Professional standard 1: promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities
In this episode, our head of equality, diversity and inclusion Ahmina Akhtar explores professional standard 1 alongside Isaac, a member of our National Advisory Forum, and Sharon, chair of National Independent Reviewing Officer Manager’s Partnership. They share what social justice means to them and how social workers can promote it within their practice.
They also discuss how to recognise diversity when working with people, as well as challenging disadvantage and discrimination.
Join the conversation using #ThisIsSocialWorkPod on our website and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Transcript
Ahmina
Hi, I'm Ahmina Akhtar, head of equality diversity and inclusion at Social Work England.
Welcome to This Is Social Work, a podcast from the specialist regulator for social workers Social Work England.
In this series, we're focusing on the professional standards – the 6 standards that social workers must know, understand and be able to adhere to as part of their role. The professional standards are specialist to the social work profession and apply to social workers in all roles and settings across England.
In this episode, we're focusing on standard one which requires social workers to promote the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities.
Today I’m joined by National Advisory Forum member Isaac Samuels and Sharon Martin, chair of National Independent Reviewing Officer Managers Partnership (NIROMP). They share what social justice means to them and how social workers can promote it within their practice. We also discuss how to recognise diversity when working with people, as well as challenging disadvantage, discrimination, and oppression. We hope you enjoy the podcast.
I'm delighted to be joined today by Sharon Martin and Isaac Samuels, and I’m going to hand over to each of them to introduce themselves so I’ll start with Sharon.
Sharon
Hi, so yeah, my name's Sharon Martin. I’m also a registered social worker and I am chair of a group called the National Independent Reviewing Officer Managers Partnership and I’m also a local authority safeguarding and review manager, so what that means is that I’m involved in safeguarding and child protection work and I also have a real focus on children in care as part of my local work.
Ahmina
And we'll hand over to Isaac.
Isaac
Hi, so my name is Isaac Samuels. I have lived experience of lots of social worker support over many, many years. I'm also a member of the National Advisory Forum which is a forum, I would call it a critical friend to Social Work England and the reason I got involved in that is because I’m really passionate about social work because I’ve had lots of support from social workers in my life and I wanted to be able to help the profession by really sharing my experiences of social work over many years that I’ve had social workers in my life.
Ahmina
That's great, thank you Isaac and Sharon. I’m really pleased that you could join us today as we talk about standard one of the professional standards.
So I'm really conscious about the fact that there's a huge scope for standard one and that's because it's about promoting the rights, strengths and wellbeing of people, families and communities and we'll really be focusing on promoting strengths and equality, diversity and inclusion today because of that really large scope. And you'll both be familiar with the fact that in social work practice, we work with some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised individuals, families and communities, and often at some of the most difficult points in their lives and it really feels important for social workers to be able to recognise strengths of those individuals that they work with, and really be aware of power dynamics and be proactive in addressing those.
So, in reference to that then, I'd like to start with standard 1.6 and that talks about promoting social justice, helping to confront and resolve issues of inequality and inclusion and for me, anti-oppressive practice and anti-discriminatory practice are the mode through which most social workers demonstrate their commitment to social justice. And whilst those 2 approaches differ in focus, they are absolutely linked.
So anti-discriminatory practice focuses on tackling or reducing the discrimination faced by individuals from other individuals or organisations, whilst anti-oppressive practice seeks to tackle discrimination by focusing on the wider problems of discrimination within society itself, and how this is perpetuated by structures and systems.
So, I'll start with you Sharon. What does social justice mean to you and how can social workers promote it?
Sharon
So, thank you Ahmina. I think social justice is absolutely fundamental to social work practice. I think most social workers, including myself, would say it's the fundamental reason you know, why certainly I came into practice. I think it is absolutely as you say, it's about access and it's about equal opportunities so it's about thinking about the impacts of things like you know, employment, housing, finance.
We know the impact of poverty is a real you know, issue impacting on the lives of children and families and adults any of the people you know, that we serve and children that we serve. But it's also about human rights and it's about effectively, for me, making sure or working with and alongside people but also communities to make sure that no one is held back from having the life that they want to lead and reaching their potential essentially.
