BJSW Advance Access originally published online on February 9, 2007
British Journal of Social Work 2008 38(6):1132-1150; doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcl379
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
‘There Are Wonderful Social Workers but it’s a Lottery’: Older People’s Views about Social Workers
Jill Manthorpe is Professor of Social Work at King’s College London and Director of the Social Care Workforce Research Unit. She has long-standing interests in work with older people and has published widely on the subject. Her current research includes workforce studies, adult safeguarding, mental capacity and dementia, service evaluations and social work education.
Jo Moriarty is Research Fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit. She has particular interest in dementia support and service development. Current and previous research addresses ageing and ethnicity, social work education and user participation in social care.
Joan Rapaport is Research Fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit. She has particular interest in mental health and is an active member of the British Association of Social Workers, and co-ordinates the Social Work History Network as part of her work at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit.
Roger Clough is Emeritus Professor of the University of Lancaster and is engaged in a variety of studies of social care for regulatory bodies and other funders. His most recent publication The Support Older People Want and the Services they Need (Clough Manthorpe and OPRSI, 2007) continues his joint work with older researchers.
Michelle Cornes is Research Fellow at the Social Care Workforce Research Unit. She has worked on research and community development with older people and is currently engaged in studies of hospital discharge and of service improvement in the UK.
Les Bright is an independent researcher and consultant.
Steve Iliffe is a practicing General Practitioner in inner London and is Reader in General Practice at University College London Medical School. He has particular interest in service design and development, and in dementia care.
OPRSI (Older People Researching Social Issues) are a research co-operative of older people who have particular interest in communicating the views of older people and carers to policy makers.
Correspondence to Professor Jill Manthorpe, Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King’s College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NN, UK. E-mail: Jill.manthorpe{at}kcl.ac.uk
 |
Abstract |
|---|
This paper draws on the evaluation of the impact of the English National Service Framework for Older People (NSFOP) on the experiences and expectations of older people, four years into its ten-year programme. The NSFOP focuses on achieving cultural changes so that older people and their carers are treated with respect, dignity and fairness. The evaluation took a mixed methods consultation approach in ten localities. This paper focuses on what was said by older people, their carers and in voluntary sector groups about social workers’ roles and activities. The data suggest that they find social workers’ roles unclear and variable. They appreciate a person-centred approach, informed about older people’s needs in a confusing social care system. Their perceptions tally with those of social workers that the tasks of care management can be reductionist, but older people also desire specialist knowledge combined with a relationship that is ‘on their side’. Social workers’ roles in rationing support and means-testing did not seem to promote such models. At a time of rising expectations about the skills of social workers and of changes to social work roles in England and Scotland, this study provides one of the few examples of information directly gathered from older people themselves.
Keywords: social work, older people, satisfaction, quality assurance, professional role, user perspectives