By Gabriel Princewill-

Drug testing of employees is the responsibility of individual employers and the rules they apply to their employees, the Department of Health told the eye of media.com.

This was in response to a finding by the eye of media.com that there are social workers on class A drugs in the country.

The finding came following a tip off to the eye of media.com that there were a number of social workers on class A drugs in social services in both London and Essex. Our source revealed the identity of a social worker they know in Social Services in Southend Essex regularly using class A drugs.

The source , who did not want to be named said there were a number of social workers who use class A drugs to cope with the increasing stress of the job. ”Many of them are on it, she told the eye of media.com, ‘” they use it mainly during social activities. It is common knowledge among many of them that class A drugs are used”, she said.

”Social workers never get tested when they go into the job, and they know this before they join because they inquire, our source told the eye of media.com. Many take it up as a job and believe that so long as they don’t do coke during work, they are fine. But many do it after work, before work, on social nights out, it is hypocritical, and wrong, the source stated. They make wrong decisions sometimes, they are dealing with people’s lives”, the source added.

The eye of media.com looked into the matter, in what comprised a six months investigation that revealed both the use of drugs and the disinclination of boroughs to apply drug testing to investigate any allegation of drug use.

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Our investigation also revealed that class A use of cocaine is relatively widespread among social workers. Allegations have been made among social workers in some boroughs, sometimes leading to a social worker leaving, if they felt isolated or condemned. In some cases, the matter remains unresolved with respect to establishing the fact of the allegation.

INVESTIGATOR

An investigator approached in Grays told an under -cover researcher from the eye of media.com that ”there are times deep sampling can be used to obtain evidence of drug use, with the source of the information shielded from identity ”unless a court judge demands it”. The name of the high standing investigator was given to the investigating team, but won’t be mentioned here because it was not his fault that his frank proposed solution to the problem, was derailed by other parties.

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The investigator was honourable and right, but his decision was soon overruled by superiors who must have wanted to discourage the idea of drug testing in social services.

Drug testing in social services is perceived to have the potential of demeaning social workers and berating them, but in actual fact it serves to highlight a real problem potentially caused or worsened by immense stress from the work- load of the job.

A multi-faceted approach designed to alleviate the sheer work -load, whilst simultaneously showing a zero tolerance to drugs, is the recommended way forward.

THE DEPARTMENT FOR HEALTH

Highlighting the importance of ”fitness for practice”, the Department of public health told the eye of media.com that ”the standards of proficiency explicitly outline the need for a social worker to be able to maintain ”fitness to practice”, understand the need to maintain high standards of personal and professional conduct and understand the importance of maintaining their own health and wellbeing”.

Sustaining one’s health and well- being is central to the need to abstain from high drugs since a sub- optimal well- being can easily affect one’s judgement.

The statement from the department of health is straightforward in its terms that employers have the responsibility to impose drug tests where such rules should apply. Such rules apply where there are social workers working in a stressful, demanding and important job are on class A drugs.

This is not to undermine the important and useful work social workers contribute to society, but to highlight the need to ensure those working as social workers have as sound a judgement as possible, allied to good ethical principles. The profession needs only the most competent individuals there.

DELICATE WORK

Serving in a delicate part of the public sector, social workers must be held to account by the same bar as other high standing professions, particularly those that involve dealing with vulnerable members of the public.Social workers spoken to by the eye of media.com in Southwark , Stratford and Islington all said they had never been drug tested, and drug testing was not a practice in their respective councils, before referring us to the media section for further discussion. This was similarly the stance of Southend Borough council when the mater was raised by the eye of media.com.

SOCIAL WORKERS PERIODICALLY TESTED

Social workers should be periodically and randomly subject to the same scrutiny of drug testing as the police do. As social workers perform the balancing exercise of varying factors in the respective decisions they take, their judgement must be impeccable and insightful. There can be no room for a sub-optimal performance of their remit for reasons such as the presence of an illegal substance that can impair their judgement,

Evidence of stress among social workers arising from work over- load, and a series of recently exposed failings in children services revealed last week, calls for the reality of class A drugs in social services to be confronted head on.

RECOGNITION OF SPORTS GOVERNING BODY

The athletics and sports governing bodies apply drug testing because of a recognition that it can serve as a performance enhancing substance which can amount to both cheating and self-destruction, as well as bad for the reputation of the sport. It amounts to cheating if social workers can determine the fate of drug abusing families, where they themselves may easily be on drugs. A level playing field is essential, social workers need to be acutely sharp with strong evaluative skills, even with complex cases.

AXE TO GRIND AGAINST SOCIAL WORKERS

Our initial source had an axe to grind against social workers in relation to children taken from a close female friend of hers and handed over to his father whom the daughter claims abused her many times as a young girl. The court believed the father, that the mother had poisoned the child’s mind, and the social workers handed her to the father. The mother in question has some mental health issues which reasonably swayed the court’s decision, but still raised questions abut the decision.

Whatever the motives for the revelation, an independent investigation conducted by the eye of media.com showed the claim to be absolutely credible, and one that requires action over time. Social services have many dedicated workers who have accomplished great things in their profession. A social services awards day to recognise positive contributors in social services takes place on November 25th, next month.

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