‘Workforce’ is another term that dominates the narrative of social care. So, let’s unpick this a little to understand the story we’re currently telling about working in social care, and how that needs to change.

First though a note on the story of social work.

Recent research by Dr Maria Leedham into “the language surrounding the profession of social work in the media” identified “four times as many negative stories as positive ones”. She writes that “child protection dominates in newspaper articles with adult care hardly getting a look in”. She also notes that social workers rarely feature in TV dramas, and “when they do appear, social workers are described as either judgmental bureaucrats or child snatchers.” [1]

In an attempt to counteract the largely negative story of social workers, The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has launched the BASW Social Work Journalism Awards, and the Social Workers Union has issued ‘media reporting guidelines for cases involving social workers’.

Ironically, the stories shortlisted for the first awards in 2023 almost all appear to tell a largely negative story of social work! They include features on “social workers in England quitting in record numbers”, “impossible workloads”, “hundreds of jobs vacant”, “high stress, high demand, high burnout” and “the social care system in crisis”. [2] And, while the media guidelines emphasise that it is important that social workers are portrayed fairly and accurately in the media… to prevent damage to the recruitment and retention of social workers”, the very same guidance refers to ‘unmanageable caseloads’, social workers ‘crying/feeling unwell at least once a week’ and ‘half of social workers considering leaving their posts.’ [3]

Both the awards – and the media guidelines – focus on social workers at the expense of the people they serve. The journalism awards include a category for “lived experience (reports in any media that sensitively features service users/people that social workers support)”. The winning article in the ‘print – news’ category describes social work as “a demanding but rewarding job protecting and helping some of Wales’ most vulnerable.” And the media guidelines begin with “social workers are on the frontline of helping the most vulnerable in society.”

In a further layer of irony, the guidelines emphasise that “journalists should consider whether language used generalises social workers unfairly”, in a document that uses language that unfairly stereotypes and dehumanises the people who draw on their support – and bizarrely uses the ableist euphemism adults or children “with differing abilities”.

It seems that there are lots of people suggesting we need to tell a different story, then repeating the same old deficit-based narrative.

What’s wrong, not what’s strong.

The wider story of working in social care is equally deficit-based. There are endless references to low pay and low skills, ‘the day-to-day challenges of caring for vulnerable people’, the ‘challenges faced by the sector in delivering care as a service’, vacancies and recruitment difficulties, and care workers either being exploited and abused, or exploiting and abusing.

We need to tell a different story, and we need to begin in a very different place.

From care to self-directed support

The wider workforce portrayed in the dominant narrative is not really very wide at all. In the same way that people drawing on care and support are overwhelmingly portrayed in both the discourse and imagery as ‘elderly’, ‘frail’, ‘vulnerable’, the depiction of the ‘workforce’ is largely limited to residential and domiciliary care workers, invariably shown in uniforms, often wearing masks, and with their arms around anonymous shoulders, or clasping wrinkly hands. Not only does this fail to convey the diversity of social care roles, and of the people who benefit from support, it also severely limits the conversation around reform. As Neil Crowther observes, “the workforce being imagined is one for the local authority commissioned institutional and time & task sausage machine. Its for ‘an industry’, it’s not part of building the wellbeing ecosystem that will permit us all to reap the dividend of our longer lives.” [4]

This focus on care and carers inevitably places people with cause to draw on support in the background, and in the passive role of the ‘cared for’. The ‘vulnerable person’ to whom ‘care is delivered’.

We need to shift this narrative and start instead (as per the Care Act 2014) with wellbeing. With the rights of disabled people to independent living, and to the “personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community.” [5] With the principles of self-directed support. With people having choice and control over the support they need to live the life they choose to lead. And with what really great support looks like, from the perspective of people who draw on it.

From tasks to values

Descriptions of working in social care usually start (and end) with details of the tasks involved in “delivering exceptional care to service users” and “helping vulnerable people live as comfortably as possible”.

Job adverts for care workers include lists of ‘duties’ like “assisting patients with grooming and personal hygiene”, “assisting with bodily functions such as bathing, washing, feeding,” “aiding with toileting during the day,” “administering medication to service users,” and the “dressing and undressing of clients”.

This language firmly places people in a passive role. Looked after. Done to.

It’s a narrative of functional, scheduled, life and limb care delivered to keep ‘vulnerable people who can’t look after themselves’ alive.

There’s little or no reference to supporting people to do the things that matter to them with the people who matter to them, in the places that matter to them. To enjoy life. To thrive.

And adverts say things like “Any relevant work experience with looking after vulnerable people would be an advantage”. “Experience of looking after the elderly preferred.” “Experience of caring for others would be useful.”

In contrast, talking about her experience of recruiting personal assistants to support her family, Tricia Nicoll says “I look for and I try to attract people who have never worked in social care before, and often people who have never heard the word autistic before. Otherwise, I find that people think they know what they need to do, and they think they know who Sam and Lucy are… Our interview process is focused on human values, and then the three of us and great outside trainers can teach people anything else they need to know.” [6]

And at our recent Adult Social Care ‘Festival of practice’ in Doncaster, Wendy Sharps said very similar, speaking of her experience of recruiting a new PA: “I just advertised my own job on Facebook and I shoved it in the middle of everybody’s business. ‘Wendy wants a PA’. I had loads of people saying ‘I’ve worked in hospital’ and this and that and I’m thinking, oh no, I don’t want a sergeant major working for me. I want somebody flexible because you see I’ve worked with people like that, they don’t want to bend. They want to come in [and say] ‘you’re having your dinner at this time, you’re going to be doing this at that time’. [But] you can’t put me in a time slot. It don’t work. So, when Kyla came and she’d never done care before, I thought this is great. I can mould her. She can learn her job and we can learn together, you know? Her qualifications weren’t as good as what the other people had got, but she asked me questions and she were interested in me. I thought, bless her, she really wants it and she’s hungry for it. I thought, we’re going to be a good team.”

