Criminalisation of social workers and reckless austerity: two sides of the same coin.
In the history of social work, practitioners who challenged the dominant and oppressive narratives prescribed by their employers and the state, were described as "difficult employees". Practitioners' empathy for the victims of an unequal social system and their opposition to the brutalisation of the poor, was often described as "contamination".
History repeats itself first as tragedy and then as farce said Marx about 160 years ago. The recently elected Tory government rushed into confirming the essence and meaning of Marx's everlasting quote. They decided not only to embrace the most vicious arguments of their ideological predecessors but they moved one step further towards the revival of Victorian England: they decided to criminalise social workers and scapegoat them for the looming humanitarian disasters we will be witnessing soon as a result of reckless austerity.
Let's own the terms "difficult employees" and "criminals". Let's wear them as a badge of honour. If challenging inequality, working tirelessly with service users and supporting the poorest in society is a crime...then so be it. "We are all criminals"!
Don't be a lone bandit though, you will miss all the fun. Organize around SWAN!