hi i am just wondering if anybody out there knows how you start and what qualifications you need are if you can get qualifications whilst you learn on the job so to speak, i would love a job in this field, and if you ask me the best qualification you can have is having children of your own, can anybody help me

You need to get a degree in Social Work first. If you don't have A'Levels you can do an access course in a year to qualify. Apparently mature students are very welcome, you may be able to do the degree part time.

I would advise you not to, overworked, underpaid and appreciated. Can also be dangerous. If you do go ahead good luck, rather you than me.

See here:
http://careersadvice.direct.gov.uk/helpwithyourcareer/jobprofiles/profiles/profile709/

hi i have used the link it was helpful thanx ladyacademic, i am really interesed in doing this job i just hope there is something out there,

You need to get a degree in Social Work first. If you don't have A'Levels you can do an access course in a year to qualify. Apparently mature students are very welcome, you may be able to do the degree part time.

I would advise you not to, overworked, underpaid and appreciated. Can also be dangerous. If you do go ahead good luck, rather you than me.

hi not being abrupt but if it means being over worked underpaid and a little dangerous as long as can help to keep children safe it is worth it, social workers arent just there to take children off parents they are there to help parents too, help ease the pressure that some are in

hi i am just wondering if anybody out there knows how you start and what qualifications you need are if you can get qualifications whilst you learn on the job so to speak, i would love a job in this field, and if you ask me the best qualification you can have is having children of your own, can anybody help me

Oh dear.......whilst I would ordinarily encourage anyone to consider a career in social work, your post makes me shudder.

If you follow the logic of your statement "if you ask me the best qualification you can have is having children of your own" then -
: the best qualification you can have for working with the elderly is surely to wait until your parents are drawing their pension, and -
: the best qualification you can have for working with people with mental health problems is presumeably to have had at least a nervous breakdown yourself, but preferably suffered severe depression or a psychotic episode.

There isn't "a best qualification" to become a social worker at all. You need an enquiring mind, an ability to be non-judgemental, a degree of empathy with those you work with, a dollop of common sense, amongst other things.

My advice would be to try and become a social work assistant to get a feel of the job, and get some perspective of how it is often a difficult and stressful job, with a great deal of responsibility.

I'd imagine one of the best qualifications is being able to use correct grammar and punctuation. ;)

Oh dear.......whilst I would ordinarily encourage anyone to consider a career in social work, your post makes me shudder.

If you follow the logic of your statement "if you ask me the best qualification you can have is having children of your own" then -
: the best qualification you can have for working with the elderly is surely to wait until your parents are drawing their pension, and -
: the best qualification you can have for working with people with mental health problems is presumeably to have had at least a nervous breakdown yourself, but preferably suffered severe depression or a psychotic episode.

There isn't "a best qualification" to become a social worker at all. You need an enquiring mind, an ability to be non-judgemental, a degree of empathy with those you work with, a dollop of common sense, amongst other things.

Ok you need to do your degree in social work, but firstly you need to be educated to Alevel standard or have achieved a recent accademic qualification ie access courses, Btec etc. Its a 3 year course inwhich you have to achieve placements in the social care field.

Do you experience in this field? have you been working in social care? because my advice is dont do it, I have worked as a social worker, and yes it has rewards but it is also unrewarding as well, your work is not 9am-5pm, you end up working long hours, taking your work home with you, and it is frustrating especially when there is not enough money in the pot to go round everyone. Sorry not a posative picture from me.

My advice would be to try and become a social work assistant to get a feel of the job, and get some perspective of how it is often a difficult and stressful job, with a great deal of responsibility.

Social work assistants posts the few that are still in that post have been for years. They really dont have them anymore. Do they?

hi not being abrupt but if it means being over worked underpaid and a little dangerous as long as can help to keep children safe it is worth it, social workers arent just there to take children off parents they are there to help parents too, help ease the pressure that some are in

More than 50% of your time will be inputting data into a computer and because of the volume of work there isn't a great deal of opportunity for preventative work If it is what you want to do then go for it but be prepared for some disappointments .

Damned if you do (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=420044)

Damned if you don't (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=419310)

Oh dear.......whilst I would ordinarily encourage anyone to consider a career in social work, your post makes me shudder.