But I'd go further than equality. Actually, I think that equity is a really, really important aspect of what we do so it's about you know positively you know proactively helping people helping people to ensure that their voice is heard, so fundamentally I think those are the key aspects for me.
Ahmina
Thanks Sharon, and Isaac – what are your thoughts on what social justice means to you and in what ways can social workers promote it or in what ways have you seen social workers promote it?
Isaac
Sure, so I think for me social justice is something that is a real challenge because often society has lots of barriers they place in my way, in people like me’s life.
So to have a really good life, you need to have the same experiences as your peers and I just go back to the time that I was you know, I think when I came into contact with social services when my mum died, social workers were the people that advocated for my rights when I wasn't able to because of my age – they were the people that stood up for kind of, my rights, around the right place to live and I can give an example.
So as a young gay person it wasn't appropriate to just kind of place me anywhere. It was really thinking about what kind of environment would most work for me and that was a social worker to advocate for that, for my rights to have the right home so my foster placement was right for me, because they looked at the needs of myself but also advocated within that system and we all know that systems can sometimes not really understand what is important to people. When people get lost in that social work is often the people that are standing up and fighting for those individual rights you know.
I've been sectioned under the mental health act because of mental ill health. Now social workers have been there when I’ve needed support to get back into everyday kind of, life support to kind of, do the things that all of us take for granted, so employment and education, good housing, all those things that most people take for granted, if you've had a few bumps in the road can be really difficult things to actually live and breathe. Without the right support to overcome those barriers then you're never going to be able to have those same experiences, and that's why I really love social work because I remember all those opportunities to get the right support and think about ‘how do you overcome those barriers’ to someone that may have had a traumatic start in life, or had lost their home, or doesn't know how to kind of, navigate the big adult world, and social workers were part of that and have been for, for many, many years.
Ahmina
Thanks Isaac, really powerful and I think it connects to the next question that I had in mind which was thinking more about, what can social workers do to help confront and resolve issues of inequality and promote inclusion, and I think some of what you just said then really, really touched on that for me, so I think it'd be helpful maybe just to talk about that a little bit more. And particularly in reference to what you said in your last response Sharon, thinking more about equity and I think this is where we can explore equity much more when we're thinking about how we resolve inequality and how we can absolutely advocate for inclusion.
Sharon
Absolutely, I agree really, really powerful about what Isaac was saying about advocacy. I'd like to say a little bit more about you know, that at some stage but in terms of equity.
I’ve got an image you know, in my head if you like, it's quite a popular image you may have seen it. It's a 3, let's say 3 children who are trying to view a football match but there's a fence in in the way so they can't, but they can't see, so the 3 children are of different heights in effect.
So we've got a tall child who's you know, reasonably privileged by virtue of their height so they can see with one box reasonably well. We've got another child who's a sort of medium stature who with the one same one box can see reasonably well over the fence, slightly obscured still. And then we've got a third child who's very small probably my sort of height, I'm a little titchy as well and you know would that be me, I'd need a couple of boxes in order to you know, see over that you know, fence.
So when I think about equity it's about not treating people equally. You know, we've had different journeys in life, we've had different obstacles set in our way just as Isaac has said, and we've had different you know, bumps in the road.
We've got different abilities you know, you know disabilities and so on and therefore equity is about taking that on board and getting alongside you know, people and helping to kind of you know, lift them up in order that those equal opportunities can better be met in effect, so that people really do have the potential to achieve their, their ability, their capacity.
Ahmina
I’m familiar with that image and I saw Isaac nodding as well.
Sharon
It’s a great image, isn’t it?
Ahmina
It’s a great image, and it did, I remember reflecting on it and thinking that so many people think uniformity equals equity or equality and actually it's absolutely not about that, it's about really looking at the individual and their circumstances and building a relationship, and thinking about their needs, very much like what you described and Isaac talked about in terms of his experiences.
I'm going to come back to you Isaac and ask if there's anything else that you wanted to add?
