The panel
Terence Herbert, associate director for operational children’s services at Wiltshire council
Lucy Townsend, head of service, safeguarding and assessment, Wiltshire council
Steve Palmer, press and public affairs manager, Social Care Institute for Excellence (Scie)
Kate Metcalf, professional practice advisor, The College of Social Work (first hour), and Annie Hudson, chief executive, TCSW (second hour)
Suzanne Hudson, senior workforce adviser, Local Government Association (LGA)
Jo Moriarty, research fellow and deputy director, Social Care Workforce Research Unit (SCWRU), King’s College London
Nushra Mansuri, professional officer, British Association of Social Workers
Robert Templeton, director of health and social care operations UK, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen Families Association
What can employers do to tackle workloads?
Kate Metcalf: “I think it is very much a joint responsibility between individual practitioners and their employers. Social workers have a responsibility to themselves as professionals, to operate in a safe and boundaried way, to be accountable for their work, but to ensure they maintain their own wellbeing as well. They need to feel able to approach their employer safely, to assert what it is they can do, and what they cannot do, in terms of work volume. Easier said than done. Their employer is then provided with a body of evidence illustrating what work is achievable, and what requires additional staff. I think it is then the employer’s responsibility to listen, measure, and identify appropriate resources, using a more long-term approach, rather than knee-jerk agency recruitment.”
Terence Herbert: “In Wiltshire we have taken a whole council approach to reducing caseloads in order to ensure that the service we provide is safe. This has included a significant increase in the establishment of social work staff which addresses the needs of our social workers. Our staff are our most valuable resource, however, one of the difficulties is recruiting experienced social workers to undertake what is a challenging role.”
Jo Moriarty: “One thing that is hard to build into caseload size is things like out of borough placements. I have a friend who has to travel to different parts of the country to visit children in foster care who were hard to place. It often takes a whole day, sometimes more, but her actual caseload does not look too bad in terms of numbers.”
Steve Palmer: “One aim of the Care Act is to provide professionals – in this case adult social workers – with the tools to help service users become more autonomous. Of course there will still be the gatekeeping role but the hope is that providing more autonomy will create empowerment for social workers. It’s not necessarily always about workloads.”
How can social workers look after themselves?
Moriarty: Mindfulness is very trendy – a US study looked at mindfulness for nurses. And another one looked at skilled development for hospital social workers. I think both organisational support and self-care needed
Nushra Mansuri: “It is not just about good self care – although that is very important – but also that all social workers get effective supervision and debriefing when working with trauma like professionals from other disciplines have access to including the Samaritans. Sadly, I still think we have a long way to go when we talk about the emotional content of the work and supporting those in the frontline.
Lucy Townsend: “Employers need to carefully consider what support is available to social workers alongside supervision. Good communication with senior managers is also really important so we understand what it is really like on the frontline. Terence holds a social work forum with the principal social worker to provide this opportunity. In terms of self-care social workers need to ensure they communicate with their managers and consider what works for them in terms of work-life balance.”
What can universities and colleges do to prepare social work students for the pressures and workload of their future job?
Annie Hudson: “Social work education has got a crucial role to play - and good programmes do, in my view, help students, for example, develop strategies for managing stress, using supervision well and generally knowing and understanding the emotional and physical impact of social work. But this can only be the beginning.”
Townsend: “It seems that it is often left to local authorities to prepare students for working on the frontline and newly qualified social workers are not always prepared for the challenges faced. There need to be greater links between local authorities and higher education colleges, for example local authority social workers and managers presenting to students. The step up to social work initiative may help address this.
Moriarty: “I think most courses do have some input on this – things like work/life balance, prioritising – but how much it is possible to prepare people for realities of the job is more difficult.”
Recent research suggests that strong support networks and having the opportunity to exercise professional discretion may be as important as size of caseloads when it comes to social worker stress. How can employers tap into this?
Mansuri: “I think the point about exercising professional judgement also needs to address the blame culture and how this in turn can make organisations risk averse. Employers must give a resounding message that they back social workers and they will also share the risks. In terms of strong social networks that is about providing time and space for these – in fact, legitimate time and space – these are credible activities not luxuries!”
Hudson: Volume of work has to be an issue that must be tackled (and we know too that there are very significant variations across the country) but Jo’s point about discretion is also hugely important. These things immediately come to mind:
• Bureaucracy – we must make this less rigid – too often it straitjackets initiative and creativity, yet we need that in bucketfuls when working with children, adults and families
• We need to develop further roles like the principal social worker, senior practitioners etc.
• We need to press further on social workers as professionals rather than “agency functionaries” – this means greater discretion but also responsibility e.g. for continuous professional development
Templeton: “This very much relates to the public perception and confidence in social work. Both BASW and TCSW has a key role in promoting a better understanding of the important role and complexity of social work.”
Discussion commissioned and controlled by the Guardian, hosted to a brief agreed with Wiltshire council. Funded by Wiltshire council
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