If you follow the logic of your statement "if you ask me the best qualification you can have is having children of your own" then -
: the best qualification you can have for working with the elderly is surely to wait until your parents are drawing their pension, and -
: the best qualification you can have for working with people with mental health problems is presumeably to have had at least a nervous breakdown yourself, but preferably suffered severe depression or a psychotic episode.

There isn't "a best qualification" to become a social worker at all. You need an enquiring mind, an ability to be non-judgemental, a degree of empathy with those you work with, a dollop of common sense, amongst other things.
are you a social worker yourself? i didnt say that i had qualifications and if the world was like people like yourself that make people feel crap about themselves and think why bother god help the children out there, so thanx for the encouragement i feel great

are you a social worker yourself? i didnt say that i had qualifications and if the world was like people like yourself that make people feel crap about themselves and think why bother god help the children out there, so thanx for the encouragement i feel great

Hmm...

If a mildly critical comment - which is largely common sense, by the way - makes you "feel crap" about yourself, I think you might find the rough treatment you get as a social worker rather hard to bear. They deal with the most troubled situations, violent and abusive people, and sometimes very severely damaged children and young people.

It's a fine and noble ambition to want to be a social worker and to do some good in the most terrible situations, but the reality is that you spend years gaining qualifications to spend a lot of time doing paperwork and the rest of it trying to juggle a monstrous workload of people many of whom hate you. Until you have passed A levels (or a university access course) and a degree, you won't be making any difference at all. It could be at least five years before you'd even be doing this kind of work under supervision. If you haven't got GCSE English and Maths at grade C or above, it could be longer than that.

Have you considered other ways you could work now to help prevent child cruelty? After school clubs and toddler groups in difficult areas are always looking for volunteers or childcare workers. You could join the NSPCC and raise money and awareness of the work they do. And things like that will help you hugely if you decide in the future to take the professional route.

Can I ask what has sparked your interest in social work as a career? I have a feeling many well-meaning people will have been affected by the Baby P case to the point where they feel they would like to, and are able, to make a difference. Whilst this is commendable, it may well be that being a social worker is not the best way for you to achieve your goals.

Both Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam offer social work courses, with the former having more stringent entry requirements I believe (I tried to check this but their website is undergoing maintenance at the moment). I'd recommend you call the admissions office of each university and ask to speak to someone about your options. There will be practical issues to consider as well, not least how your life would be affected by undertaking a three year, full time course.

I'm fairly certain that the training involves social work across all areas and that you would be unable to specialise in children and families during the training. You would have to complete your 200 days of practical placements wherever the university sends you to. Would you be as interested if your placements were in mental health and older people for example?

As others have said, the work is often very demanding, with a great deal of responsibility. The pay is not great. That said, if you find that social work is the career for you then you will be rewarded in other ways, notably job satisfaction.

are you a social worker yourself? i didnt say that i had qualifications and if the world was like people like yourself that make people feel crap about themselves and think why bother god help the children out there, so thanx for the encouragement i feel great

Red was being practical and not putting words in Redrobbo's mouth, the answer is yes he was in the 'field' of social work and is now a fabulous advocate for alot of people in the Arbourthorne ward of the city.

What he was saying is, being a parent doesn't prepare anyone for social work as it can be anything from babies to teenagers in distress to adults of varying difficulties. Aside from professional qualifications (which if you apply yourself I'm sure you can achieve) you need a very thick skin and a practical detached sense of the job in hand alongside empathy.

There is as I can see, not much room for emotive feelings in social work - whereas parents feel everything their kids do 10 times worse.

Social workers do not only deal with children at risk cases, there are a lot of other types and cases out there.

hi not being abrupt but if it means being over worked underpaid and a little dangerous as long as can help to keep children safe it is worth it, social workers arent just there to take children off parents they are there to help parents too, help ease the pressure that some are in

well i urge you not to become a social worker Tracey,,

you have a very naive opinion on what social workers actually do

Its more than a little dangerous tracey, I am sure you have heard of lots of stories of social workers being murdered by clients, I think the last one took place on a train. And not every social worker works long hours because they are running around the country saving hundreds of children, because of restrictions with money and pressure from goverment guidelines, and meeting expectations from those above they simply cant. In fact most overtime that the british taxpayer forks out for, is spent doing paperwork.

