A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokeswoman confirmed that the 6,800 people who had enquired had all requested further information about a career in social work.What I still wonder is, what type of training is needed in the UK to become a social worker?
As I noted a while back, Britain seems to be going through a bit of a social work crisis of late - more than half the articles I find online are about child welfare over there. And from what I read, the main role of social workers is safety monitoring and removal of kids.
Working in "prevention" (which means "connected to the child welfare system") in NYC, I am learning a lot about what doesn't work here, but I also see a lot of variety and depth - programs focusing on family systems and not just enforcement. Even ACS' Improved Outcomes for Children initiative (IOC) is an attempt at a family-orriented and strength-based approach (in my experience so far, its not really functioning, but that's another matter). Is child welfare more nuanced here, or am I only seeing one side of things through the British media?
More on this later, but in the meantime, maybe we need advertisements promoting social work here in the U.S. Anyone got any money for an ad campaign? Or know any celebrities?
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