Isaac
So I really like Sharon's picture of like you know, the young children with all of those barriers but actually for me the biggest barrier was my own mind and being able to see that there were opportunities. Hopes and dreams could become you know, lived experiences so social workers often helped me kind of see that anything was possible and then did some of that hand holding, which was really important. I had lots of trust issues and I didn't really know where I was going so having like real tangible support to kind of navigate those barriers is really important.
But not only me, like to work with my family, to work with the local community – it really meant a lot to me because it actually made a difference. I don't think anybody wants a service, what they want is a good life and I think what happens is that systems sometimes can just treat everybody the same, not realizing that we all have different challenges and barriers and if you ever had a bump in the road, you might need something to look and feel differently and that hand holding or that kind of support can often make a big difference.
So it's not about treating people the same, it's about understanding the individual, what they need, what you can do and going back to the first question, often advocating within a system that doesn't really get it. You need to do things differently in helping people overcome those barriers. So I think about like, that's often been in my life like the social worker fighting for a social care package or the social worker pushing me to go to university or social worker fighting to get, I think it was called section, is it, was it section 25 aftercare for like, education – all those things that you would never know, and those bits of support really made a difference because they helped me minimise those barriers, but I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself.
Ahmina
That's really powerful, thanks Isaac and I think it really resonated me, resonated with me when you said that like it was your own mind at times that was kind of the block and I think that's so interesting for, I think for all of us as individuals, for people that we support as social workers to recognise I think, just as a society often we are probably our own worst critics and I think we would probably never use the self-talk or speak to somebody else in the way that we speak to ourselves or discourage ourselves, so I think often at those points we do really need somebody else to fight our corner and I do think that it's really important that social workers are able to do that within their roles, so thank you.
So closely linked then to the last standard, is standard 1.5 and that states that as ‘social workers we must recognise differences across diverse communities and challenge the impact of disadvantage and discrimination on people and their families and communities’.
So for me that it feels really important to value the cultural needs and values of people and that feels really fundamental to social work practice, and again I think that connects with some of what we talked about with the, with the last standard, and it's a social worker's responsibility to try and understand as much as possible about the individuals that they're working with, their cultural identities, their families, their communities, much like what you said Isaac, and really recognising the significance of their culture and their belief and the culture in the broadest possible sense, because I think sometimes when we think about culture we kind of think more about broader culture but I think we also need to think about subcultures and family culture and think about what it means for that individual and all of the things that impact on their identity.
It also feels really important to say that social workers don't need to be highly knowledgeable about all cultures and different cultures. I think sometimes we can feel like we need to be an expert in all things and that can then discourage us from perhaps talking about things or acknowledging things because we don't have the confidence, but I think it feels really important to be able to just be open and engage and explain that you don't understand something or just say ‘oh I want to just check something out’, I feel like that's always served me well when I’ve not been sure, and I think it's so important to actually work with and use the knowledge and experience of the people that we're working with to be able to get the best outcomes for them.
So with that in mind, how can social workers recognise diversity when working with people and challenge disadvantage and discrimination.
Sharon
I mean just reflecting back again on some of what Isaac was saying that is immensely you know, powerful we all come you know, with different you know, experiences you know, you know, into this world.
I mentioned sort of you know, journeys, our journeys earlier on and when we enter into you know, a relationship you know, with a person be it a social worker with a you know, a child or young person that we're working with, we come into that relationship perhaps with a certain you know, some assumptions you know, we do that – we shortcut you know, situations in our minds in order to make you know, sense of them initially but moving beyond that it's really important that we ask those you know, those questions that we get alongside you know, people.
So I was very, kind of, trying to be very careful earlier to kind of, use the terms you know, working with you know, not giving voice to people actually because some of the things that I often hear from, for example, people with learned experience of the care system is that you know actually we have a voice and there's something about advocacy as you know, Isaac quite rightly you know, says but it's also about helping people to have their voices you know, kind of amplified and heard, and it's about listening and being you know, curious you know, in response to that essentially.