I got lots of experience in the field before going to university, I did a hell of a lot of voluntary work, college courses including a-levels and counselling courses. I went to uni for 3 years and dropped out 5 months before graduating, because like many others say on here, you dont make that much of a difference on the grand scale of things, and half the time you cant because there isnt enough money for the help thats needed and there's more paperwork than anything else, which is often referred to as 'professional ass covering'

If you are really serious then ring Hillsborough College re: the access course and get some voluntary work(Best thing for gaining experience plus it will go in your favour when applying to university), if you are wanting to go into children and families there is a charity called home start, who are always needing volunteers.

I hope this helps, and good luck

hi i am just wondering if anybody out there knows how you start and what qualifications you need are if you can get qualifications whilst you learn on the job so to speak, i would love a job in this field, and if you ask me the best qualification you can have is having children of your own, can anybody help me

I wouldnt go into it if I was you Ive been with them all my life and in all the social workers Ive had I think I had 1 decent one. You have to beat targets and the cut corners so the people who need help doesnt get it. Im meant to be on case register where they are not allowed to give my info out, but on numerous occasions they gave my details out to my natural parents who arnt aloud no where near me. They took the info harrased my adopted parents and stalked me. If you want a stress free job dont do it because the social workers are ones what get it in the neck and the big wigs just get away with murder.

can i just point out that social work isnt all about children?!
you do work with the elderly aswell..
plus, younger students are taken on before the mature ones..

an ability to be non-judgemental, a degree of empathy with those you work with, a dollop of common sense

Oh how that made me laugh.

The SWs I've been in contact with were the most judgemental, arrogant, il-informed, power mad people I've ever had the misfortune to meet.

None have had the least bit of empathy towards their "clients":rolleyes:, neither have they shown much common sense.

In fact, the only thing they seemed bothered about, was meeting government (Liebore) targets and furthering their own careers:mad:.

Hmm...

If a mildly critical comment - which is largely common sense, by the way - makes you "feel crap" about yourself, I think you might find the rough treatment you get as a social worker rather hard to bear. They deal with the most troubled situations, violent and abusive people, and sometimes very severely damaged children and young people.

It's a fine and noble ambition to want to be a social worker and to do some good in the most terrible situations, but the reality is that you spend years gaining qualifications to spend a lot of time doing paperwork and the rest of it trying to juggle a monstrous workload of people many of whom hate you. Until you have passed A levels (or a university access course) and a degree, you won't be making any difference at all. It could be at least five years before you'd even be doing this kind of work under supervision. If you haven't got GCSE English and Maths at grade C or above, it could be longer than that.

Have you considered other ways you could work now to help prevent child cruelty? After school clubs and toddler groups in difficult areas are always looking for volunteers or childcare workers. You could join the NSPCC and raise money and awareness of the work they do. And things like that will help you hugely if you decide in the future to take the professional route.

I didn't know what I wanted to do when I left school and quite recently I was considering taking steps to become a social worker. Then I fell pregnant.....well usually I would encourage anyone to do anything but I reasoned that the job would be straining emotionally and juggling that with children of my own I don't think I would manage it.

Oh how that made me laugh.

The SWs I've been in contact with were the most judgemental, arrogant, il-informed, power mad people I've ever had the misfortune to meet.

None have had the least bit of empathy towards their "clients":rolleyes:, neither have they shown much common sense.

In fact, the only thing they seemed bothered about, was meeting government (Liebore) targets and furthering their own careers:mad:.

This is what you will be up against if you go ahead with your SW ambitions. If you think you can handle it, best of luck. You cannot keep everyone happy because of the very nature of the job and people who you upset will react like this.

This is what you will be up against if you go ahead with your SW ambitions. If you think you can handle it, best of luck. You cannot keep everyone happy because of the very nature of the job and people who you upset will react like this.

The truth often hurts.

Oh dear.......whilst I would ordinarily encourage anyone to consider a career in social work, your post makes me shudder.

If you follow the logic of your statement "if you ask me the best qualification you can have is having children of your own" then -
: the best qualification you can have for working with the elderly is surely to wait until your parents are drawing their pension, and -
: the best qualification you can have for working with people with mental health problems is presumeably to have had at least a nervous breakdown yourself, but preferably suffered severe depression or a psychotic episode.

There isn't "a best qualification" to become a social worker at all. You need an enquiring mind, an ability to be non-judgemental, a degree of empathy with those you work with, a dollop of common sense, amongst other things.
excellent post

tracy, if your serious about a career in social work then you have to go to university and do a 3 year degree. Its a lot more challenging, diverse and complex than most people realise.

