Motivating social workers in England to boost retention rates. Suggested approaches.

The importance of validation

Social workers have a vital contribution to make to society because they reach out to people who are vulnerable and at-risk. They thereby are in a position to bring about social change through their interventions. In England, though, social work is often described as being in crisis; something that is perhaps most clearly manifested by high turnover and vacancy rates in social work agencies all over the country.

As I have pointed out in my previous linkedin posts, even the tragic death of Peter Connelly (Baby P) has been linked to the few social workers at hand to enable the case to be managed effectively (see for instance the report by LGA, 2009). Almost a decade earlier it had already been observed that “the massive shortfall in qualified social work staff needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency’ (Parton, 2001, p. 170).

There is a lack of data on why social workers leave the profession, but I would not like to start out by looking at the retention issue from this angle. Rather, I would like to start out by looking at why people enter the social work profession in the first place. What makes the ‘intention to leave’ set in? Is it because the work-place does not meet social workers’ expectations. If so, where did they get those expectations from? Are those expectations consistent with what working in social work is about? There is also the issue of how students are selected as suitable candidates for social work training. Ryan, McCormack, and Cleak (2006) suggest that gate-keeping should ‘‘focus on nonacademic criteria, particularly personal qualities” (p. 80) rather than simply on whether prospective social work students satisfy academic entrance criteria - as has traditionally been the practice in certain universities.

In further illustration, if we take into consideration that not all people are necessarily group-oriented and some people prefer to ‘do it their (my) own way’; it remains to be asked how feasible this mentality is in a social work setting? Likewise, some people are highly susceptible to engage in black-and-white thinking. This usually makes them highly suspicious of other people. This makes it reasonable to ask: 'is the source of dissatisfaction not social work related at all but rather something that can be traced to highly personal roots? What preparation have social workers been given for group work activity? How much self-reflection have they been trained to engage in? Do they show empathy? If not, what has been done to ensure that they are adequately empowered to relate to others meaningfully? I have to admit that unfortunately, throughout my readings, I have found little reference to personal dynamics when discussing social work retention rates.

Looking at the social worker retention from an organizational perspective, the observation that team dynamics influence social work practice; and social work practice can be severely disrupted if teams do not operate optimally, needs to be borne clearly in mind. The questions that need to be asked, if team dynamics are to be explored are: Does management show that it takes an interest in the well-being of employees? How? Does it do so regularly? Does it do so enough? What about the relationships between social workers? Is it conducive? Numerous studies have shown that when employees feel validated, overall job satisfaction rates are higher.

For teams to function well, they must have clear goals. These goals must not over-ride the expressive communication in groups. People who get on well together and can communicate clearly with one another are more likely to reach goals. However, in many cases, in social work, goals are task-centered. There is a target and that target must be reached. There thereby has to be an intersection between instrumental and expressive goals.

Clarity of scope and purpose must also features in career progression, if social workers are to know what is expected of them and enjoy greater role clarity. The State of the Children’s Social Care Workforce report (CWDC 2008) has laid down that the establishment of clear career pathways is necessary for effective social work delivery. Other factors that have been listed in the literature as contributing to higher retention rates are social worker’s commitment to their work - and consequently a belief that social workers make a positive difference in the lives of other people; service user contact; feeling part of a skilled team; and experiencing satisfaction at the personal growth derived from learning from others.

The importance of clear progressive stages

These different factors that can boost retention rates are actually at the root of the Performance Capabilities Framework (PCF). The PCF serves to illustrate on a step-by-step basis, what social workers should be able to do at each stage of their career and professional development. It embodies the career stages set out by the Social Work Task Force (2009), and, in so doing, helps to shape social work from the point at which an individual applies to a social work qualifying program, through advanced levels to principal social worker levels. It also acknowledges that all social workers, through varying levels of experience, stand to benefit from support not only for practice skills but also for personal development.

Breaking down social work tasks into progressive stages is consistent with recommendations by the Audit Commission (2002) which had published a report on the public sector. It said that work must ideally be matched with people’s expectations (a person-job fit); the working environment should be engaging, enabling and supportive of staff who should feel valued, respected and rewarded (a job-person fit); and people must feel that their values and those of the work-place are consistent with one another, resulting in a synergy of values (rather than a clash of values). However, the Audit Commission (2002: 9) cautions that having agency workers employed to carry out many of the essential social work tasks is only a temporary solution. The ‘free agent perspective’ was clearly embodied in locum jobs with the result that social workers in any locum job could select authorities (and sometimes also assignments) they believed would cause them less problems than had they to do ‘mainstream’ social work.

There are different routes into social work in England. Going back in time, an important transition came about when instead of the qualifying diploma course, pathways to new social work honors degree were opened up in England in 2003, and the other UK countries in 2004. The introduction of the new honors degrees also addressed the significant drop in applications to social work education "between 1995 and 2000 when they fell by 70% for diploma and undergraduate courses and by 35% for postgraduate courses" (Parton, 2001, p. 168).