So I think you know, there's always a risk that we can homogenise you know, in terms of our understanding of you know, different communities. Of course we have you know, a real responsibility to make sure that learning is a, is a continuum within social work as it is in you know, life so we draw on available literature.
I’m a really firm believer that as social workers, as professionals, we're privileged and with that privilege comes a real responsibility to take ownership for our learning, so we create time if necessary, in order to make sure that we're learning.
But that goes beyond books. Books are really important it's about getting alongside people individuals and communities and discovering what culture you know, means for them because you know, we interpret and make sense of culture based on our different experiences, beliefs.
I absolutely draw on aspects of you know, my own lived experience in order to better under understand or try to, from you know, other people so drawing on for example my experience of you know, being kind of school or employment and stuff. Some of that stuff I mean, that you said around you know, self-talk you know, and how I overcame negative you know self-talk and the people that enabled me to do that and then I kind of utilised some of that the richness of that you know, learning how I then you know, interact with others. So I’m a real believer in people's you know, strengths and you know people's capacities. But I think as social workers we bring ourselves as a resource and the people that we come into contact with through our relationships, have the most wonderful you know, resources that we just need to kind of you know, seek out and understand together and check out our assumptions constantly along the way and ask for that feedback, and I think that's how you get a better understanding of culture, what it means.
Ahmina
Yeah, a lot of what you said then really resonated with me Sharon, I think particularly your last point on checking yourself and your assumptions. I think we live in such a fast-paced world and there's always so much going on and we're always so busy, and I think we do get into automatic pilot and there are so many influences on us all of the time and there's so much information and very much, like we said at the beginning that sometimes we do make overarching generalisations just to help us to process that, that is what we do need to do just because it wouldn't be possible to be able to function without being able to do that.
But equally it feels really important to be able to recognise that is what is happening and constantly questioning yourself around it and to be able to think about what assumptions it is that you are making so that you can challenge them. And I think in social work we're also really advantaged to be able to use supervision and peers, and really think about ways that we can engage with each other to reflect on those things and encourage that open conversation and challenge so that we are able to work anti-oppressively and anti-discriminately. So yeah, a lot of what you said resonated. Isaac?
Isaac
So, I think for me it's really important that you don't think of your understanding as a, or people's experiences as fixed because it's not and it often changes. So it's being open, it's being questioning, it's being human and it's really being alongside somebody to understand what's important to them, what's important to their community and really being inquisitive so I'll give an example.
So, you might be from a particular place or you might identify with a particular group of people but then if you happen to have another bump in the road, such as disability or you are from an LGBT background you know, your experience might be totally different so it's understanding all of the bits of someone, and I think social workers do this really well because they I think talk about like, person-centered care planning so when you really understand someone from all of those different aspects, of what's important to them, then you really can support them in the best possible way.
The other thing that I would say that has happened to me in my life, I’ve been taught by social workers around some of the misconceptions that I’ve had around my own culture and identity and you know like I, you know, came out and had support from a social worker that happened to be gay and that was really positive and really empowering because I didn't know what it meant to be a young person coming out and being in the system and what that meant so it's like, really using those individual skills and experiences that we have and I think that is a great opportunity to understand people's needs.
The other thing that is really important is to really try to empathise with people and to really listen and those people that really listen to me have really got me, so I think there's a great opportunity to understand what's important to people, about how they want to live their lives and what things matter to them and I think that culture's such a big word and when you try to explain it, it doesn't necessarily make sense to me but I do know like, I consider myself to be a person of colour, from London, I’m an LGBT person and when you understand all those little bits of me, then you get an understanding of who I am. If you just focused on the colour of my skin or the fact that I’m gay or the fact that I’m disabled, you wouldn't really know me at all you know, to join up the dots.
One about disadvantage, I suppose is the most important one, I think when you've had these bumps in the road it can be really difficult to spot some of the barriers and challenges and I think often, professionals are taken much more seriously than people with legislation unfortunately, or don't have the resource or the understanding and going back to my earlier experiences, social workers advocating when they see inequality or they see injustice and really trying to get the best possible intervention or support for someone like me, has made a difference and I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself. So that social work training, that experience makes a difference in people's lives.