Have you considered a Support Worker role instead? They work alongside social workers in some parts of the council, certainly there are a few in children's services supporting families and children. In some cases support workers who have shown the right attributes and who have seen first hand what the work for a social worker is really like, have gone on to train to be social workers and gain their degrees.

Support worker jobs are highly competitive when they become available, but may be worth considering. Have a look at the council website's jobs section regularly.

Have you considered a Support Worker role instead? They work alongside social workers in some parts of the council, certainly there are a few in children's services supporting families and children. In some cases support workers who have shown the right attributes and who have seen first hand what the work for a social worker is really like, have gone on to train to be social workers and gain their degrees.

Support worker jobs are highly competitive when they become available, but may be worth considering. Have a look at the council website's jobs section regularly.

That's a really good suggestion, try it at a first step level before you dive in. Social work is very difficult, stressful, overwhelming, often unsatisfying and largely thankless. People who pursue it as a career need great reserves of emotional strength. The trouble is, like many proffessions that require lengthy training, it's not easy to get out once you're in and find you don't want to do it any more.

You can find that stress, exhaustion, lack of time, low mood (from being cast as a pariah by difficult clients and the tabloid media), becoming used to a certain level of pay (not that it's that great) and institutionalisation are all powerful demotivating factors when you want to change career.

If you're really up for the challenge and feel a calling, go for it and good luck to you but it's not a good idea to get into it for sentimental reasons.

Wonder what happened with the OP, did she decide to go ahead when she found out what was involved.

IMO there's no such thing as a bad social worker, just social workers who can't do their jobs properly due to silly "rules" laid out by incompetent management who don't know what they're doing.

IMO there's no such thing as a bad social worker, just social workers who can't do their jobs properly due to silly "rules" laid out by incompetent management who don't know what they're doing.

Exactly. But unfortunately like Lisa Arthworrey who was involved with the Victoria Climbie case and was made a scapegoat the people on the ground will always take the blame whilst their managers who are ultimately responsible will escape scot free.

Where exactly does the buck stop?

Out of interest, do social workers deal with Canabals?

After all you'd hate to visit a client at Wisewood, and end up in a cooking pot.

That would put a social worker in a bad mood for the rest of the day

are you a social worker yourself? i didnt say that i had qualifications and if the world was like people like yourself that make people feel crap about themselves and think why bother god help the children out there, so thanx for the encouragement i feel great

My post was not intended to make you feel crap about yourself or even to discourage you from considering social work as a career. It was intended, as fox20thc pointed out, to get you to rethink your claim that having children of your own is the best qualification - which it patently is not.

In reply to eclair, I have in my time variously worked as a residential social worker in a children's home, a social worker, a juvenile court liaison officer, an approved (i.e., psychiatric) social worker and a social work manager. I didn't need to have children of my own to do my job in any of those settings - even when I also worked as a fostering and adoptions social worker.

I am a member of the Forum Writing Group, and last year I posted an account of my work on the theme of After Dark. My next post will be a copy of that story. I post it to demonstrate that knowledge of child abuse, following procedures and maintaining a non-judgemental attitude are but some of the attributes you will need to be a social worker. But you do not necessarily have to had children of your own to hack this job.

red

The Social Worker’s Journal

After Dark

By redrobbo


In the dark hours after midnight, the emergency social work team await calls for their help and assistance. At that time of the night, they know that calls will be of a serious nature, such as a depressed caller experiencing suicidal thoughts or a juvenile in police detention under arrest. Sometimes the call is about a fire or flood that has made an elderly person homeless, or a call about a psychotic patient in urgent need of hospitalisation. Or the call will be from a woman with two small children fleeing domestic violence. But sometimes the call will be the one that every social worker dreads - a hospital ringing to report an injured baby.

Babies cannot accidentally sustain an injury to themselves; not in the safety of their cot, and not in their sleep. At one-thirty in the morning, a baby does not accidentally smash its skull, dislodging the delicate membrane around the brain and causing profuse bleeding from the ear. There is only one explanation for this type of injury. The professionals refer to it in their cold, clinical jargon as non-accidental injury. In translation, it means that a mother or father has either violently shaken their baby or bashed its head against the bedroom wall.