The award of an honors degree in social work brought social work on par with other professions. Eventually, social work came to be offered at a master’s degree level, this often serving the purpose of serving as a conversion course (for people who had qualified in other subjects at an undergraduate degree level) and simultaneously with the award of a postgraduate qualification. The fast-track programs, Step Up to Social Work, Frontline and Think Ahead have offered a new paradigm to social work training.

The fast-track programs offer training to pre-selected candidates and center their training around student/participant placements; which are located across different regional partnerships and in different local authorities. Their goal is to also ensure that, as far as possible, graduate social workers fill vacant social work positions; and thereby work in the social work field on completing their training. The Newly Qualified Social Worker Program fits in (in a complementary way) with the fast-track route as it enables social workers to be given feedback and further motivated to work in the social work field in their first year after acquiring a social work qualification (in the first year of their two year course of the fast-track programs).

The importance of work-satisfaction

Having said it all, (even if this leaves me at risk of being accused of possibly going against the overall thrust of my writing!!!), it remains to be pointed out that - if a small number of social work graduates do not work in the social work field, this can also be healthy and must not be seen as necessarily a negative thing. Certainly if student enrolment numbers and eventual completion of the degree, are not enough to meet the needs of children’s and other social work services, it is difficult (at least at first sight) to think otherwise. However, my experience of lecturing in social work at the University of Malta, the University of Strathclyde and on the Think Ahead program at the University of York has shown me that sometimes (particularly) young people who are studying at university are undecided if social work is ‘really’ the profession they want to undertake.

Indeed, the worst thing that can happen is if social workers end up doing their work half-heartedly since they believe that they have chosen the wrong profession but they feel somehow obliged to work in that area simply because they have graduated in it. Although I stand to be corrected on this, I suspect that these graduates will be unable to empathize adequately with service users. Further compounding this, as Madden (2000) observes, “there is little evidence that students who will not succeed can be identified in advance” (p.141). Therefore, when considering the labor market overall, it is important to remember that, even if not ideal, it is also healthy to have social work graduates in areas of employment other than social work. These could include, for example, human resource management. Alternatively, social workers could specialize in areas such as psychotherapy and clinical psychology. This is because social work skills are transversal and can enable people to understand other people’s realities better, irrespective of the work-setting they are in.

On-the-job stressors are likely to be the first thing that come to mind if someone were to theoretically ask the question ‘why do you think social workers leave their jobs?’ Such stressors include the administration and recording of cases which can easily be given precedence over actual personal contact with service users due to time constraints. Bureaucratic and target-driven procedures do not necessarily empower social workers to manage risk and can lead to emotional exhaustion. Here I would like to ring a bell of caution. If social workers do not the time/space to work with service users to assess risks adequately, one only needs to reflect on the case of Baby P (referred to above), to foresee the possible tragic consequences of investing too much time in paperwork and too little time with service users. 

Being in a position to understand the holistic experience of the service user - and the social networks that the service user forms part of - is an important aspect of social work, and is likely to be a distinguishing factor between social work and other professions such as psychotherapy. However, this takes time. Added to this, unless social workers form a retained work-force, and there is rapid turn-over between one social worker and another, it is more likely for certain data to pass the social workers by, no matter how effective the case-work recording is. On the other hand, if social workers are overstretched, and have too much work to do, it is easy for them to oversee things because of the stresses associated with work-overload. This calls for increased administrative support wherever this is indicated.

 Of further relevance is the complex nature of cases which can also add to a social worker’s stresses. This is most evident in child protection work where social workers can feel threatened or may be subjected to violence, this inevitably contributing to their feeling anxious and on edge. However, the situation is not all negative. Positive influences on retention can serve to counter stressors of this nature. These can include informal exchanges between co-workers, informal peer sharing, variety in the work which makes it more interesting and motivating, and commitment to service which is generally associated with a belief that social workers can and do make a difference in other people’s lives. Adequate supervision is also an important motivating factor.

Audit Commission (2002) Recruitment and Retention: A Public Sector Workforce for the Twenty-First Century: Audit Commission. 

Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC 2008) The State of the Children’s Social Care Workforce: A Statistical Overview of the Workforce Providing Children’s, and Families’ Social Care in England. London: Children’s Workforce Development Council.

Local Government Association (2009) Councils struggling to recruit social workers in wake of Baby P, survey reveals. [online] Available at: https://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=1868480

Madden, R. (2000) ‘Creating a bridging environment’, in Gatekeeping in BSW Programs, eds P. Gibbs & E. H. Blakely, Columbia University Press, New York

Parton, N. (2001) ‘The current state of social work universities: some personal reflections’, Social Work Education, 20, 2, 167–174.

Ryan, M., McCormack, J., & Cleak, H. (2006). Student performance in field education placements: The findings of a 6-year Australian study of admissions data. Journal of Social Work Education, 42, 1, 67-85