UK Prime Minister applauds “noble and vital” social
work
IFSW, (2013).
The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, gave unexpected and strong support to
social workers in his speech to his Conservative party’s annual conference in
Manchester, England on 2 October 2013.
As well as praising the British armed forces,
drawing loud applause, and justifying the austerity measures which have
resulted in significant reductions in public spending and cuts in
anti-poverty programmes, Mr Cameron went on to recognise the uniquely
difficult job that social workers have to do.
“I have to make some tough decisions in my job but none as tough as
whether to break up a family and rescue a child, or try and stitch that
family back together.
“Social work is a noble and vital calling”, Cameron said.
Speaking about his own personal experience of help from a social
worker after the birth of his son, Ivan, who was born with serious
physical and learning disabilities, David Cameron said: “I’ll never forget how, after my son Ivan was born, a social
worker sat patiently in our kitchen and told us about the sort of help
we might need.”
The Prime Minister continued by highlighting his view that Frontline, the Government’s controversial new social work training
programme, designed to attract ‘high-flying’ graduates with top class
degrees onto fast-track social work training courses, will follow the
example of Teach First for teaching by getting “some of the brightest
graduates” into the profession.
He concluded by urging delegates to applaud the profession: “Now let
us, in this hall, hear it for Britain’s social workers who are doing
such an important job in our country today.”
Responding to the comments, the Chief Executive of the British Association of Social Workers, Bridget Robb
said: “BASW very much welcomes the support the Prime Minister has
expressed today for the social work profession and fully endorse his
comments about the important work social workers do every day of the
year.
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