Realised I’d double booked myself for this Friday and had to cancel a visit from LB’s new social worker. The adult social worker. I then realised that a) I didn’t know her name and b) I didn’t have any contact details for her. Other than ‘ASW, Friday morning’. “Hey, crap bollock”, I hear some of you shout, “Why didn’t you write down the details at the time?”
I dunno. But I’m not sure it’s my responsibility to fact find in this situation.
When I met ASW, with LB’s current social worker, a few weeks ago, it was a pretty underwhelming situation. Chittering on, as I filled the kettle, I lightheartedly mentioned that LB said he didn’t want to meet her.
“Well,” she said, bristling, “I am his future.”
We sat at the table for ten minutes, having a forgettable chat (well apart from the bit where she defended A4E’s performance in the local authority). And made an appointment for Friday. I’m not sure what the point of the last meeting was, or this one because nothing is made clear. But I obviously needed to reschedule.
I emailed LB’s existing social worker. Asking for ASW’s contact details (and whether she remembered her saying she was his future). I got an email back, ignoring my second question but stating the following;
- Adult care manager is ASW, you can email her on xxxx. She will be his care manager when he transfers to the adult service. Once his care package is up and running she will then close to her. However he will remain open to the learning disability team. If you require further support after the closure to ASW then you just contact the team and they will re refer you to a care manager that is more than likely be ASW.
Eh? Sorry, but what does any of this mean? Is this social care speak? Are there some missing words? What does ‘close to her’ mean? And ‘open to the learning disability team’? What does that mean??? And why all the jiggerypokery if the outcome ‘more than likely’ is always going to be ASW? What does any of it mean???
And why are you emailing me this crapshite piece of opaque, insider, meaningless jargon when I’m terrified enough about what the future will be like for LB?
mydaftlife 
Hi, I don’t know if you got any other answers, but from my personal experience of adult care services (young adult physically disabled team) “close to her” means that she will end LB’s case with her and all contact with you once all of LB’s current needs have been met. So once you have a care/support package arranged and have confirmed you are happy with how things are going (they usually ask this after a few weeks of having the support in place) she will close LB’s case and will no longer be your social worker. This means that she won’t keep in contact with you to check on how LB is doing and if LB is having problems, you don’t contact her directly. If, once the case is closed, you need further help, LB will still have an open case under the learning disability team. You contact them directly and they will assign LB a social worker who will open a new case for LB with themself. It could, under the system, be a different social worker; but in practice, they will always try to assign somebody that you are used to interacting with.
I have no idea why they do it this way, rather than just assigning you a fixed social worker that you can contact easily but it just seems to be the way things are done now. I had to figure it all out by myself as, like you, I wasn’t told anything about how the system works. I’m still trying to figure things out myself but if I can help at all with any questions, please give me a shout on twitter (@kimbellybull)
I hope this has been helpful, take care.
Kimberley xx
‘close to her’ should have been ‘close his case’ or similar – end the active involvement of a social worker once things are stable.
‘open to the learning disability team’ means that if LB needs the services of a social worker again (eg needs change or care package goes wonky) he’ll be able to get straight back in where he left off.
re-referring to ‘more than likely’ ASW just means that if his case does need to be re-opened with the involvement of a SW again, they’ll try and make sure it’s the same one.
Hope that helps. Unfortunately after 6 years as an ‘adult social care service user’ (pah) I speak Social Worker quite well.
Kimberley and Raf thank you both! It is clear now (bit odd in terms of not having an ongoing social worker) but so glad I understand how the process will work. I suppose I’ll get to learn to speak Social Worker too eventually 😉 Thanks again! Sara
Alarmingly having navigated many minefields especially in adolescence I understood it all, it has at times required research!
I have had a Social worker support since my boy was 5 having had a change at transition, mutual respect and learning have been key. I class my self as lucky!
So wish I did not have to go through the system and all the hoops,a key worker for information and being listened to as a parent by some of the other services would have been so much easier
Yeah, key workers would be such a straightforward solution… Sigh.
Been there, done that with my son’s situation: social worker/case manager bullshit seems a universal trait.
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