Social workers’ visits

Press, 10 March 1982, Page 20

Social workers’ visits

Sir,—lt was stated (“The Press,” March 3) that the Government has been advised against dropping the existing requirement for social workers to visit all unmarried mothers to investigate the condition of the child and its mother. As I remember it, these visits were few, far between, fleeting and personally insulting. I was never- advised when a social worker would be calling and

they parked their conspicuously named cars outside my gate. The social workers’ approach was formal and once the set questions were asked, the visit was over. One irate mother was left wondering why the department did not ask the child’s father why he had not paid any maintenance, who his fiancee was and did she sleep overnight with him?Retain and increase the visits of social workers to unmarried mothers and their children receiving social welfare benefits, but please change the approach to an informal, educated, supportive, understanding and positively encouraging and helpful one. — Yours, etc., PAULINE L. DAWSON. March 3, 1982.