Only one in six social workers want to be managers, survey finds

Social work faces a looming management crisis as professionals are reluctant to climb the career ladder, Guardian research has revealed.

The latest Guardian Social Lives survey of social workers found that only 15% of the 1,400 respondents planned to move into management roles in the next five years.

A number of reasons for this were pinpointed by an expert panel at an event to launch the survey findings, including the impact of austerity, a “blame culture” and fewer opportunities to work directly with service users.

Spending cuts imposed on local authorities by government austerity measures mean management is “looking particularly unattractive” to frontline professionals, the event at the Guardian’s London headquarters heard.

Ruth Allen, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, said: “People are seeing managers having to manage swingeing cuts in many areas. Although local authorities have been incredible in how they have managed to maintain services and innovate in very difficult circumstances, that management of dwindling resources to meet demand is going to look unattractive.”

Panellists said succession problems were felt at every level of management across the sector.

Among directors of children’s services, the churn rate stands at 35%, said Ian Thomas, strategic director of children and young people’s services at Rotherham council.

“That’s linked to the blame culture when things go wrong – it’s our heads that are often on the chopping block because you’re the head of the organisation,” he said. “That’s the environment we operate in.”

Allen said being a team manager, her first management role, was “the most difficult job I ever did”.

Social workers do not go into the profession with the aim of becoming leaders or managers, said Brenda Farrell, UK head of business family for placement at Barnardo’s.

The charity had focused on training, mentoring and “role modelling” for staff as they moved up the organisational structure, said Farrell. “A lot of my team have grown up within the services so they understand the nature of the work.”

Cafcass, England’s biggest employer of social workers, has also invested in leadership development and training over the last eight years and is now reaping the benefits. Most management appointments were made from within the organisation, said Christine Banim, Cafcass’s national service director.

“It is about recognising those staff who have got the skills to go into more strategic leadership,” she said.

In Rotherham there were only two vacant roles in a management team of 60, said Thomas. Having a stable management team in place is essential for the organisation’s structure, he added.

Louise Grant, of the Frontline fast-track training programme for children’s social workers, said the organisation had been involved in piloting the Firstline leadership scheme, which had focused on the first team manager level. “I think that’s where we have the potential to grow people and make people excited,” she said.

“We have a real opportunity to reframe what we mean by leadership and management in social work and to think about how people can become leaders in our organisations to improve the outcomes for children and families, for adults and for the staff that work around them. We need to think about a culture and climate where leadership can flourish.”

For more details about the Guardian Social Lives survey contact richard.gracey@theguardian.com

Join the Social Care Network to read more pieces like this. Follow us on Twitter (@GdnSocialCare) and like us on Facebook to keep up with the latest social care news and views.