Ahmina
Thanks Isaac and really, really, really powerful and I think you're talking about looking at an individual through that intersectional lens feels really, really important and I think you're absolutely right – that just to highlight one aspect of somebody's identity can be, it can be really detrimental to how they are perceived and I think it is really difficult sometimes when perhaps you inhabit multiple identities or see yourself in different ways, and actually people don't always feel able to engage in all of that and I think for me, being holistic is absolutely vital in being a good social worker and I think just some of those examples that you highlighted there, really demonstrate that.
So, moving on to standard 1.4 and I think we've touched on this a little bit throughout actually, and obviously all of the standards connect which is why we've picked these to focus on today. So standard 1.4 is value the importance of family and community systems and work in partnership with people to identify and harness the assets of those systems, so for me that's very much about social workers understanding the importance of relationships and I think in in both of the responses to your other questions, you've really focused on relationships and I think that's absolutely key, and seeing them as an asset for me, this ultimately means working with people and seeing them as part of families and communities and networks as you said previously Isaac, and looking at how they live and how they practice and the way they live out their values and what that means to them, and also really listening.
And like you said Isaac, actively listening – I think I’m guilty of this often, is that sometimes when people talk we often are thinking about what we're going to say and actually we need to really concentrate much more on what they, what they are saying and really listen and I think for a lot of us, that's a work in progress and it feels really important to think about all of the contributions of that individual and thinking about how they interact with others in the groups with communities, and also just them as a whole person as we talked about.
So when working with people, why is it important to work in partnership with their family and community? So, I'll come to you first Isaac because I think it links in with your last response really well.
Isaac
So I think it's important because nobody lives or wants to live in service land – people want good ordinary lives and unfortunately, I think when you've had these bumps in the road, sometimes there can be problems with your community, there can be problems with your family, that I know that I wouldn't have been able to overcome those problems without some real good support and I think about all the times you know, like being you know, losing my mum and then becoming a looked after child and losing contact with my family you know, social work being really instrumental in re-establishing those connections but also preparing me for an adult world where I would be going and building my own connections was really important.
But also you know throughout my years of you know, I've had mental health challenges, I’ve got physical health problems, being part of my local community is really important but I don't think we live in a world that is necessarily the most embracing to people that have bumps on their journeys and I think that there are lots of barriers, and social work can often help people stay connected, reconnect.
For me I live in a lovely place, I've got a lovely partner and that would have never been possible without those people at the beginning of my journey really helping me stay close to my dreams and hopes and aspirations, but when things have not gone really well being there as a support network. You can't really support an individual if you don't consider all the important people in their lives. You know, I'm not just Isaac, I'm Isaac that's a god parent, a partner and, and I suppose that makes it really difficult for social workers because you're looking at hundreds of opinions in some cases but actually the magic happens when we just live ordinary lives and I don’t just want a service, I just want a good life and you know, I can't do that without people, that love and care for me and my community and my family, and all those things are important.
So, I hope that answers the question, I'm not sure I did, but yeah.
Ahmina
No, it definitely does, it definitely did. And coming to you Sharon?
Sharon
Isaac really does, really does say it all. I mean the relational approaches and like I say really utilising the resources within ourselves and you know, reaching out to tap into and help bring out the resources both within you know, individuals that we come into contact with but also the communities is really important.
I mean, what I love about social work is that it's one of few professions that does take that very holistic approach, it looks at everything in the realm you know, it does look at the impact of like you say, the friendships, the family, the relationships around the child or the adult. It looks out to their kind of, community and how well they’re linked in with that, it looks at the impact of wider environmental you know, circumstances in terms of things like prejudice and discrimination, and some of those barriers that interrupt and make, can make life much more difficult.
IRO's, their fundamental you know, role taps into very strongly much of what Isaac has been saying around the role of advocacy, around the role of helping young people who were in care or had experience of care, to have both a better sense of their relationship but to recognise and make sure that they have those long lasting you know, relationships that will carry them through life, and to advocate you know, where appropriate and necessary but also in thinking about you know, relationships, to think about who else around might fulfil that advocacy role and enabling young people to speak up for themselves in effect.
