What difference can a social worker make to an older person’s life?
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 9 March 2022
Debates about Health and social care and support for older people have gained prominence recently following the increase in National Insurance under the Health and Social Care levy.
The promise to ‘fix’ the social care issue has been on the agenda for at least the last decade and was a central plank of the government’s agenda for the current parliamentary session.
In England, the Health and Care Bill is working its way through Parliament. Debates around the reform of the Mental Health Act (1983), following on from the Wesley Report, and the Mental Capacity Act with its Liberty Protection Safeguards reforms will also bring about many changes to how social workers work with older people.
They will particularly impact on the growing numbers of older people who are living with dementia.
The Health and Care Bill has highlighted the need for a bigger workforce of qualified staff to meet the assessment of carers and older people that will be needing care. This is easier said than done but some local authorities are already making a concerted effort to recruit, with Level 6 and 7 apprenticeships directly being supervised by senior social workers.
Covid 19 has highlighted the significant strains that exist between health and social care, not least the age-old tension between the medical and social model. It has shown the need for increased service provision to ensure that older people are safely discharged from hospital, that there is sufficient community support for older people, and that care in residential and nursing homes is provided safely. The voice of lived experience must be at the centre of the reform agenda.
It is in this context that the Social Work with Older People (SWOP) research project has started. It is led by the University of Birmingham and the University of Bristol and runs for two years. The research will observe social work in two parts of England: Walsall in the West Midlands and Somerset. The study is funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research.
As members of the BASW Adult working Group we welcomed the opportunity to be part of the Expert Advisory Group and help to demystify in the eyes of the public what social workers do.
Researchers will shadow a small number of social workers as they go about their jobs. They will talk to them about their work and speak to the people they are working with.
This will include older people and carers as well as other professionals who may be involved in the work and their managers. Researchers will also look at the notes and reports social workers write and ask them to record their thoughts and feelings about their work.
The research will make recommendations about how social workers can best support older people and carers, including how they work with other agencies. It will identify how the government and employers can best invest in, support and recognise social work knowledge and skills.
Social workers bring enormous skill and resilience working with older people, their carers, family members and professional from across the health and social care spectrum to manage significant need and increasingly to manage risks.
They work within the framework of a mixed economy of care and in diverse settings. Covid 19 has meant increased challenges in meeting service provision and increased demands.
The Expert Advisory Group will oversee and guide the research and be a forum to share knowledge. It will support the research team by:
- Providing expert input about social work with older people
- Acting as a critical friend to the research team
- Reviewing research activities and making suggestions
The key questions that the research will ask is: What difference can a social worker make to an older person’s life?
The selection of research sites will afford the opportunity to explore differing needs. It will be important to recognise equality and diversity - and unmet needs within communities that may have faced exclusion in research previously.
As social workers, we believe this is an exciting initiative and will address some of the imbalance of research that rarely explores social work voices in adult services and rarely focuses on the work of social workers with older people.
Balvinder Bassi is a senior social worker and member of BASW’s Adults Group. Sonia Clark is a part-time social worker and member of BASW’s Adults Group