Past reflections and a vision for the future

Julia Ross, ADASS Associate and Chair of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), reflects on her 30-year career spanning health and social care, the stories and people which have shaped her professional life and future developments in social care.     

Since joining ADASS over 30 years ago, it’s provided me with enormous support, companionship and professional development. However, having just celebrated my 80th birthday, common sense has finally dawned, and I’ll be reluctantly withdrawing as an ADASS Associate. I will continue in my current elected position as Chair of BASW UK for a further fourth year.  

I began my professional life as a nurse and later retrained as a social worker. I worked in London and Scotland before becoming Director of Social Services (Children & Adults) in Barking and Dagenham and was elected as Chair of ADASS London.  

One of my most intense memories from my career was working with Joy, a young single woman with three children under five. Joy lived in a high rise flat on the Shepherds Bush estate, referred by her GP because she’d discharged herself from hospital with Hepatitis B. The GP wanted all three children on the Child Protection register. Luckily, we had a new Family Aid scheme and with daily practical support and intensive relationship rebuilding with her own Mum, together as a team, we managed to keep the children at home, but it was often precarious.    

I also worked with Mary and still have the school photos she gave me of her two much loved children, Karen and Wayne. Maggie had a learning disability, and she would often run out of money for food, supplementing her income with prostitution. The Education Welfare Officer (EWO) had referred the children for non-school attendance and lack of hygiene. Mary showed me their shoes with holes covered with cardboard which would go soggy when it was wet, so they stayed home. Mary was using the bath to store the coal. I rolled up my sleeves and we went shopping together. She wanted to buy tins, but together we bought cheap beef, carrots and potatoes and she learnt to cook Irish stew. It was the beginning of a long-term relationship which would now be called co-production and strengths-based work. Social work has been it doing for years. It took hours, but months later she was coping.   

It was during the early 2000s when Margaret Hodge, our local MP and Children’s Minister at the time, advocated for the separation of children and adults within Director’s responsibilities, which followed in 2007. I may not be alone in regretting this separation in social services leadership, although there are undoubtedly advantages in a more integrated education and social care service for disadvantaged children.  

Given my early background in healthcare, I’ve had an enduring interest in social work and integrated health and social care services. I was appointed to the joint role of Director of Social Services with the Primary Care Trust in Barking for three years. I’ve always aimed to create a strong link between social care and social work, which is why I advocated for the inclusion of Principle Social Workers (PSWs) in the ADASS structure. I await the next steps with interest as we begin to see the impact of this development. (I should also add that I don’t believe the Directors role in adult social care necessarily requires a social work qualification, although I have always found the skills I learnt in negotiating, working collaboratively and reaching shared decisions invaluable.)   

As a professional and political body since 1970, ADASS and its predecessors have occupied an unusual and powerful place, bringing together professional ethics, operational delivery, policy advocacy and system reform through a regional structure.  The uniqueness of ADASS, working on behalf of Directors and the communities we serve, is built on mutual support and professional development, as well as in-depth experience of social care. We make an outstanding contribution to national policy development, evidenced over the years, which has been exceptional and appreciated by successive governments.  This ability to adapt, blend and move social care forward is one of the most intriguing characteristics of our professional association.  

What will the future bring for ADASS and social care? What about AI? I became fascinated with AI after I officially retired. I spent three to four days a week with a Startup, using Predictive Analytics to create performance Dash Boards integrated health and social care pathways with local authorities and the NHS. This later led to a growing fascination in robots. We are now at the foothills of an AI explosion which I note West Midlands ADASS has already grasped. We must all now do the same, engage, and using our ethical frameworks and guidance to work with our communities co-producing both within ADASS and with our local communities.   

Julia Ross is currently Chair of BASW UK (The British Association of Social Workers), her views are her own and do not necessarily reflect the official position of BASW.  

Author of Call the Social (2022) – a social work memoir full of stories.  

Author of The Laughing Robot (2024)- a dystopian novel about robots & the care crisis