So I think you know, relationships are absolutely central to everything and we like I say, said earlier we do bring aspects of ourselves I think, in our own experiences that can you know, lend to that so that there's something very much about humility and recognising that we can you know, move on and develop despite multiple adversities if you know, we have the relationships you know, around us that will help us to do that and that's why we spend, expend so much energy quite rightly into trying to kind of, create that frame.
It is really about building on you know, resources and you know, strengths you know, really to enable people to fully achieve their potential because we've all got potential.
But what I was going to say in relation to children you know, in care is that that sense of identity and you know, you know belonging unfortunately can be so much more you know, complicated. I think that many of us would say that kind of identity formation is a lifelong journey you know, social work is immensely powerful.
I feel immensely privileged to be a social worker and indeed it's social workers that have enabled you know, me to advance and you know, have a confidence in myself that you know, I don't think I'd have had you know, without that you know, gift and so what they you know, what they bring, so working with is incredibly important.
Ahmina
It really is and I think it's also, what I think both of you talked about it at different points around that identity being fluid, both our own and both, and that of the people that we work with and going on that journey together, and thinking about how you will develop as you learn more about the people that you're working with, but also how you use that knowledge to be able to work with people that you're supporting and continually developing that.
And I'm a big fan of learning, there's not enough time in the world is there, to be able to learn everything and I think then it comes back to what we talked about earlier, around just being open and making sure we absorb all the information that we can because as you said Sharon, you can't get everything from a book – it has to be about that constant reflection and thinking about our own assumptions and checking ourselves feels really key.
So I've really enjoyed this discussion and I suppose just as a closing point, I just want to think a little bit more about key takeaways so I’m going to ask both of you what is the most important thing that you'd like people listening to take away from this discussion that we've had today? So I'll come to you first Isaac.
Isaac
So the most important thing is to see people for what they can do and often that might mean facilitating space or creating the right conditions that people can talk for themselves, have a stronger voice and the solutions are out there, and it's really helping people find those solutions for themselves because ultimately we want people to be healthy people with good skills, connecting with people that matter to them and it's really important that you recognise that everyone has a unique contribution to make, they just might make it a very different way, so it's recognising that we all have barriers but with a bit of support, we can do anything.
Sharon
I just fundamentally believe that absolutely you know, what Isaac has said, we have to recognise that you know, some people have greater barriers you know, in their way and you know, therefore there is a role for us. There's a role for us in terms of you know, checking out, helping individuals to try and navigate you know, their own paths through those issues so that they can again build on and extend the strengths that they have so that they're not feeling that the strength sits you know, outside.
It really is about you know, working with and alongside and kind of reviewing and checking in and where necessary, advocating and taking action to create that change and taking action, and creating change can be you know, reasonably small things like, they can happen through those everyday interactions and relationships you know, that stuff about respect like I say you know, asking checking in, checking one's assumptions, helping you know, people to have their voices you know, amplified and heard by checking out that you've got the right people in the room through to you know, advocacy at a broader you know, level you know, in terms of advocacy around you know, changes to policy you know, et cetera. So, I think absolutely you know, social work – it is about change but we don't have all the solutions and nor should we.
Ahmina
Thank you. I think relationships are absolutely key. I think everything I’ve heard today and that we've discussed today has been really rich and I’ve really enjoyed the conversation.
I think a couple of things that really stood out for me was intersectionality and really looking at the individual holistically, and ensuring that we are working with them within all of their networks and all of their systems and thinking about them fully, and I think that feels really key for me.
Thanks again to Isaac and Sharon for joining me today and sharing their experiences and understanding of standard one and how it applies to practice.
If you enjoyed the discussion and would like to continue the conversation with us, you can follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn using the hashtag #ThisIsSocialWorkPod to share your thoughts – we'd love to hear from you. You can find out more about the professional standards on our website.
Join us for our next episode where we'll be talking about standard 2 and what it means to establish and maintain the trust and confidence of people.
Thanks again for joining us. Goodbye.
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