Photo by Community Care
Loading …A recent survey by Social Work England found that, of 2,120 respondents, 75% disagreed that social workers were valued by society.
This is despite previous research for the regulator finding that 74% of around 3,000 adults in England believed social workers wanted the best for people. Of those, 62% felt social workers also made a big difference in people’s lives.
So how accurate is the profession’s view of its public image?
A Community Care poll with close to 800 responses found that most practitioners believed that the majority social work opinion was accurate and the profession really was unvalued by society.
Only 4% said this was not true.
Media portrayals ‘biggest contributor to profession’s image’
This section on Social Work England’s survey also attracted the most free-text responses – 1,462 – the overwhelming majority (88%) of which were negative.
Most respondents also said that the main reason behind society’s low opinion of social work was media portrayals of the profession.
“I think that people grossly misunderstand what social workers do,” said one respondent.
“Social work definitely has an image problem, which makes our already difficult job much harder. I do blame media representations for this. I have never seen a remotely accurate portrayal of social workers in the media.”
Last year, Social Work England launched a campaign urging TV and film producers to ‘change the script’ on how they depict the profession on the screen.
Celebrate those who’ve inspired you
Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock
Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?
Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.
Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*
If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
