SOCIAL work in Scotland (and no doubt across the rest of Britain) is still under the cosh. Sixteen years of unnecessary austerity — which has only seen the rich get richer whilst public services have been cut to the bone — has impacted on social work as well as on every other public service.

As we know, public services are easy targets — after all the wealthiest in our society don’t depend on them for a decent standard of living. But a large majority of the social ills that we see currently — increased child poverty, rising youth crime, spiralling violence against women and children, poorer educational and health outcomes for children from low income families, to name but a few — have their roots in the loss of the community-based, preventative public services that improved the life chances of those from poorer backgrounds and combatted the powerlessness that leads to many of the poorest outcomes.

Social work has a key role to play but over the years of austerity (and even before that) a raft of legislation and policy decisions alongside relentless cuts to staffing and community-based supports, just as demand was rising, has changed the face of social work in Scotland.

Surveys by Unison Scotland and the social work leadership body, Social Work Scotland (SWS) have shown the increasing pressure that social work is under. The shift away from preventative early intervention towards crisis-driven intervention across adult, children and justice services inhibits the ability of many workers to practice in the relationship based way that is consistent with our social work values and ethics.

Social work caseloads are disproportionate to what would be consistent with the regular and frequent contact with adults and families that is essential for meaningful relationship-based practice.

The outcomes for those who should be able to rely on a service that can protect them from harm and optimise their wellbeing are often falling well short of what is acceptable.

The outcomes for staff trying to deliver a service are also distressing with high rates of work-related stress, sickness absence, vacancies and turnover.

We know that many social workers have already left the profession within five years of qualification.

There has been a fundamental failure of the Scottish government to recognise that inadequacy of resourcing, insufficient support for front-line staff, the valuing of reaction over prevention, ignoring the extensive existing knowledge base and believing that legislation, bureaucracy, inquiries, working groups, reviews, strategies and policies are more important than investment in public services, has unsurprisingly failed to enact any positive change for either the workforce or the people they support.

The Promise Scotland, the national commitment by the government to overhaul the care system and ensure all care-experienced children grow up loved, safe and respected, has recognised the key role of front-line social work staff in keeping the Promise to children and young people.

However it has failed to do more than establish short-term initiatives, and while many of these are imaginative and work for small numbers of children, there is little evidence of the fundamental change promised.

Instead we now face the prospect of a Scottish government Public Service Reform Strategy that makes no bones about the fact that up to 15,000 jobs could go from public services over the next five years. Many of these are likely to come from council services. The lack of joined up thinking is breath-taking.

But there are also some seeds of hope. A Pride In Practice conference for front-line children and family practitioners, held annually for the last six years, has demonstrated without a doubt that there are still pockets of effective, strength-based social work practice across Scotland — done with rather than to the families we support.

This free and inspiring conference, run by volunteer social work practitioners, offers workers the chance to showcase good practice and to share it with others.

It is incredibly uplifting to see that, despite the serious challenges, social work can continue to make a positive difference in the lives of children and their families.

Then, from the ashes of the crashed and burned national care service in Scotland has risen the phoenix that is the National Social Work Agency (NSWA) and the Scottish Social Work Partnership (SSWP) made up of the Scottish government, Social Work Scotland and CoSLA, the council employers’ organisation.

Work is being done to ensure the voices of social work staff are to the fore in the work of the agency, through a developing strategy to consult with front-line social workers as well as a commitment to work with trade unions.

Unison has a seat on the advisory group that will support the work of the SSWP and will continue to ensure that the concerns of our members are centred in its work.

But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Can the NSWA and the Partnership create the transformational change needed to enable the social work profession to practice in a way that is consistent with our professional values and ethics?

Will it have the power to challenge government policies that don’t provide sufficient benefit for service users or place excessive burdens on the workforce; and can it secure the investment in front-line social work and community supports that has been so sorely lacking?

Only time will tell if this particular phoenix can heal social work or if it too is destined for extinction.

Kate Ramsden is a retired social worker and activist.