2. Creative responses

The following quote comes from the Equality and Human Rights Commission Research Report on the Grenfell Tower Fire that was discussed in more detail in Module 1.

It was chaos. There was no-one doing anything, there was no-one taking control, there was no council, there was no police, there was no-one. It was just volunteers, it was just the community. So, it just opened and then everyone had to just organise themselves. Where’s the food going to go? Where’s the drinks going to go? Where’s the nappies going to go? Where’s the creams going to go? There was no liaising with anybody whatsoever. It was just manic. And then people started bringing beds, so then someone made the decision, like, “right, we’re going to make the tennis courts into bedrooms” so they can sleep there that evening...I think they [the council] turned up at about seven o’clock in the evening, the next day (Grenfell Community Stakeholder)

That report outlines a number of ways that services struggled to be flexible following the Grenfell Tower fire, and the good practice that was seen when flexibility was employed and practitioners felt able to use their professional judgement.

Similarly social workers responding to disasters need to be confident to step outside the usual parameters of daily practice and respond to the specific challenges of posed by the disaster. This is captured in a number of the quotes from social workers working during the Covid-19 pandemic that were captured in the preparation reading for this module (Banks et al., 2020). For example:

I am seeing the task of carrying on delivering social work during this period as a kind of intriguing puzzle that loads of very creative and determined people are trying to solve. (Independent social worker, UK)

Some looked after children are highly stressed by the Covid-19 outbreak and being creative and flexible around supporting them is very important in my view. (Social worker, UK)

However, it is also recognised that social work roles in the UK, and in particular England, are narrowing, and becoming more focused on statutory tasks such as needs assessment and safeguarding, at the expense of community development and early help (see for example, Tunstill (2019)). This is linked to reduced funding for services, and the fact that children and family services have been decimated by government austerity policies in the past ten years in particular. This context is important in shaping how social workers respond to disasters, because it means that the resources required are not always available. The narrowing of the social work role also contributes to a culture whereby social workers are less confident in responding to situations and contexts that fall outside this statutory context. Read, for example, the following experience of a social worker working in England:

We received an email stating that there had been a gas explosion and multiple casualties not far from the council building, and were asked if anyone had the time to go down and support those impacted. Being in an open-plan office, this led to widespread staff discussions about what support we could provide, including mention of eligibility criteria, and ultimately few felt confident to go down there and support. In hindsight, this was a shocking indictment of what social work has become, and it is really worrying that few could think about the importance of just being there and supporting these people going through a crisis using the social work values and skills we all possessed. Ultimately a newly qualified social worker was the first to volunteer and was sent to the scene, probably because he had been less indoctrinated into our statutory focus and context (Social Worker).

Unfortunately, the contextually specific nature of most disasters makes it difficult to provide precise guidance on how to be creative in the response provided, while also making it vital that this creativity is employed. This training has made reference to tools, techniques and approaches that can help to support following a disaster, but your own professional judgement will be most significant in determining what approach to take in all cases. Thankfully, this is not so different from what social workers should be doing regularly, it just takes the confidence to step outside your usual role.

Some examples of creative responses to disasters that social workers and other professionals have shared include:

Complete short task 4 in workbook (20 minutes)

It is important that the need for these creative responses does not negate the importance of social workers being involved in disaster planning and preparation, both within their own context and alongside other professionals. To paraphrase Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham speaking at a December 2019 conference on the role of social work in disasters about his experience following the Manchester Arena Bombing in 2017: “you will never strictly stick to a plan, but having those plans makes the flexibility required following a disaster much more effective”.

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  1. Utilising social work theory
  2. Creative responses (current page)
  3. Ethical responses
  4. Organisational support
  5. Self-care
  6. Follow up task