What do social workers get out of getting children taken away from homes?

[Lady of Lace and Fire]

I was reading an article today about parents being taken from good homes. One was about a father having admitted to spanked his child a couple of times and then the social worker stating that he ruthless beat his daughter for 20 minutes without stopping. I hate admitting that I've seen things like this.

In no way am I suggesting all social workers are like this. In fact, I've seen quite a few ignore things I wish were never ignored. My question is WHY would they lie? What do they get out of it?

[LJ]

They get kick backs, extra holiday time per child removed and job security. As long as there are kiddies ready for the snatchin' there's a paycheck for the cashing.


Seriously, just like in any field of work you will have the over-zealous, those who manipulate the system for buy outs (I once read about how some court officials DO get kick backs for sending kids to certain "facilities" and used as child labor) and plain old fashioned ignorance.

[tigerprawn]

well he was hardly going to admit that he beat his daughter, anyway if he s telling the truth then a judge will give his children back to him... I think if a child is iin real danger social workers will feel good about getting that child out of that environment I dont think they take any pleasure in taking kids away from their parents and homes

[HotRodDrummer]

I think, much like a district attorney, social workers become so centered on proving their decisions, they will do anything to win their case in court. Nobody wants to be shown in a light that they made a wrong judgement, especially in serious situations that involve people's lives. So, they paint a picture that pushes the boundaries as far as they can go. Their aim becomes not for what is best for the child and how to make a situation better of all involved, but to WIN their case. Don't get me wrong, I believe there are many social workers who enter the profession out of a desire to help people. But like many other professions, I believe they become tainted and "play the game" and lose focus on the real objective. There is so much gray area for holding someone in a social worker's profession accountable for false accusations, they have too much room to play with. If they are proved to have made the wrong decision, it is merely, "oops, my bad" then move on to the next case. You rarely or never hear in the news of how a social worker made false or inflated accusations that impacted a family in a significantly negative way, yet it happens every day and it just gets swept under the rug. Being government agency, they look out for the benefit of the agency, not what the purpose of the agency is designed for.

I believe that after time of being exposed to so much bureaucracy, many or most social workers become desensitized to the best interest of people's lives. I believe social workers should be monitored by a non government group and held accountable for the decisions they make. Your statement about them ignoring things that they shouldn't is way too common too. Especially if there is a child that the social worker placed in a different home that turns out to be harmful to that child. There again... the social worker would not want to appear to have made poor judgement. It is a shame how things are done in many ways, and it is complicated, but I believe much can be avoided and done better.

In my opinion about what they get out of it, is notoriety. Because, like I said about district attorneys, the more cases you win in court, the better it looks on paper, no matter at whose expense.

[Monique]

Just wanted to get my disclaimer out of the way, because the term "social worker" is often used in vain. Are you talking about state level jobs? Because most states don't call them "social workers" because individuals with various degrees can quality for those jobs to include criminal justice, sociology, psychology, education etc.

So with that said, in the U.S., most social services state agencies do not have the authority to take children out of the home. This has to go through the courts. So there are checks and balances to the system in most states.

As far as the reason why there are people who may not do the right thing? That is life. You will meet the good and bad in every job on the market. It doesn't mean all people in those roles are out doing the wrong thing. The media tends to focus on the negative......and for the 3 staff doing the wrong thing, there are 100 staff working hard, diligentlly and doing the right thing.

[I heart avocados]

When a social worker removes a child from a home, they get nothing other than a sh*t load of work on their hands. Removing a child is a pain in the ass. Agencies do everything they can to avoid it, because there are already so many children in the foster care system. I've never heard of a social worker that removes a child without good reason. It brings LOTS and LOTS more work for several people in the agency.