While the ‘sector’ continues to talk about tasks and people with ‘the right skills’, people seeking support are far more interested in finding people with the right values.

As Helen Sanderson says, “if people have got the right heart, and the right values, we can teach them the skills that they need.” [7]

From vacancies to opportunities

“Vacancies in social care are now the highest on record.”

“Almost 400,000 carers leave workforce.”

“Social care: The £600m jobs emergency that isn’t going away.”

There is much talk of ‘vacancies’ and problems with recruitment and retention. But there are multiple issues with this persistent narrative. The vacancies are often presented as a challenge for ‘the sector’, rather than for people seeking and drawing on support. “Without a long-term plan to solve care’s staffing crisis, the sector will remain many thousands of employees short.” “We will see care homes closing and care companies going bust.” “These pressures are impacting the whole health and care system’s ability to deliver care.” “Bed blocking up by a third as social care jobs go unfilled.” There’s little mention of the impact on people’s lives beyond references to ‘vulnerable adults left without care.’

The repeated references to challenges with recruitment sit alongside equally ubiquitous messaging around low pay, high pressure, stress, and – to quote Jo Brand, the “hugely demanding, arduous, sometimes repetitive, often boring, thankless nature of the work that care workers do.” [8]

And, as with the whole narrative of ‘workforce’, we’re limiting the conversation to a very narrow range of job roles. As Community Catalysts note, “narrow definitions of ‘social care’ restricting to ‘time & task’ & ‘personal care’ create perceptions of limited support.” [9]

By persistently talking about vacancies, we’re focusing on what is missing, not what is present. We’re “squeezing the abundance out of view.” [10]

So how about we flip this narrative? We focus instead on telling positive stories of people who are living good lives and benefiting from brilliant support from the millions of people who are working in roles across social care, including for example as personal assistants, Shared Lives carers and Local Area Coordinators. Tell positive stories about the wide variety of roles, and the rewards of working in them. And tell a very different story to, and about, the people who could work in social care in the future.

“I really really have to make it easy for people who’ve never seen themselves as wanting to work in social care to become part of the team that I employ. So that means I’ve got to actively recruit differently and describe the job differently, and to make the job a very different job.”

Tricia Nicoll [11]

From pay to reward

“Half of care workers in England earn less than entry level supermarket roles.”

“It pays more to be a warehouse packer than a care worker.”

“Social care: shop work can pay more than care jobs, staff say.”

Of course, people working in care and support should be paid more. But focusing on pay suggests that’s the only reason people don’t apply for, or stay in, social care jobs, and that if the pay was better, all problems would be solved. This squashes conversations about wider terms and conditions that also need to change, and it also ignores the rewards of working in social care at its best.

It may well be possible to earn more per hour in your local supermarket or pub, but the endless comparisons suggest the jobs are comparable. Where is the narrative of the flexibility and autonomy that different care and support roles can provide? The sense of purpose and achievement and fulfilment they offer? The variety? The relationships? The laughter? The joy?

“I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve always worked in pubs and stuff like that. And coming from an environment like that to here, it’s just amazing. Even if we just go to the shop or go out for the day or we go for some food or we watch a film together, things like that, it makes such a massive difference to Wendy’s life, but it does to mine as well… For me, it’s not about the money. I enjoy this job. I like seeing Wendy be a mum, seeing her be a granny, seeing her be a wife. I’ve seen all of it and it’s just amazing that she’s had the opportunity to still be able to do these things because she hasn’t changed. She’s still Wendy and all she needs is support, and that’s what I’ll do for her.”

Kyla, Wendy’s PA – speaking at Doncaster’s Festival of practice in November 2022.

---

The story of the social care workforce has become curiously detached from the story of the lives people want to lead, and the resources and support they need to draw on to lead them.

The dominant narrative of workforce reform focuses on narrowly defined, paternalistic care roles, and on preventing things getting worse (for ‘providers’, including the NHS), rather than on the wealth of great examples of brilliant care and support, and on preventing loss of independence and wellbeing.

The stories of good lives and good support are not mutually exclusive. They are the same story. A story of autonomy and flexibility. Choice and control. Dignity and respect. Meaning and purpose. Recognition and reward. Connections and relationships. Capabilities and possibilities. Love and belonging. Hope.

This is the story we need to tell, and the future we need to build.

---

References

[1] How negative perceptions of social workers are reinforced in the media.Maria Leedham, Community Care, 12 October 2023.

[2] The BASW Social Work Journalism Awards, British Association of Social Workers, 2023

[3] Media reporting guidelines for cases involving social workers. Social Workers Union, 2022

[4] The workforce being imagined is one for… Neil Crowther, Twitter. 6 February 2023.

[5] Convention On The Rights Of Persons With Disabilities (CRPD), United Nations, 2006.

[6] Tricia Nicoll – Workforce, Tricia Nicoll, In Control Partnerships, 31 May 2021

[7] Helen Sanderson recruitment, Helen Sanderson, In Control Partnerships, 6 January 2022

[8] I have been a care worker and know what the job involves – they deserve a real living wage. Jo Brand, The Independent, 12 February 2021

[9] Narrow definitions of ‘social care’… Community Catalysts, Twitter, 31 May 2023.

[10] Mavis and Meena – social care abundance or deficit? Angela Catley, Community Catalysts, 30 May 2023

[11] Tricia Nicoll – Workforce, Tricia Nicoll, In Control Partnerships, 31 May 2021