Retaining social workers in child protection: The influence of career pathways, social exchanges and ‘myths’

Kenneth Burns24th January 2011, University of Sussex

4.4 million people

Celtic Tiger economic growth

Economic crisis of 2008

Cutbacks in health and social services began in 2006

€30-€35 Billion cutbacks in state spending

‘Solvent’ by 2014/15

Sharing our ‘fiscal sovereignty’ with EU and IMF

€85 Billion loan [overdraft]

I did some time in there [child protection and welfare] and I have seen maybe both sides of it, people who were under enormous pressure in there and then I have seen people who have got on really well and are still in it years later and wouldn’t work in…you know, wouldn’t work anywhere else (Roisin*).

*Pseudonym

What’s the ‘problem’?Recurring theme in the literature and government

reports.

Reliable data vs. anecdotal accounts.

Methodological issues with defining retention/turnover:Differences between studies Practitioners’ ‘definitions’ problematic

Impact of high retention on service users, service delivery, and the reputation of child and family social work

Recruitment

A: B:They are masochists

Their labour will contribute, in some way, to Ireland addressing its fiscal deficit

Question 14 for £500,000:Why are social workers staying in child protection and welfare?

C: D:42

The answer to this question is way too complicated for a short research presentation

A: B:

Question 14 for £500,000:Why are social workers staying in child protection and welfare?

C: D:42

The answer to this question is way too complicated for a short research presentation

Background to the research and study designSocial worker and team leader in child protection

Irish and international studies on retention

Research undertaken at the early stages of cutbacks in the Irish welfare state

Qualitative methodology

45 participants (2 samples, 35 + 10)

Quantitative data also collected on turnover and staff employment mobility

Theoretical underpinnings

Research questions

Practitioner accounts of turnover/retentionWith our own team at the moment there seems to

be a very high turnover (Ryan).

 

I don’t think the team has been as stable for so long. By that I mean that the same people are here (Denise).

Findings on retention Turnover rate of 8% during study period (5 teams, 104 social work staff).

Two-thirds of social workers interviewed wanted to continue working in child protection and welfare.

Balance of ‘Novice professionals’ and ‘Experienced Professionals’ (Rønnestad and Skovelt, 2003).

Further data collection round end of December 2009: turnover is still exceptionally low on all five teams.

End of December 2009, 26 out of 35 study participants (74%) were still working in same child protection team.

Use of child protection and welfare as a ‘proving ground’ for newly qualified social workers?

Before, we look at why social workers want to stay / want to leave, what are the turnover figures for England?

On a scale of 1-10, where 1 is turnover is very high and a significant problem overall in England for children and family social workers and 10 is that there is no issue with turnover, where on the scale would you rate this issue?

101 5

Turnover rates of field social workers (England)

*

* Most recent data

Retaining social workers in child protection and

welfare

Labour Market for Social Workers in

Ireland

Social Exchanges With

Peers

Social Exchanges with Line-Managers,

including Supervision

“Making a difference”

(Task Significance)

HSE Salary and Employment Conditions

Career Preference Typology &

Commitment to Ch and Fam. SW.Variety of Work,

Skills Use and AutonomyFamily and

Other Commitments

Why are they staying?(Burns, 2009, 2010)

Retaining social workers in child protection and

welfare

Labour Market for Social Workers in

Ireland

Social Exchanges With

Peers

Social Exchanges with Line-Managers,

including Supervision

“Making a difference”

(Task Significance)

HSE Salary and Employment Conditions

Career Preference Typology &

Commitment to Ch and Fam. SW.Variety of Work,

Skills Use and AutonomyFamily and

Other Commitments

Why are they staying?

Retention 1: Social exchanges with peers and working on a team

Working on a team [as opposed to ‘single-handed’ posts] – reduces isolation

Good team atmosphere and cohesion (office space, team away days and meetings, social events, relationships and commitment improves with longer tenure?)

Friendships, being ‘in it together’ with peers, social outlets

Social exchanges with peers Praise, affirmation and constructive feedback Practical supports (information/advice, practical direct help with cases) [Unofficial] peer supervision and mentoring [Unofficial] peer induction for new and newly-qualified staff Peers helping to process emotional strains of the work

I suppose the thing that comes to mind first would be team and sharing with colleagues really and supporting each other, and sort of being in it together you know. I think that’s hugely helpful … I have done single-handed posts and I have not stayed in them a really long time and I think it’s just the difference between having that support from colleagues and not. And that’s not to say that you are going to get on with everyone or that you know it’s always going to work out perfectly. But, it’s a huge plus [being] on a team (Ava).

I think only that, it’s a nice team and I would be long gone only that I feel it’s a nice place to work and that the team are very nice. That keeps me there (Ciara).

The team is probably the reason why I have stayed so long, because there is good co-worker support in the team. And there has been….I suppose really that has been the attraction for me and for my colleagues. We would say that the team makes it worthwhile to come in (Clodagh).

 I think that is the thing that keeps you in the job is the support you get from the people around you and I have got a very supportive team that I really like and if I didn’t have that I wouldn’t be in the job still (Aoife).

Retention 2: Perceptions of career pathways for newly-qualified social workers

I did not take much notice into lecturing on child protection and you were very much told that it was like Beirut, you do a year in child protection and then you get out and you need to do it because no one will take you seriously and really you were kind of frightened into it (Hannah).

I’d heard you know from various sources [fellow social work students and from probation officers while on a placement] that child protection was where you go in to, you earn your stripes, so to speak, and then you leave before it burns you out [social worker laughs] (Mya).

