff, managers and students can, should and must raise concerns about both their working environment and the environment of care. Doing so effectively is essential to safeguard both staff and service users and their carers. It includes a range of practical advice including pro forma letters – downloadable from this site – to lay an audit trail and raise concerns.

Author Roger Kline said:

Social work is in the national spotlight. The Social Work Taskforce recommendations will be published against a backdrop of further measures and already inadequate budgets. Workloads are likely to remain high. More stringent thresholds and eligibility criteria present staff with growing ethical dilemmas.

Social workers and their managers are under stress, often facing excessive workloads, inappropriate delegation of work, inadequate support and supervision. Social workers must stand up for themselves in order to better stand up for those who use services.

Professor Ann Davis CEIMH, Birmingham University said:

An essential and accessible guide for all those working in social care services. It addresses the issues which lie at the heart of improving both services and the working environment of practitioners.

Professor Michael Preston-Shoot, Bedfordshire University said:

For every registered social worker, who believes that registration does or should make a difference, and who is concerned about some aspects of their lived experience of work, then this publication is both timely and helpful.

It addresses serious issues which we know impact on social workers. It provides accessible guidance about how to respond which will help you to make a real difference to standards of practice and the management of practice.

Community Care’s review of What if? sparked a lively exchange

What if? is free to Aspect members and £11.50 (including postage & packing) for non members.

Discount for bulk orders (including postage & packing)

5–10 copies, £10 each; 11 or more copies, £8 each.

To order copies of What if? email lisa@aspect.org.uk and provide your full name and postal address – an invoice will be sent with the order.