Top Tips for Working with Social Workers
This guide offers practical “top tips” to help you to work with social workers during an investigation or assessment.
When social workers become involved with your family, it often feels quite uncomfortable and unsettling. It can bring up all sorts of different emotions and you may feel angry, upset, embarrassed, or worried that you are being judged. These feelings are completely understandable.
It helps to bear in mind, though, that social workers are just doing their job. They are not there to punish you or “catch you out”. They become involved because someone has concerns about your child’s welfare – which could be their safety, wellbeing, or development. This means that a social worker will need to ask you lots of questions and watch how you look after your child. As well as investigating concerns, the social worker should offer you support where it is needed to help you to improve your situation.
Social workers live in fear that a child they are meant to be looking out for is harmed or even killed. This means that they have to ask difficult questions. Sometimes there is no reason for concern but they don't know that until they investigate. Sometimes there is reason for concern, and changes that can be made.
But you both have the same goal: for your child to be safe and happy.
The way you behave and work with the social worker can make a real difference to what happens next.