By Charlotte Webster-
The social work profession in the Uk is taking positive steps to confront racism in its midst, as a co-ordinated plan to battle racism is put in place.
Produced by the Anti-Racist Social Work Steering Group, set up in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, and led by representatives from the principal social workers networks for children and adults, ‘What Works for Children’s Social Care and Social Work England’, a network of partnership collaboration is seeking to identify, confront, and eliminate racism in social work.
AD: Capeesh Restaurant
The profession has launched a survey to be extended to every social worker, with the aim of identifying racism or perceptions of racism in a profession that demands expertise and professionalism in all its operations. Those with the drive say it is important to understand how people of minority in the industry feel in relation to racist attitudes, in a profession that strives to attain equality and fairness in families and across the board of their endeavours.
The drive to eradicate racism in social work has already led to initiatives to tackle racism in social work. British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England professional officer Wayne Reid has led a campaign to raise awareness of racism within social work, in a new role as anti-racism visionary, while the British Association of Social Workers(BASW) has appointed an anti-racism lead, Shantel Thomas.
Chantel Thomas has been appointed to lead anti-racism drive in social work Image: BASW
AD: Oysterian Sea Food Restaurant And Bar
Professionals in many expert fields have been taught to understand that racism can be subtle and covert, while those on the receiving end of such allegations may at times view such charges as amounting to paranoia.
A black social worker anonymously told The Eye Of Media.Com that she was once snobbishly approached by a social worker who actually asked her if she was one of the cleaners in the office. ”Am I dressed in the charges as amounting to paranoia. Indeed, there could be other explanations for what minority groups perceive as racism, but there will be times when subconscious racism manifests itself without the guilty party necessarily acknowledging
In a video to launch the survey, Social Work England executive directive of strategy, policy and engagement Sarah Blackmore(pictured) said the entire initiative was designed to tackle a lack of of data on racism in the profession, and vowed it would result in “meaningful change”.
“One of the issues we’ve really been struck by as a new organization is the lack of data about social work as a profession…and, really starkly, about who social workers are, where they are and the experiences that they have,” she said.
Blackmore highlighted reports of social workers experiencing differences and disproportionality because of their background, as well as less opportunity and more frequent disciplinary processes for those from black Asian or ethnic minority groups. She said: “We know this anecdotally, but it’s really important that we build can build an evidence-based picture of what is happening in social work in England.”
Blackmore added: “All too often when media headlines die away, the conversation drops off. The great thing for me about this process is that it really feels like it’s not going to happen this time, and that [the] partnership who created this survey will not allow this to happen, and we are really passionate about and committed to ensuring that there is some real, sustained and meaningful change so social workers have the same opportunities.”
Experience Or Witness Of Racism
The survey asks social workers how frequently they have experienced or witnessed racism from colleagues or managers, and service users or families, and also to report on levels of racism directed at families from staff. It also asks people what impact racism has had on them or colleagues, including in relation to their health, work absences, disciplinary action, fitness to practice cases or decisions to leave their organization or the profession as a whole.
It includes questions to practitioners on whether they would feel comfortable intervening in racism at work, if they believe their team and organization are doing enough to address it and what, if anything, their organization has done.
It also calls on practitioners to say what they would like to see done profession-wide to address the issue, such as better training or more black, Asian and ethnic minority social workers in leadership roles
Sharon Davidson, co-chair of the Principal Children and Families Social Worker Network, said: “This is the first time that I’ve been aware in my career where we are asking people to talk about their experience of racism and to think about that in a very holistic way. It will challenge us as a sector to really understand how we then address those issues. It’s really important that we lead the way as a profession in terms of understanding and doing something about the information that comes forward.”
Representation
Among the issues spotted in connection with representation is lower representation of black and ethnic minority professionals at director of children’s services level, compared with the population as a whole and, in particular, the social work front line.
Also noted are higher failure rates among black and ethnic minority staff on the assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) compared with white colleagues has also been noted in worrying trends of discrimination in the profession.
Social workers from minority groups are also said to be more likely to face discrimination, but there has been insufficient data from which analysis can be made as to all the facts associated with the causal elements of the disciplinary action.
Workforce Race Equality Standard
Eighteen councils are implementing a workforce race equality standard (WRES) initiated by the government’s chief social workers for adults and children. This requires them to report on the proportion of black and ethnic minority staff at different levels of the workforce, comparative rates of disciplinary action, fitness to practise referrals and access to funded training, and the percentage of ethnic minority staff experiencing bullying and harassment, either from colleagues or the public.
British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England professional officer Wayne Reid has led a campaign to raise awareness of racism within social work, in a new role as anti-racism visionary, while BASW has also, separately, appointed an anti-racism lead, Shantel Thomas.
Social workers and students held a day of action on 19 March this year to call for action to tackle racism within the sector.
Rachael Wardell, chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ workforce development policy committee, said: “It is important for children and young people to see that they too can aspire to a career in children’s services by seeing themselves reflected in the professionals who have such an important impact on their lives.”
She added: “By collecting equality and diversity data, we hope that Social Work England can gain a better insight into where there may be gaps or trends that need addressing.”
AD: Heritage And Restaurant Lounge Bar