A Call for Support: Social Worker Health, Well-being and Working Conditions

Social workers love doing…social work. Making a difference and providing support to some of the most vulnerable people in the country. However, the UK social work workforce is under increasing pressure. Since 2018, researchers have been warning that the social work workforce is on the verge of huge numbers leaving the profession (Ravalier, 2019). Indeed, these dire warnings have come true—the children’s social work sector has the highest level of attrition (i.e. social workers leaving the profession altogether—and this is not to mention those who migrate from one role within children’s social care to another) and the highest number of vacancies in five years (gov.uk, 2022). This undoubtedly has an impact on the service users that social workers work most closely with, who can be some of the most vulnerable people in this country. All of this whilst working through a once-in-a-generation pandemic, under ongoing and chronically poor working conditions, with little in terms of support for their health and well-being. In this editorial, I make a case—and an overall plea for support—for the social work workforce to have emergent and ongoing support at a governmental, organisational and team level for their psychological health, well-being and working conditions. During the height of COVID-19 pandemic-induced national lockdowns in the UK, social workers were one of a number of professions in the UK deemed as ‘Key Workers’. They continued to provide support for those that they work with and for, and their ‘Key Worker’ status meant that their children had the opportunity for in-person education when many others could not do so. Indeed, the weekly ‘Clap for the NHS’ gesture of appreciation for health care workers (Rimmer, 2020) was later changed to ‘Clap for Carers’ to include all of those employed within the Health and Social Care sectors. Despite this overt gesture of support, social care (Manthorpe et al., 2022) and health care (Rimmer, 2020) workers suggested that clapping is one thing, but actual changes to workforce improvements are something very different. In fact, during the pandemic, the Department of Health and Social Care (2020) admitted that little support is available for the adult social care workforce working conditions, health and well-being. However, this is all in stark contrast to the way the social workers think, feel and talk about the social work role as a vocation, as something which makes such a difference to some of the most vulnerable people in this country on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and often life-long basis. Social workers are highly engaged in their work (Ravalier, 2019) and want to make an ongoing difference, but workforce pressures driven by under-resourcing for service users and under-funding for workforce-related support are making the role increasingly difficult. Working conditions are loosely described as the elements of work which, if left in a chronically poor condition (i.e. if working conditions are poor over an extended period of time), can lead to negative psychological and physiological well-being outcomes. Studies such as those conducted by myself (e.g. Ravalier, 2019; Ravalier et al., 2021), colleagues (e.g. McFadden et al., 2021) and other esteemed groups across the UK (e.g. Kinman and Grant, 2020) generally show that social workers are continually exposed to poor working conditions. These working conditions undoubtedly lead to poorer health and well-being in social workers, with the Health and Social Care sectors having among the highest levels of stress-related sickness absence of any occupational grouping in the country. We are seeing consistent reports—both anecdotally and through empirical research—that social workers have ongoing and chronically poor working conditions. These are typified by high demands on their time, including high administrative burdens and high caseloads (or high caseloads in addition to a number of complex cases). These conditions not only mean that social workers often cannot see their service users enough but these also mean that they cannot spend enough time with those that they do see. The British Association of Social Work 80:20 campaign consistently makes this point (BASW, n.d.)—in order to do good and effective relationship-based social work, social workers need to be able to spend 80 per cent of their time with service users and 20 per cent on administrative work, whereas the current reality is just the opposite. Peer support (i.e. support which is given by colleagues and, in some studies, managers) is often discussed as a key buffer against the impacts of chronically poor working conditions across many occupations. It is a key part of approaches to work stress such as the Job Demands-Control-Support model, and studies (e.g. Ravalier, 2019) have demonstrated its importance in supporting the psychological health and well-being of social workers. Various approaches have been attempted to improve support in the profession. Wilkins et al. (2021) were commissioned to do a review of Schwartz Rounds which are designed to harness the power of peer support for both social worker well-being and practice. BASW (2019) published a Good Practice Toolkit for social workers’ well-being, with a newly developed set of peer support mechanisms. I was recently part of a team (Ravalier et al., 2022) who also published a literature review of reflective supervision, a further peer support tool for social workers. Despite all of this, good research evidence for the effectiveness of peer support tools is lacking in social work and is desperately needed. In order to develop effective practice, we need effective research. These consistently difficult conditions not only have effects on individual social workers or their employers, however. Social workers do their job, in spite of all of the above-mentioned difficulties, in order to continue to make a positive impact on the lives of the people that they work with. High turnover of social work staff, for example, means a lack of consistency in the lives of children who are supported by social workers, and evidence suggests that this means those very same children who are less likely to be able to find a permanent placement when one is needed (Flower et al., 2005). Young people being in care are subsequently more likely to be involved with the prison system and having higher dependency on alcohol and drugs (e.g. Innovation Unit, 2019). Poor working conditions, and subsequently health and well-being, are therefore impactful across so much of society. To end, therefore, a call for support. Support in recognising the work that social workers have done—and continue to do—through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondly, a call for support from researchers and employers in developing and implementing robustly evaluated interventions that seek to support the psychological and physiological health and well-being of social workers. And finally, support from all levels of the system—government, employers, service users and social work colleagues—for the recognition and respect that they deserve.