The baby tonight is a mite of only four months, who has arrived by ambulance at the main hospital accompanied by his parents. When the hospital doctor rang, the baby was already back in the ambulance en route to being transferred to the regional hospital brain unit at the major city fifteen miles away. The baby tonight has a very serious head injury.

You move into action, fast. Sadly, it is a routine well practised. First the child protection register is checked. Tonight it is negative. Files and records are then checked – but there is no recorded information on file about this family, which means they are not known to Social Services. The hospital doctor is quizzed - do the couple have any other children at home? The hospital doctor doesn’t know. Has an account been given how the injury was sustained? No.

Now you ring the regional hospital brain unit. They are still awaiting the arrival of the ambulance, due within minutes. You confirm the negative register check, and inform them that a social worker is already en route, and state that you will inform the police.

You then ring the police headquarters and speak to the Duty Inspector. Within a few minutes, she has woken a specially trained investigating Inspector at home, and he is soon on the phone to you requiring as much detail as you have in your possession – names of the family members, age of baby, details of injury, admitting hospital. You ring the hospital again and inform them of the estimated time of arrival of the Inspector. They tell you that the ambulance has now arrived, and the baby is about to be examined by the brain surgeon.

The flurry of activity continues apace. The Duty Inspector rings and confirms a female Sergeant is also now en route to the hospital. You pass on the name of the social worker, who will be the first to arrive. The Duty Inspector has also sent two police officers to the parent’s house. Despite the time, they will wake the neighbours to check if they have heard any suspicious sounds during the night. They will also seal off the house for subsequent forensic examination, as it is now a suspected scene of a crime.

The social worker rings. He has now arrived at the hospital. You tell him the names of the police Inspector and Sergeant who are due to meet him shortly, and you learn that the baby has been placed on a ventilator. His skull is fractured, and there has been a loss of blood and that brain tissue has seeped. His condition is critical, and he is not expected to survive the injury.

At this stage, you have now done all that your professional training has taught you. You’ve been in this situation before, and you know how to respond. You have organised everyone to be in his or her place, and now, in the long hours after dark, all you can do is wait. You are waiting for the baby to die.

You open the office door and step outside to breathe, and you sense the eeriness of the night-time. The world is asleep. There is no hustle and bustle of shoppers. No one is going to work. The busses aren’t running and no traffic stirs. There is no sound of bird song. There is only the strange silence of the brooding, black night.

Your thoughts turn again and again to the baby. You know instinctively what has happened, because you’ve been here before. The baby had colic, and kept crying. The parents, probably both young, and almost certainly immature, have suffered countless sleepless nights. One of them got up to rock the baby to sleep, but the baby kept crying. Then the father - or possibly it was the mother - suddenly snapped. Totally exhausted from lack of sleep, and in an uncontrollable rage, they screamed and screamed at their baby to shut up. They didn’t mean to shake their baby so violently and bounce him off the bedroom wall like a rag doll thrown away in a fit of temper. They desperately needed some sleep and just wanted their baby to stop crying.

You think about how long the baby suffered in agonising pain before one of the parents had the courage to ring for an ambulance. You speculate about which one of them did it. You try and take your mind off the thoughts and questions that race through your head, but as always, when you are alone after dark, you fail totally. You step back inside the office to resume the waiting, and as you close the door, you take one last look at the jet-black sky, and momentarily wonder why you do this damn awful job.

At the hospital, the social worker and the police have met up, and have now been able to discuss the baby’s condition with the brain surgeon. Surgery is impossible - as the injury is too severe. The brain has been displaced within the cranium, causing severe internal bleeding, and blood and brain tissue has seeped from an ear. Only the ventilator is keeping the infant alive. The brain surgeon and the social worker agree to talk to the parents together. The police officers remain out of sight. The parents are unawares of their presence.

With a grim face, the brain surgeon explains to the young couple that there is no hope for their baby; that the infant is enduring unbelievable pain; that kindest thing to do is to switch off the ventilator and allow their baby to die as peacefully as possible.

The parents plea to allow them to first have their baby baptised. They are not practising Christians, but hold a humble belief that their baby should be christened. The social worker explains that he is an ordained priest of the Church of England, and he offers to baptise their baby son.

