Harsh scorn concerning social worker (9)
I believe the answer is:
dissonant
'harsh' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'scorn concerning social worker' is the wordplay.
'scorn' becomes 'diss' (diss can mean to scorn or insult).
'concerning' becomes 'on' (both can mean 'in relation to').
'social worker' becomes 'ant' (ants are social insects).
'diss'+'on'+'ant'='DISSONANT'
(Other definitions for dissonant that I've seen before include "sounding harsh" , "grating" , "incongruous" , "Lacking harmony" .)