"A social worker first and foremost" : the motivation and experiences of recently qualified social workers in posts not requiring social work registration in England

Social Work in England is generally seen as a profession concerned with the fulfilment of statutory functions concerning safeguarding and risk management, and recent developments in social work and social work education have focused on improving the quality of statutory social workers, especially in children's services. However, workforce statistics suggest that more than 50% of registered social workers are not so employed, and may be found working in 'welfare' organisations outside the statutory sector, although detailed information about this group is not easily accessible. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study based on interviews with recently qualified social workers (within the last five years)employed in positions not requiring social work registration and qualification. It discusses the motivations and experiences of recently qualified social workers who have sought posts not requiring social work registration and the issues they identify as important in maintaining individual and collective social work identity

‘Race’, ethnicity, and experiences of practice: perspectives of child and family social workers working in England

This article reports a portion of the findings from a 5-year longitudinal study on child and family social work, commissioned by the Department for Education. The study explored issues relating to child and family practice over the five years, utilising a mixed-methods design, including large-scale surveys, quantitative telephone interviews and semi-structured interviews and culminating in an annual report, published by the Department for Education at the end of each wave. This article focusses on wave four, and on the semi-structured interview phase, which explored how practitioners felt their racial or ethnic identity impacted on their experiences of practice. Five themes were developed across the different topics explored in the interviews; structures and organisations; workforce and colleagues; lack of diversity; working with families and intersectionality. This article presents these themes as part of the challenging context of inclusivity and anti-racism in contemporary social work, and makes recommendations regarding workforce diversity, training needs and reducing the additional burden carried by social workers from minoritized ethnicities, by amending the regulatory requirements of practitioners, education providers and continuing professional development recording

Social work education in a global pandemic: strategies, reflections, and challenges

Editorial

Practitioner Perspectives on Agency Social Work in Children and Families Social Work in England

This article examines practitioner perspectives on agency social work in Local Authority Children’s Services Departments in England. There have been ongoing concerns about the use of agency workers, relating to cost, quality and impact on services, despite a recognition that temporary staff may be needed for a range of reasons. However, recent labour shortages and the escalating costs of agency staffing are fuelling calls for some form of regulation of agency workers. The article reviews literature on agency workers from the UK and elsewhere. It presents demographic survey data about agency workers drawn from a five-year longitudinal study on the recruitment and retention of child and family social workers and reports qualitative data from forty semi-structured interviews with social workers in Year 4 (Johnson et al., 2022) of the project about their experience of agency social work and agency social workers. The findings indicate several reasons for choosing agency work, pay being the most significant but by no means the only one. The advantages and disadvantages of agency work for workers, employers and service users are considered, and suggestions are offered about further research to assist in understanding how employers can identify and address recruitment and retention factors to reduce dependence on agency staff

Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (Wave 5) Research Report

In 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a consortium led by IFF Research, working with social work academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, to conduct a longitudinal study tracking the careers of local authority child and family social workers in England. This landmark study aimed to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work (CFSW) by tracking individuals over a five-year period. In Wave 1, 5,621 local authority (LA) child and family social workers in England took part in the survey between November 2018 and March 2019, comprising almost one in six of local authority child and family social workers in England. This report covers all five annual waves of the survey, investigating trends over time, with a focus on the latest period of fieldwork (Wave 5). Wave 5 fieldwork consisted of 1,283 completed surveys conducted between September and November 2022 (for the main survey) and a further 245 completed surveys with newly qualified child and family social workers who were doing or had recently completed their Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE). The main survey sample constitutes of a starting sample established at Wave 1. This enables longitudinal analysis of respondents who have completed all five waves of the research. Also at each wave, ASYE respondents who completed the previous wave are invited to take part in the main survey. However, because these respondents joined the main survey after Wave 1, they are not included in the longitudinal sample. Analysis within this report is based on a wave-on-wave snapshot of the main survey findings for each wave. Chapter 2 focuses specifically on the longitudinal findings, based on respondents who have completed every wave of the research

Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (Wave 3) Research Report

In 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a consortium led by IFF Research, working with social work academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, to conduct a longitudinal study tracking the careers of local authority child and family social workers in England. This landmark study aimed to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work by tracking individuals over a five-year period. In Wave 3, new questions were added about the impacts of Covid-19 on child and family social workers’ workplace wellbeing, access to learning and development, flexible working, relationships with colleagues, and relationships with children, families and carers

Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (Wave 2) Research report July 2020

The landmark new study aimed to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work by tracking individuals over a five-year period. In Wave 1, 5,621 local authority child and family social workers took part in the survey, comprising almost one in six of the population.1 This report covers the second year of the research project