It is now a little after four in the morning. The world at large is still slumbering, unaware of the drama of the night; and as you sleep, a tiny baby is baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Water from a cheap, plastic cup is trickled over his face, and he is given the name Alan.

The brain surgeon switches off the ventilator. The tubes are removed, and baby Alan is gently placed in his mother’s arms.

For forty minutes baby Alan clung to life, and then the broken, bloodied body breathed no more. This tiny scrap of humanity lay motionless. His eyes appeared opened - as if in some ghastly, lingering accusatory stare. A seed of life that will never now grow tall has been extinguished. His mother hugged him close to her bosom and cried pitifully, whilst his father looked at his dead baby in silence.

There are no words of comfort that anyone can speak in these circumstances. There are no words of condolence. There are no words of pity or expressions of sadness. Instead, there is only an anger that pulsates in your heart that a baby should die such an ignoble death. His short life ended with a deep depression in his skull and black, congealed blood clogging his ear. The wait for death is over. Now the time has come for questions, questions and more questions.

The ward sister gently lifted baby Alan from his mother’s arms. There was no explanation given that what was now a body was being removed for an autopsy. Quietly and efficiently, the ward sister left the room, reverentially carrying the body in her cupped arms. The door had barely closed, when, on cue, and in all too familiar choreographed procedure, the police officers entered the room, where they arrested both parents on suspicion of murder.

The social worker returned to his office at six-forty. The sky was beginning to turn a clear blue. Dawn was about to break, and the blackness of the night was, at last, beginning to dissipate. Soon it will be time to go home from a long, dreadful shift after dark.

Tomorrow night the phone will ring again. It may be a caller with suicidal tendencies, or a call about a juvenile in police detention under arrest. Or maybe there has been a fire or flood that has left an elderly person homeless. Or a call about a psychotic patient in urgent need of hospitalisation, or it will be a call about a woman with two small children fleeing domestic violence.

But if not tomorrow night, or the following night, or the next week or the next month, it will once more be the call that every social worker dreads - a hospital ringing to report an injured baby. That fateful call will come, as it always does, after dark.


THE END



Addendum 1

The father of baby Alan was charged with murder. At his trial, some seven months later, he pleaded not guilty. Both parents, the only possible witnesses to the events of the night, gave evidence. It was revealed that the father had repeatedly got out of bed to try and sooth their crying baby. The mother, as she testified on oath, subsequently got out of bed as – and this was crucial to the defence – the baby was crying again. It was alleged that the mother discovered her baby bleeding from the ear, and with a hole in his skull.

The jury found the father Not Guilty. The prosecution had not convinced the jury - beyond all reasonable doubt – that it was the father, as opposed to the mother, who had killed their baby.

Addendum 2

Two years later, in a maternity ward, I removed from the mother of baby Alan a newborn baby girl, not an hour old, on an emergency protection order. It was three-thirty in the morning. Once more, it was after dark.

Addendum 3

Partly based on the trial of baby Alan’s father, the law has now been changed. There is now a new offence of failing to protect a child from harm. Where the parents dispute or deny responsibility for the murder of their baby, both are now charged with this new offence - in the expectation that if no-one is found guilty of murder, then at least some justice will be done.

Get on medication as soon as posible

Dear Redrobbo

I just read your journal 'After Dark'. It really hit home to me about what is involved in social work, it was a powerful piece.

I too am interested in training to be a social worker and am looking to volunteer/ shadow a team 2 days a week to see if this is a career I'm suited to or not. It's proving difficult to find experience (perhaps I'm not looking in the right places) as there's no social workers in post to supervise volunteers due to the volume of work they have to deal with, health and safety and because there aren't enough hours in the day.

However, I'll never say 'never' and intend to keep trying. Just wanted to say thanks to you for that journal, it really made clear to me, of what is involved in some of the roles that social workers have to undertake in the job.









The Social Worker’s Journal

After Dark

By redrobbo


In the dark hours after midnight, the emergency social work team await calls for their help and assistance. At that time of the night, they know that calls will be of a serious nature, such as a depressed caller experiencing suicidal thoughts or a juvenile in police detention under arrest. Sometimes the call is about a fire or flood that has made an elderly person homeless, or a call about a psychotic patient in urgent need of hospitalisation. Or the call will be from a woman with two small children fleeing domestic violence. But sometimes the call will be the one that every social worker dreads - a hospital ringing to report an injured baby.

