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EXCLUSIVE
Nearly two-thirds of childrens social workers have been threatened by hostile or intimidating parents in the past six months, a survey by Community Care and Reconstruct of more than 600 workers has found. Many had received multiple threats. The survey paints a picture of frontline workers battling weekly with a constant barrage of threats and abuse and worried that children are being put at greater risk because they are getting little supervision or support in this area. The survey of 614 frontline workers, the majority of whom were qualified social workers with more than 10 years experience working in childrens services, also revealed that two-thirds felt dealing with such parents was having a massive impact on themselves, their work and their families. More than 300 workers gave
details including an inability to sleep, panic attacks, fears about the safety of their own children, lack of self-confidence, mental exhaustion and fears they were taking the stress and anxiety it caused them out on other family members at home. Numerous workers said they were nervous about going to certain places with their children on the weekend or out of work hours because they feared encountering parents who had threatened, attacked or intimidated them. Most respondents (77%) had received threats to make a complaint but more than
two-thirds had also had direct threats against their person and more than a quarter had received threats to their family. Only 22% had reported such threats to the police. Most felt confident or quite confident when dealing with such parents but nearly half (49%) had received no training in this. Of those who had had training, most said it was on the job or during a continuing professional development course. Only 10% had had such training on their course.
see pages 18-20
support their team leader gave them when dealing with hostile parents, more than a third said the support their organisation gave them was poor or very poor. Something needs to be done. Local authorities do not prioritise this because managers do not face up to the problems directly. Instead there is a general attitude that social workers need to toughen up and get on with it, one respondent stated. Another added: There is an unspoken expectation that social workers should tolerate aggressive behaviour from service users and that somehow it is our fault if threats spill over into actual physical violence or if we feel affected by such behaviour.
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