Social services are an interesting case because rather than attracting the worst possible job candidates, the kind of people who want power over others and don'

Social services are an interesting case because rather than attracting the worst possible job candidates, the kind of people who want power over others and don't really care about service, social service attracts the sorts of people who really care about doing a good job and helping people, and are capable of wringing good economics out of even tighter budgets than other gov orgs. I'm not surprised your experience was different there.