YCL! March 2014 | Page 4

Interview with a Social Worker We asked a social worker some questions to find out more about what they do. Why is there such a high turnover of social workers? I think that Social Workers do not feel appreciated in Devon. The local authority does not necessarily do a good job of making us feel valued. Often new social workers feel they have just been dumped with little in the way of a planned induction although this may be down to different managers having different skills in making people feel welcomed and a valuable part of the team. It often appears that the local authority put hindrances in the way of us being able to do our job properly which is usually down to budgets. Is there a ‘matching’ process for deciding which young people have which workers? If so what is this? I have never come across a formal matching process. Sometimes there may be a discussion with regards to matching when it comes to handing on a case but often it is a question of resources and who has a gap in their caseload. 3.