2015年经济学人 社会工作者 关爱为上（在线收听）

Social workers

社会工作者

First, care

关爱为上

A new initiative could revive a beleaguered profession

一个新尝试可以让一个饱受诟病的职业重获新生

ON AUGUST 2nd Magdalena Luczak and her partner, Mariusz Krezolek, were jailed for life for the murder of her four-year-old son, Daniel. The pair starved him for months. They beat him, locked him in a small unheated room, and left him there to die. As with the deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007, the boy’s fate has prompted questions about how the authorities missed the abuse. Attention has again focused on social workers.

8月2日，马格德莱娜和她的情人玛瑞斯因涉嫌谋杀自己的4岁儿子丹尼尔，被判处了无期徒刑。由于数月没有食物可吃，这个孩子最终被他们活活饿死。他们还殴打他，将他关在一个没有暖气的小房间里，让他自生自灭。反观2000年维多利亚·克里比以及2007年皮特·康纳利的虐儿案件，又一个孩子的悲惨命运使得人们迅速将矛头指向当局政府，为什么他们让这样的惨剧再次发生。民主关注的焦点再次聚集到社会工作者的身上来。

Recent years have seen numerous attempts to reform and revitalise the profession. In May a new fast-track training programme, Frontline, was launched in the hope of improving things. It is inspired by Teach First, which sends bright graduates into tough schools for at least two years.

近些年，社会各界一直尝试着做一些改革，以此使该职业获得重生。今年5月份，一场名为“前沿”（Frontline)的快速培训项目开始启动，旨在让这份职业有所改善。这个项目是受到一个名为“教为先”（Teach First)的慈善组织的启发，该慈善组织将杰出毕业生送往教学较为落后的学校，进行为期两年以上的支教活动。

Participants will attend an intensive five-week summer school before embarking on two years of closely supervised work in local-authority children’s services. If they measure up, they will qualify as social workers at the end of the first year and gain a master’s degree after the second. Funding will come from private donors, the Department for Education and local authorities (though Frontline will remain independent of the government). Recruitment for a pilot scheme, targeting leading universities, begins in September.

该项目的参与者在为期五周的暑期集训营后，将会在当地政府性的儿童服务中心任职两年，并接受上级的严密监督。假如他们的表现合格，将会在第一年的年底转为正式的社会工作者，第二年的年底会拿一个硕士学位。该项目由私人，教育部和当地政府共同赞助完成，但是该项目仍旧是独立于政府而存在的。目前该计划仍旧处于试点阶段，将会于九月在高等学府里展开招募工作。

Its founders want to boost the status of a much-maligned profession. “We are dealing with a crisis,” says Lord Adonis, a former Labour minister and chair of Frontline’s board. Recruitment is a problem, but so is retention: the expected working life of a social worker is eight years, compared with 14 for nurses. Last year some local authorities reported that a third of their positions were unfilled.

这个项目的组织者想要借此机会来提升这个饱受诟病的职业的社会地位。前劳工部长，目前任“前沿”董事会主席的阿多尼斯表示他们正在处理一场人力资源危机。能否招到人是一个问题，而如何留住人也是一个难题：一名护士的工龄是14年，而一名社工的工龄预计是8年。去年，一些地方政府的报告称三分之一的职务是处在空缺阶段。

Unsurprisingly, given the opprobrium often heaped on the profession, ambitious graduates tend to steer clear. Of the 2,765 people who began master’s courses in social work in 2011, just five had completed undergraduate degrees at Oxford or Cambridge. And too many courses fail to give sufficient practical grounding in hard child-protection work, says Josh MacAlister, Frontline’s chief executive and himself a Teach First alumnus. Many placements are in schools or Sure Start centres, which provide basic education and health care in poor areas. Frontline recruits will work in small teams with dedicated supervisors in council children’s services.

鉴于这份职业背负着许多骂名，充满抱负的大学生对它敬而远之的态度也是不足为奇的。2011年有2,765人开始了他们社会工作的研究生课程，而其中仅有五人是在牛津或者剑桥大学完成了本科学业。“前沿”的首席执行官，同样也是“教为先”组织的校友的乔希·麦卡利斯特认为，儿童保护工作具有高难度，而很多课程却无法为学生提供充足的实战经历。许多人员被分配在学校或是起点（Sure Start)儿童中心（该中心为贫困地区儿童提供基础教育和卫生防护）。“前沿”所招募来的人员将以小组形式展开工作，每个小组均配备一名热衷于地方儿童服务事业的监管人员。

Reactions to the initiative have been mixed. Some in the profession are piqued that it has been set up by outsiders. Boosters, such as Donald Forrester of Bedfordshire University, thinks the newcomers will bring in much-needed fresh thinking.

对于这个创新项目，社会反响不一。有些社工对此有些不满，因为这个项目是些门外汉创办起来的。对于像来自贝德福德大学的唐纳德教授这样的支持者而言，他们认为新人会更有新想法，而这正是该行业所急需的。

Another worry is that the programme is too specialised and too short. Focusing just on children’s services is like training doctors only in paediatrics, says John Carpenter of Bristol University. Lord Adonis, who was himself taken into care as a child, disagrees: “Social work has been too unfocused in the past,” he says. As for the scheme’s length, David Shemmings of Kent University reckons that Frontline students will get about the same amount of face-to-face lecturing as they would on a university course.

对于该项目的另一个担忧是：这个项目会不会太过单一并且时长是不是太短了？来自布里斯托大学的约翰·卡朋特教授认为，该项目只专注于儿童服务就好像培训医生却只专注于儿科知识的传授。在教养院长大的阿多尼斯对此持反对意见，他表示“之前的社会工作就是太没重心了”。关于这个培训的时长，来自肯特大学的大卫教授认为，“前沿”集训营里的学生都将会得到和在校大学生课程一样时长的面授课程。

Predictably, some criticise the “elitist” focus on the better universities. Supporters point to Teach First, which does the same, but in which a third of new trainees this year were the first in their family to go to university and a quarter were eligible for free school meals when they were children: hardly blue-bloods.

不难预料，一些人会批评这些招聘来的“精英”只关心如何进入更好的大学。而支持者指出，“教为先”也是在招募杰出毕业生为其工作，而该组织今年的培训生中，三分之一的人是家里第一个上大学的，四分之一的人是在幼年时就开始领学校的免费餐食：他们中间很少有人是富裕的贵族。

Teach First was (as the name suggests) set up on the basis that participants would teach first and then go on to other jobs. In fact, over half stay in education. There is no “first” at Frontline. At the end of their course, recruits will be offered the opportunity to pursue further professional training, or encouraged to move up the ranks. Those who want to leave will get help to move on. But Mr MacAlister hopes that many will stay. This year 9% of all final-year students from Oxbridge applied for Teach First. Frontline hopes to pull off a similar feat for social work.

正如它名字所昭示的那样，“教为先”的工作流程是将招募来的人员先投放到教育岗位，然后他们才会去尝试其他的工作。事实上，有超过半数的人仍旧会呆在教育行业里。“前沿”项目里没有强制的先后顺序。在课程接近尾声时，这些营员可以自由选择是继续求学还是从业升职。今年，9%的牛津大学毕业生申请了“教为先”的支教岗位。“前沿”期待着“教为先”的成功先例可以他们为社会工作领域的新尝试带来同样的喜讯。