3. Advocating for the role of social workers in disasters

A 2008 Social Care Institute for Excellence report suggested that social care should be involved in Local Resilience Forums, and local authorities are listed as Category 1 responders under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. However, in practice social workers are rarely involved in emergency planning and preparation within the UK. Despite their relative invisibility in many disasters, social workers have long held multiple crucial roles in disaster response and recovery. This includes the example of social workers supporting “shell-shocked” soldiers returning from the First World War (more likely to be termed post-traumatic stress disorder today).

However, the role of the social worker following disasters is not well understood by the public, other professionals and many social workers. This creates a significant barrier for social workers working in these contexts. Social workers responding to recent disasters have shared stories of visiting the scene of a disaster and struggling to articulate their role, including following the Grenfell Tower Fire and the numerous UK terrorist attacks in 2017. People impacted by disasters have similarly expressed their confusion about the support social workers can provide within these contexts. This has been shown to impact on the trust that social workers are able to develop with those impacted.

Margaret Aspinall, Chairperson of the Hillsborough Family Support Group

Complete short task 4 in workbook (10 minutes)

There are a number of ways that social workers can reduce these barriers. This includes attending Local Resilience Forums and working with other professionals to help them understand the role that social workers can play following a disaster. This can also involve the development of information and resources to inform other professionals and the public about the role of social workers in disasters. Having these resources prepared can not only spread the word prior to disasters, but can be invaluable in the event of a disaster to help spread information about the input that social workers can have. These concepts will be drawn on more in the follow-up task for this module and the follow up task for Module 3.

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Section links

  1. Disasters and the law introduction
  2. Civil Contingencies Act 2004
  3. Advocating for the role of social workers in disasters (current page)
  4. Contextualising disasters
  5. Disaster capitalism
  6. Follow up task