Babies cannot accidentally sustain an injury to themselves; not in the safety of their cot, and not in their sleep. At one-thirty in the morning, a baby does not accidentally smash its skull, dislodging the delicate membrane around the brain and causing profuse bleeding from the ear. There is only one explanation for this type of injury. The professionals refer to it in their cold, clinical jargon as non-accidental injury. In translation, it means that a mother or father has either violently shaken their baby or bashed its head against the bedroom wall.

The baby tonight is a mite of only four months, who has arrived by ambulance at the main hospital accompanied by his parents. When the hospital doctor rang, the baby was already back in the ambulance en route to being transferred to the regional hospital brain unit at the major city fifteen miles away. The baby tonight has a very serious head injury.

You move into action, fast. Sadly, it is a routine well practised. First the child protection register is checked. Tonight it is negative. Files and records are then checked – but there is no recorded information on file about this family, which means they are not known to Social Services. The hospital doctor is quizzed - do the couple have any other children at home? The hospital doctor doesn’t know. Has an account been given how the injury was sustained? No.

Now you ring the regional hospital brain unit. They are still awaiting the arrival of the ambulance, due within minutes. You confirm the negative register check, and inform them that a social worker is already en route, and state that you will inform the police.

You then ring the police headquarters and speak to the Duty Inspector. Within a few minutes, she has woken a specially trained investigating Inspector at home, and he is soon on the phone to you requiring as much detail as you have in your possession – names of the family members, age of baby, details of injury, admitting hospital. You ring the hospital again and inform them of the estimated time of arrival of the Inspector. They tell you that the ambulance has now arrived, and the baby is about to be examined by the brain surgeon.

The flurry of activity continues apace. The Duty Inspector rings and confirms a female Sergeant is also now en route to the hospital. You pass on the name of the social worker, who will be the first to arrive. The Duty Inspector has also sent two police officers to the parent’s house. Despite the time, they will wake the neighbours to check if they have heard any suspicious sounds during the night. They will also seal off the house for subsequent forensic examination, as it is now a suspected scene of a crime.

The social worker rings. He has now arrived at the hospital. You tell him the names of the police Inspector and Sergeant who are due to meet him shortly, and you learn that the baby has been placed on a ventilator. His skull is fractured, and there has been a loss of blood and that brain tissue has seeped. His condition is critical, and he is not expected to survive the injury.

At this stage, you have now done all that your professional training has taught you. You’ve been in this situation before, and you know how to respond. You have organised everyone to be in his or her place, and now, in the long hours after dark, all you can do is wait. You are waiting for the baby to die.

You open the office door and step outside to breathe, and you sense the eeriness of the night-time. The world is asleep. There is no hustle and bustle of shoppers. No one is going to work. The busses aren’t running and no traffic stirs. There is no sound of bird song. There is only the strange silence of the brooding, black night.

Your thoughts turn again and again to the baby. You know instinctively what has happened, because you’ve been here before. The baby had colic, and kept crying. The parents, probably both young, and almost certainly immature, have suffered countless sleepless nights. One of them got up to rock the baby to sleep, but the baby kept crying. Then the father - or possibly it was the mother - suddenly snapped. Totally exhausted from lack of sleep, and in an uncontrollable rage, they screamed and screamed at their baby to shut up. They didn’t mean to shake their baby so violently and bounce him off the bedroom wall like a rag doll thrown away in a fit of temper. They desperately needed some sleep and just wanted their baby to stop crying.

You think about how long the baby suffered in agonising pain before one of the parents had the courage to ring for an ambulance. You speculate about which one of them did it. You try and take your mind off the thoughts and questions that race through your head, but as always, when you are alone after dark, you fail totally. You step back inside the office to resume the waiting, and as you close the door, you take one last look at the jet-black sky, and momentarily wonder why you do this damn awful job.

At the hospital, the social worker and the police have met up, and have now been able to discuss the baby’s condition with the brain surgeon. Surgery is impossible - as the injury is too severe. The brain has been displaced within the cranium, causing severe internal bleeding, and blood and brain tissue has seeped from an ear. Only the ventilator is keeping the infant alive. The brain surgeon and the social worker agree to talk to the parents together. The police officers remain out of sight. The parents are unawares of their presence.

