In a sector blighted by work-related burnout and staff retention issues – often a result of the emotionally demanding work – how can social work employers support their workforce to manage the pressures? For Cafcass, building the resilience of its frontline staff has been the focus and has helped the organisation to improve performance and manage rising case demand.
An employee-centred approach encompassing resilience, health and wellbeing and a focus on strengths, was introduced as part of a drive to improve standards at Cafcass ahead of its national Ofsted inspection in 2014. Human resources manager Julie Bury says: “It was recognised that in order to become ‘good’ as an organisation, we needed to keep staff motivated – and to do that we had to create the right environment. Looking after the wellbeing of our employees and helping them explore training opportunities became a key part of our strategy.”
For a staff group whose jobs – which predominantly involve working with families during cases to decide where a child will live and who they spend time with – can be extremely stressful, this is particularly pertinent.
Identifying how resilient individuals and teams across the organisation were and putting in place resources to help boost resilience levels were the first steps. All employees were invited to complete a resilience questionnaire, developed by the firm RobertsonCooper, which helped Cafcass to benchmark staff resilience across teams and nationally.
Staff received individual reports based on the questionnaire findings with tips for improving resilience, which in turn helped them manage the pressures of the job. This was followed by health and wellbeing days across the 37 geographical offices and individual coaching sessions to look more closely at health and performance.
Two wellbeing officers with a background in health were recruited in 2015, with an initial focus on supporting employee welfare and ensuring that sickness absence levels are significantly lower than sector averages.
The health and wellbeing approach looks at a range of factors that influence how an individual feels about and performs at work. For example, workers are encouraged to use practical tools such as food and sleep diaries and then work with the officers to identify ways they can reduce stress and boost their health. And all staff receive Medicash health cover – which provides access to dental treatment, optical care and complementary therapies such as acupuncture and physiotherapy – to encourage them to deal with health problems early. The Medicash scheme also offers staff confidential counselling.
Bury adds: “A big part of a team’s overall resilience seemed to come down to how they were being managed and supported and how strong the social support was among their colleagues. We have lots of remote workers who don’t regularly engage face-to-face with managers and colleagues, so finding other ways to do this has been important.”
Complementing the resilience and wellbeing strands, Cafcass takes a strengths based approach to quality assurance and staff development. An example is the team sessions aimed at building on people’s existing skills and strengths. Staff first fill out a questionnaire identifying what they excel at – with colleagues then sharing and discussing the results.
Two-thirds of the organisation have completed the survey and Bury firmly believes it is promoting a noticeable culture change. “Teams really do seem to work together differently afterwards,” She says.
For example, practitioners who thrive in the court environment can help others build their confidence. Those who are especially energised by it can coach colleagues, she says, and develop a common language to enable them to discuss issues openly.
“Often I think we take it for granted that we can or can’t do certain things but colleagues can help us recognise the things we’re good at,” Bury adds.
Incorporating the strengths approach is the emerging talent scheme, launched by Cafcass three years ago, aimed at those with an interest in progressing within the organisation. Participants – 220 so far – follow a tailored development plan mostly based around informal learning, such as taking part in working groups and developing pilot initiatives to drive up quality.
The programme’s results are startling: the progression rate of those taking part to a role at a higher level is 16% – four times the rate for the organisation as a whole – while sickness absence rates are lower and performance reviews are above average.
Rachel Holmes, senior service manager for South Yorkshire, Humberside and West Yorkshire, leads 24 social workers. She has seen the confidence of the five team members on the scheme increase.
When a colleague went part-time following maternity leave, Holmes was able to commission a coaching session to help her find new ways to manage her time. A keen runner, she was given a programme of stretches by the Cafcass wellbeing officer when a hip problem prevented her from engaging in her choice of stress release. The issue cleared up as a result.
Holmes also commissioned the Cafcass wellbeing officer to run a seminar for her team on nutrition and energy.
“He helped us understand how we could make simple changes,” she says. “The table where we used to put chocolates and biscuits is now full of fruit and nuts, and the organisation purchased stretch bands to encourage people to think about their posture and move around more.”
Cafcass’ work on how it recruits, retains and trains its social workers, while looking after their wellbeing and welfare has been central to its improvement journey, says Bury.
“We wanted to recruit high quality social workers and to retain them,” she adds. “As a public sector organisation we couldn’t just increase salaries – we needed to find other things that are important to social workers. It was important to create the right environment.”
Content on this page is produced to a brief agreed with Cafcass, sponsor of the Guardian Social Care Network children’s services hub.
