Other
Senior managers’ perspectives
Clive Diaz ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This chapter reports the views of senior managers in one local authority's children's social work service and discusses the rise of managerialism in social work. Their views differed from those of the other people interviewed, especially on the workloads of social workers and independent review officers. Senior managers appeared to blame individual social workers when things went wrong and did not see caseloads of 40 children as a problem. They showed limited understanding of meaningful participation and were unsure what opportunities children had to take part or how to support it.
Key points
- Senior managers' views differed from those of other participants, particularly on workload challenges for social workers and independent review officers.
- Senior managers appeared to blame individual social workers when things went wrong.
- Some social workers had caseloads of 40 children, which senior managers did not see as an issue.
- Senior managers had limited understanding of meaningful participation and were unsure what opportunities children had or how to support participation.
- Senior managers reported that little had changed in children's participation in their reviews over twenty-five years.
Limitations
The excerpt is a short abstract of a single chapter about one local authority, and it does not state the country, the number of participants or the methods. It does not allow conclusions about senior managers elsewhere or about outcomes for children.
Abstract
This chapter considers the views of senior managers, which are presented alongside a discussion of the rise in managerialism in social work. There was a contrast between the views of senior managers and the perspectives of the other participants interviewed for this study, particularly in relation to workload challenges that social workers and independent review officers faced. Senior managers appeared to blame individual social workers when things went wrong. Despite some social workers in this local authority having a caseload of 40 children, senior managers did not see this as an issue. Senior managers also displayed limited understanding of meaningful participation, were unsure what opportunities children had to participate or how they could support this. They reported that little seemed to have changed with children’s participation in their reviews over the last twenty-five years. Young people had a better understanding of the pressures faced by social workers than social managers.