“My dad said, ‘come on, enough is enough’” – an exploration of why social workers have decided to leave England’s child protection workforce

Purpose This paper reports on a study with 72 former child protection social workers. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted an iterative mixed method design (comprising of focus groups, questionnaire and individual interviews). Findings Results highlighted the stressful nature of the job on practitioner health; the tendency to be targeted for threats, abuse, violence, and/or intimidation; and the job not being what practitioners had expected it to be, as key themes in reasons for leaving child protection practice. Practical implications Implications highlight the need to improve working conditions within the English child protection system – including in the context of caseload size, the ‘bureaucratic burden’, and organisational cultures prioritising compliance with process, over time with children. Also, the need for greater awareness of, and support for, threats, abuse, violence and intimidation against social workers. Furthermore, a move away from completely ‘agile’ working models with the goal of addressing feelings of isolation, improving access to peer support, and better delineation between ‘work-life’ and ‘home-life’. Originality/value England’s child protection workforce is in a state of crisis, characterised by record sickness, vacancy and agency rates. However, research exploring the factors underpinning this has focussed on current practitioners ‘intention to leave’ social work roles – with a dearth of enquiry exploring with former practitioners their rationale for leaving.