Drawing on survival skills
The woman in charge of social care in Portsmouth is talking in the wake of the Baby P tragedy in the London borough of Haringey, and she implicitly pinpoints the area of failure.
A 17-month-old boy died after suffering more than 50 injuries despite 60 contacts with the authorities, and Margaret Geary says: 'We all need to learn lessons when something as tragic as that happens.
'We need to check that we are being as rigorous as we can be in monitoring behaviour and not just listening to what people tell us.'
But she adds: 'It would be irresponsible for any director of social care to say we could always get a positive outcome. We are dealing with human beings, not objects.'
After the Haringey tragedy, Sharon Shoesmith protested that her sacking as director of children's services there had damaged morale and made recruitment more difficult, and Margaret says: 'It is certainly becoming harder to recruit social workers.'
As one of Portsmouth City Council's strategic directors, she has responsibility for adult and child social care, targeted education work, health improvement and development, and democracy in community services.
'A lot of the risk-and-worry stuff,' as she calls it.
Her motivation is a strong sense of social justice sharpened in her native Northern Ireland where her father was company secretary at Harland and Wolff shipyard.
At 21 she was the only probation officer working in the Falls Road area of west Belfast at the height of the troubles.
'I was interested in being involved at the sharp end of that. I'm still surprised that anyone would take advice and support from someone so young, but they did, and quite a lot of very constructive work went on through the probation service, with young people in particular.'
She left to become a qualified social worker and would have returned, but while doing a postgraduate course at Warwick University she met 'a Portsmouth lad' named Lionel – now her husband.
His mother still lived in Portsmouth and the family visited for holidays, and then she joined the council's management team four years ago.
Now she says: 'For most of my life I have worked with people in difficult situations and I have been continually impressed with how they survive, and you learn to draw on those survival skills to improve that person's life. That's what a social worker's job is.'
Asked about an incident elsewhere of children being taken away from their grandparents to be adopted by a gay couple, Margaret says: 'I haven't come across a social worker who would do other than look for every other option before taking a child into care.
'They would always look at next-of-kin first to see if there's a positive alternative. The public perception is sometimes different but social workers cannot discuss the details or their assessment of the family's ability to cope so we cannot make our case.'
Margaret's work ranges from cradle to grave – through teenage pregnancies, parenting skills, joining up children's and adult social care, 'and offering care packages which all of us may need at some stage in our life'.
She is proud that the council received an 'excellent' in its audit judgment in adult social care.
She explains: 'We face rising costs and shrinking resources so we want to reshape our service so that people can live as independently as possible for as long as possible. And we are trying to increase support for carers through a new carers' centre.
'We are looking to shape resources so that we close residential care homes because they tend to institutionalise people. And although we are keeping dementia care homes open we would like to do more for people with dementia to help them stay in their own homes as long as possible.'
Margaret sums up her philosophy: 'It's about social justice. it's not about doing things for people but showing them the opportunities to do things for themselves, whether that's children or adults. It's their right.'
With so many potential pitfalls, does she sleep at night? 'Yes,' she laughs. 'We have a good set of managers and staff, so provided you have the right communication systems, and provided they work, we can be confident of responding effectively to emergencies.
'Of course there are stresses – it would be daft to deny that. But it's what we do, and you learn to cope with that and trust each other.'
Community spirit
Asked how she relaxes, Margaret says: 'I go to the gym three or four times a week.'
She smiles: 'I'm not saying I enjoy it but I do it,' she adds. 'I am at that age...'
What age? 'I'm not going to tell you that,' she exclaims with a laugh.
She lives at Southsea but returns regularly to Northern Ireland to see her father.
Does she miss it? 'I miss some of what it offers. It has a wonderful coastline, and despite all the problems there's still a strong sense of community.
'When it comes down to it, when people are in trouble others are around to help – and the majority don't ask questions about who you are, although there are still the legacy issues.'
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Weather for Portsmouth
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 15 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
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Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
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