Proving ground for newly-qualified social workers?do your time (Kelly)

serve your time (Roisin)

your stint (Tara/Charlotte/Nicole/Claire)

do your dues (Jenna)

under my belt (Nicole)

I never saw myself as a life timer in child protection (Abbey)

earn your stripes (Mya)

a stepping stone (Isabelle).

Typology ‘Career preference’

‘Transients’

‘Converts’

‘Career preference’My commitment is to look after children. That’s the area that

interests me most . . . the variety that was in the work . . . the idea of being out in the community and kind of meeting families and working with families...that appealed to me (Claire).

Child protection social work was my first job after graduation with an MSW. I purposefully pursued a post in child protection and welfare as it was of most interest to me, it can be exciting as a child protection social worker. I believed in the importance and necessity of good child protection social work, as I believe it can protect children from terrible abuse and hurt (Jessica).

*Pseudonyms

‘Transients’ It’s like having a third placement. I am going to use this and

get out (Sophia*).

It was where the jobs were.... That’s the bottom line.... Here to learn... (Simon).

…that child protection was always going to be something that you just….it filled the gap, it gave you experience. It was your two years experience….two years experience that you needed to move on to something else … There was an idea that no-one is going to walk in off the…off….after just being newly-qualified into a job in [current area of social work practice]. You are going to have to work your way up to that. And to get that….that would follow child protection (Roisin).

*Pseudonyms

‘Converts’

KB: Was it your preference to take up a post in child protection?

Caoimhe*: No, not child protection! … when I was in college studying to become a social worker, it was probably the area that I would have avoided, at all costs … I just took the child protection one as a stop-gap, basically. It was never my intention to become a child protection social worker…

KB: So you took up a post in child protection and welfare because that was the only post in social work?

Hannah: Yes. My background before that [was with] adult learning disabilities … and, I really felt that’s where I wanted to go, but, when I was looking for a job … all they had in the [name of location] was with, child protection, so, that’s how I fell into it.

KB: Would you have described it as your preference?

Hannah: Not then, but, once I was into it, definitely. *Pseudonyms

‘Converts’

Child protection would have been pretty much at the bottom of my choices, my dream was always [identifying information removed], where incidentally I never worked, but that’s how it goes. But I am very happy in my job, I am really interested in what I am doing and I really enjoy it (Thomas).

*Pseudonyms

Typology ‘Career preference’

‘Transients’

‘Converts’

Five key perceptions which influenced social workers’ motivations to enter child protection and welfare

It was their first choice career preference.

Social workers highlighted the fact that they understood there was an expectation within the profession that newly-qualified social workers should first ‘prove’ themselves in child protection and welfare.

If newly-qualified social workers perceived that their preferred career in social work (for example, older adults, or mental health) was accessible directly following college, it is unlikely that they would have ‘chosen’ to enter child protection and welfare.

Some social workers indicated that they ‘chose’ to enter for pragmatic reasons: it was the sector recruiting, but also there was a perception of it being a good place to develop one’s skills and get a good ‘grounding’ in professional practice.

Social workers believed that social work employers preferred applicants with child protection and welfare experience.

Changing the storyThat we can move away from I have done my

stint now, four or five years and it is time to move on. Why can’t we stay there [child protection and welfare]? (Jane).

People kind of say—I have done that, ticked the box, proved yourself to be able to be in child protection, without completely breaking down, two years tick the box and off you go (Tara).

MythsMyth 1?: Proving ground for newly-qualified social workers

Further research necessary Need to change the cultural story of child protection, particularly for

newly-qualified social workers and students Role of social work education in shaping/changing this story

Myth 2?: Turnover in child protection is high, and therefore expectations of tenure length is short-term Data to support this claim? Implications for those who write about this issue Need to profile teams where turnover is consistently low and

examine factors that contribute to workers’ retention

Myth 3?: Child protection and welfare is lowest status sw post, with [undeserved] negative reputation They do their time and then they move onto better jobs (Ciara).

Retaining social workers

in child protection

and welfare

Social Exchanges With Peers

Social Exchanges with Line-Managers, including

Supervision

“Making a difference” (Task Significance)

Variety of Work, Skills Use and Autonomy

Career Preference Typology & Commitment

to Ch and Fam. SW.Salary and Employment

Conditions

Family and Other Commitments

Labour Market for Social Workers

Economic policy / cutbacks

Strategies for promoting retention

Answer to the £500,000 question? ... [we] expect too much from work these days, more

specifically that it should be able to bring us so much of the meaning we need in our lives. Those expectations will probably not be met, and we become nomads at work, going from one job to another, never finding what we are looking for (Svendsen, 2008, p. 127).

D…

Research publications Burns, K. (2010) '‘Career preference’, ‘transients’ and ‘converts’: A study of

social workers’ retention in child protection and welfare', British Journal of Social Work, Advance Internet Edition, http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/11/29/bjsw.bcq135

Burns, K. (In Press) 'Moving beyond ‘case-management’ supervision: Social workers’ perspectives on professional supervision in child protection', in Lynch, D. and Burns, K. (eds.), Children's Rights and Child Protection: Critical Times, Critical Issues, Manchester, Manchester University Press.

Burns, K. (2009) Job Retention and Turnover: A Study of Child Protection and Welfare Social Workers in Ireland (PhD Study), University College Cork, Cork.

Burns, K. (2008) ''Making a difference': Exploring job retention issues in child protection and welfare social work', in Burns, K. and Lynch, D. (eds), Child Protection and Welfare Social Work: Contemporary Themes and Practice Perspectives, Dublin, A. & A. Farmar.

Discussion and questions

Dr Kenneth Burns

School of Applied Social Studies

University College Cork

Donovan’s Road

Cork, Ireland.

k.burns@ucc.ie / +353-21-4903151

http://www.ucc.ie/en/kburns