11:17am Tuesday 9th February 2010
Social workers often attract bad press. Lucy Richardson meets award-winning Lesley Peat who defends her profession and explains why the job is so vital.
SOME little girls dream of becoming dancers, teachers or even pop stars when they grow up. But from a young age, Lesley Peat knew that she wanted to help people with complex needs. She has gone on to fulfil her ambition and her achievements have been recognised at a national award ceremony for her profession.
Lesley was nominated by a colleague for her skills which resulted in a family with four children being able to stay together. Her achievement was praised by Councillor Julia Rostron, executive member for social care at Middlesbrough Council, who says Lesley is a great ambassador for a career which is often much maligned.
“The social work profession has seen a lot of negative publicity over the years, which, at times, is wholly unjustified and is only part of the story,” says Coun Rostron.
“Every day, social workers like Lesley work in some very challenging situations, doing their very best to make a positive contribution to the lives of some of the most vulnerable members of our community.”
Lesley, who was named highly commended social worker of the year, agrees that the job is misunderstood, but emphasises that it plays a crucial role in society. “The general public do not understand the work that we do,” she says.
“Due to a series of high-profile cases, the profession has attracted a barrage of negative press. Social workers often only hit the headlines when an older person has died of neglect, but we prevent these things happening. We empower people and help them take control of their lives.”
Lesley always wanted to be a social worker and started by specialising in helping people with learning difficulties. “Two members of my family have learning difficulties and I used to enjoy looking after them,” she explains.
“I started to volunteer at 16 at a centre for older people, which gave me a huge sense of satisfaction. There are vulnerable people in the community who just need a bit of support.”
From there, she went to work in London in a school for people with learning difficulties, before achieving her preliminary certificate in social care at Kirby College of further education, in Middlesbrough.
She spent 20 years at the Erimus Day Centre, in the town, while studying for her diploma in social care at university.
“People think all social workers work with children and families, and let kids die,” she says. “They do not realise the amount of essential work that we do in the community.
“Some of my fellow students felt ashamed to say that they were social workers. I have never felt that. It’s very difficult to recruit and retain good social workers, but the degree programme is now going to be more robust.”
She has been working in the adults team at Middlesbrough Council for five years. “Becoming a social worker has been the best thing I have ever done,” she says.
“It’s very challenging and very stressful, but it has immense job satisfaction. We are working with some of the most vulnerable people at their time of greatest need.”
At any one time she can be dealing with 30 cases. She has a varied array of files, dealing with asylum seekers, to people with personality disorders and the elderly.
Much of her work is liaising with other providers to help clients secure better housing, budget their finances and get out of debt.
The day before we met she had made an assessment for a woman in her 20s suffering from depression, who had candles scattered around her home as she had no electricity or gas. “I called the Winter Warm Campaign about her heating and arranged wind-up lanterns as she nearly burned the house down,” Lesley says.
Her next appointment was at a nursing home where she went to review the case of an elderly woman whose health had plummeted.
“At the moment, it is quite stressful, there are a lot of cases that need a lot of work,” she explains. “You have to be on the ball as, if you forget something, it could have serious consequences.
“Neighbours might call and say a lady has dementia and should be in a nursing home, but if she still has some capacity of understanding I could help her to stay in her home, if that’s what she wants.”
SHE says: “The case I was nominated for gave me sleepless nights. I could not work in the children’s and families team. I found it too traumatic. The message now is to keep families together, but it’s on a knife edge.”
Following an unannounced inspection recently, Middlesbrough Council’s services for vulnerable children won the highest praise.
Lesley says she has great support from her colleagues and she believes sharing an office with a community nurse and having regular supervision sessions helps find solutions and reduce stress. “Sometimes you do feel low, but the people here are brilliant. It’s good to talk problems through.
“The highs of the jobs are when you have a really complex case and there have been a lot of problems within a family that have taken a lot to sort out.
“When all the services are in place and people take back control, it gives you great satisfaction.
There is no better feeling than giving people their lives back.”
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