Social work recruitment and retention

The Mental Elf, a summary review of mindfulness research
- www.nationalelfservice.net/treatment/mindfulness/
the-evidence-for-mindfulness-mental-health-awarenessweek-mhaw15
Feeling valued
The need to feel valued is a strong theme in research on
social work retention and is cited as a significant factor in the
decision to leave or stay by public sector staff more widely. Pay
may be one aspect of this but is actually rarely cited by social
workers as a reason for leaving a job. Social workers generally
speak about value in broader terms, citing the way in which
they are treated and spoken of by managers as well as wider
stakeholders including the government and the general public
(Audit Commission, 2002).
Although some aspects of this are outside the control of any
employer, services that are proactive in managing internal
and local media and communications are likely to engender a
greater sense of loyalty amongst their staff. Positive campaigns,
like The College of Social Work’s (TCSW) Real Social Work
or Community Care’s Stand up for Social Work, and robust
advocacy by senior leaders and professional bodies can
support workers to feel valued and challenge negative
media representations.
Further reading
www.tcsw.org.uk/get-involved/RealSocialWork
www.communitycare.co.uk/stand-social-work-2015
Research on staff recruitment
Recruitment of experienced workers is a significant problem
which is likely to be exacerbated if more NQSWs choose
an early career as a peripatetic agency worker. Overseas
workers meet some demand in the immediate term but
many are likely to return home in the longer term, taking
their experience with them.
One outcome of high turnover rates is that social work
is delivered by a significant proportion of NQSWs and
workers with less than five years’ experience. High
numbers of graduate social workers in recent years have
allowed employers to be discriminating and, with the
right support in place, retaining and developing these
high quality NQSWs will build excellence and experience.
Newly qualified workers require learning and mentoring
investment on the part of employers (Holmes et al, 2013)
and the frameworks introduced in recent years built
positive structures for this support.
One of the key determinants of whether a newly qualified
worker is deemed ‘ready to practise’ is the quality of their
practice placements, yet placements in statutory services are
in short supply and employers and universities must work
together to improve the provision of statutory placements.
Where students have a positive experience in their
placements (particularly final placements) they often stay on
to work for that authority. However, their decision to do so
is based not just on the placement itself but on experiencing
a positive working environment and good support from
colleagues (Horner et al, 2002; Dinn, 2003).
Employers are developing recruitment processes to test
candidates’ skills and knowledge in the complex range of
activities required for high quality direct work with children
and families – including writing and analytical skills;
critical reasoning; empathy (Baginsky, 2013). Psychological
screening for emotional resilience may also be appropriate
(Kinman and Grant, 2011). There are some early indications
that high scores on measures such as emotional intelligence,
emphatic concern and reflective ability are predictors of
resilience, serving as protective factors in a social care role.
The Step up to Social Work programme provides an example
of how the investment of employers and strong links
with education providers can yield positive results. The
programme places emphasis on candidate selection and
education providers and employers work together to design
a curriculum that balances practice and academic learning.
An evaluation of the programme demonstrated good
outcomes in terms of completion rates, levels of achievement
and the skills and knowledge of workers (Holmes et al, 2013).
As part of the Government’s broader strategy on practice
learning and CPD for social workers, from September 2015
the DfE Social Work Reform Unit will launch new teaching
partnerships intended to become ‘the key delivery vehicle
to address the recommendations made by the 2014 Narey
and Croisdale-Appleby reviews of social work education’.
Teaching partnerships are defined as: ‘an accredited
collaboration between higher education institutes (HEIs)
and employers which deliver high quality training for social
work students and qualified practitioners and equip them to
practise to specified standards in statutory settings’ (DfE DoH
invitation of expressions of interest, accessed 22 May 2015).
www.rip.org.uk
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