Social work recruitment and retention

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Research on staff retention continued Agency workers’ peripatetic career paths may undermine the development of experience. As one London Principal Social Worker noted in commenting on this briefing: ‘In recruiting for child protection Chairs I see increasing numbers of workers who have had twelve jobs in the last two or three years. This raises concerns for me in assuring the quality of practice I need in a CP Chair’. While agency take home pay rates are higher than local authorities’, authorities could do more to make explicit the many benefits included in permanent staff contracts which agency workers do not access. Practitioners start by following the rule book, and need coaching and encouragement to reflect on practice. Yet it is this reflective practice that we are expecting from even newly qualified social workers, some of whom are in teams with those who have little more experience than they do. (Baginsky, 2013) There are a range of factors that contribute to decisions to stay or leave an employer or the profession itself. These are categorised as ‘push’ or ‘pull’ factors. 4 Research in Practice Social work recruitment and retention
Push factors (factors that can result in workers leaving their current role/profession) A culture of blame Negative media representations of social work with children and families increase anxiety in a profession where holding risk is a constant and difficult reality to manage. Where there is perceived to be a negative organisational culture - a command and control ethos where fear and blame are rife – workers experience feeling vulnerable and lacking trust in management (Healy et al, 2009; Baginsky, 2013). Leaders need to actively counter this by building systems to support collective accountability; developing shared commitment to supervision and support, and promoting a culture of continuous learning and development. Lack of clarity about roles A risk-averse culture often inadvertently results in case decision-making being pushed upwards. Managers take on tasks that should rightly sit with frontline practitioners, leaving practitioners disempowered to exercise their own professional judgement. This kind of micro-management leads to low job satisfaction but cannot be instantly reversed (Searle and Patent, 2013). Returning decision-making to the appropriate level needs to go hand-in-hand with professional development to improve the confidence and skills of individual workers, as social workers’ decisions must be informed by a breadth of knowledge if they are to be consistently reliable (Ward, 2014). High levels of stress/burnout Social workers tend to report higher levels of work-related stress than most other professions (Collins, 2008; Johnson et al, 2005). Organisational factors contribute significantly to burnout. When vacancy and turnover rates are high, caseloads rise and inexperienced workers may be required to take too much responsibility at an early stage. Where this continues over an extended time period, emotional burnout is likely (Gibbs, 2009; Martin and Healy, 2010). Overly bureaucratic systems Direct work with children and families is the core reason social workers enter the profession and is central to job satisfaction (Eborall and Garmeson, 2001; Stalker et al, 2007). Inefficient and overly bureaucratic systems reduce the amount of time practitioners are able to spend in direct work. Layers of bureaucracy can accrete over time as repeated responses to the management of risk, while lack of administrative support leads to inappropriate use of qualified professionals’ capacity on administrative work. Unwieldy electronic recording systems are a major irritant and are often cited as a precipitating factor in a worker’s decision to leave. Service leaders need to challenge local practices – simplifying and integrating procedures where possible or investing smartly in administrative support to free up practitioner time and expertise. A negative Ofsted judgement Staff turnover and interim appointments to management and leadership roles can increase following a negative inspection judgement, exacerbating organisational instability. A single word judgement of ‘Inadequate’ generates anxiety and is often the only information retained about the complex picture of achievements and challenges of local services. A poor Ofsted outcome may then trigger increased workloads and staff turnover as well as a reduction in consistency for children and families (Kelly, 2015). Service leaders are thus required to strike a careful balance between acknowledging and challenging practice shortcomings, whilst recognising that feeling over-criticised may compel staff to leave at the very time they are most needed. There is a growing body of literature that explores how stress impacts on judgement and an ability to perform tasks in general (Hammond, 1995; Blaug et al, 2007; cited in Baginsky, 2013). Organisations need to be proactive in their attempts to promote and protect the well-being of staff. There may also be a valuable role for national bodies representing social workers (such as BASW and TCSW) to advocate with employers on workload/caseload issues. www.rip.org.uk 5
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Social work recruitment and retention

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