With a grim face, the brain surgeon explains to the young couple that there is no hope for their baby; that the infant is enduring unbelievable pain; that kindest thing to do is to switch off the ventilator and allow their baby to die as peacefully as possible.

The parents plea to allow them to first have their baby baptised. They are not practising Christians, but hold a humble belief that their baby should be christened. The social worker explains that he is an ordained priest of the Church of England, and he offers to baptise their baby son.

It is now a little after four in the morning. The world at large is still slumbering, unaware of the drama of the night; and as you sleep, a tiny baby is baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Water from a cheap, plastic cup is trickled over his face, and he is given the name Alan.

The brain surgeon switches off the ventilator. The tubes are removed, and baby Alan is gently placed in his mother’s arms.

For forty minutes baby Alan clung to life, and then the broken, bloodied body breathed no more. This tiny scrap of humanity lay motionless. His eyes appeared opened - as if in some ghastly, lingering accusatory stare. A seed of life that will never now grow tall has been extinguished. His mother hugged him close to her bosom and cried pitifully, whilst his father looked at his dead baby in silence.

There are no words of comfort that anyone can speak in these circumstances. There are no words of condolence. There are no words of pity or expressions of sadness. Instead, there is only an anger that pulsates in your heart that a baby should die such an ignoble death. His short life ended with a deep depression in his skull and black, congealed blood clogging his ear. The wait for death is over. Now the time has come for questions, questions and more questions.

The ward sister gently lifted baby Alan from his mother’s arms. There was no explanation given that what was now a body was being removed for an autopsy. Quietly and efficiently, the ward sister left the room, reverentially carrying the body in her cupped arms. The door had barely closed, when, on cue, and in all too familiar choreographed procedure, the police officers entered the room, where they arrested both parents on suspicion of murder.

The social worker returned to his office at six-forty. The sky was beginning to turn a clear blue. Dawn was about to break, and the blackness of the night was, at last, beginning to dissipate. Soon it will be time to go home from a long, dreadful shift after dark.

Tomorrow night the phone will ring again. It may be a caller with suicidal tendencies, or a call about a juvenile in police detention under arrest. Or maybe there has been a fire or flood that has left an elderly person homeless. Or a call about a psychotic patient in urgent need of hospitalisation, or it will be a call about a woman with two small children fleeing domestic violence.

But if not tomorrow night, or the following night, or the next week or the next month, it will once more be the call that every social worker dreads - a hospital ringing to report an injured baby. That fateful call will come, as it always does, after dark.


THE END



Addendum 1

The father of baby Alan was charged with murder. At his trial, some seven months later, he pleaded not guilty. Both parents, the only possible witnesses to the events of the night, gave evidence. It was revealed that the father had repeatedly got out of bed to try and sooth their crying baby. The mother, as she testified on oath, subsequently got out of bed as – and this was crucial to the defence – the baby was crying again. It was alleged that the mother discovered her baby bleeding from the ear, and with a hole in his skull.

The jury found the father Not Guilty. The prosecution had not convinced the jury - beyond all reasonable doubt – that it was the father, as opposed to the mother, who had killed their baby.

Addendum 2

Two years later, in a maternity ward, I removed from the mother of baby Alan a newborn baby girl, not an hour old, on an emergency protection order. It was three-thirty in the morning. Once more, it was after dark.

Addendum 3

Partly based on the trial of baby Alan’s father, the law has now been changed. There is now a new offence of failing to protect a child from harm. Where the parents dispute or deny responsibility for the murder of their baby, both are now charged with this new offence - in the expectation that if no-one is found guilty of murder, then at least some justice will be done.

Social work assistants posts the few that are still in that post have been for years. They really dont have them anymore. Do they?


They are now called support workers and are few and far between..............

Volunterring for Home-Start is a good starting point. You work with families who are in need once a week for a few hours to give them support with the young kiddies ie pointing them in the right direction of services and being a listening ear.

Thanks for the advice about Home start, I've just had a look on the website and sent them an email. The only thing that concerns me is that it says that it mainly accepts volunteers who are parents themselves or have had experience in bringing up children. I'm neither (yet!), though I have worked with children in the past. I've asked them to sign post me to other charities that may need my help.


I'm interested in working with people from a walks of life, not just children, so any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

When I did the training course for Homestart there were a few younger girls on it, that did not have children......... so you never know.

Sheffield Mencap are always looking for volunteers to work with people with learning disabilities.