Social workers find reasons to be ‘cautiously hopeful’ | Nicola Slawson

The last year has been yet another rollercoaster for the social work sector, with austerity continuing and budget cuts to local authorities creating funding gaps in social care. The use of agency staff has been increasing, as employers struggle to fill rising vacancies and Ofsted has warned councils they need to tackle social worker caseloads that are “too high”, after identifying it as a common problem in those authorities that are poorly performing.

Despite all this, efforts to improve support for newly qualified social workers, and a break in the relentless negative media coverage of recent years, seem to be having a positive impact. While recruitment is still a problem, fewer social workers are plotting to jump ship and more are feeling valued and proud, a new survey about the working lives of social workers has found.

In fact, of the 1,411 professionals across the UK from a variety of roles and specialities who took part in this year’s Social Lives survey, the majority (84%) of social workers are proud of what they do. More than three-quarters (77%) enjoy their jobs and almost as many (71%) feel they are making a difference. The survey, carried out by Guardian Jobs in association with market researchers Gfk, also shows that only 17% of social workers want to leave the sector, compared with 22% last year. Of those who wish to go, most say reducing their workload and getting better support could be enough to change their mind.

These are reasons to be cautiously hopeful, says Ruth Allen, the chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers. “Things are better than a few years ago, so I’m not that surprised. Better working conditions, better reward and work-life balance is being achieved in some places, so there is certainly optimism around that. However, in too many places, the reality for people is obviously still very difficult.So there is more hope for the future but it’s not being realised everywhere yet.”

Heavy caseloads, perceived lack of support from managers and poor work-life balance are still big causes of resentment, with only 31% saying they felt their workload was manageable and more than half dissatisfied with their work-life balance. “I love my job but caseloads are too high and I work late into evenings and weekends without pay,” says one social worker who took part in the survey. Nearly half (45%) felt that caseloads needed to be reduced, while 27% wanted to see a move away from the long-hours culture.

Allen says: “Social workers are always the first in and the last to leave, because it’s hard to put clear time boundaries around the sort of things that they do. It is certainly not getting any better, and that goes for high caseloads too.”

Recruitment remains a big worry for three-quarters of survey participants, although this is down from the 84% who were concerned about this a year ago. But fewer than one in six want a management role within five years. “I definitely don’t want to progress as it’s too stressful to hold a higher role and comes at the expense of your home life for not much more pay,” explained one social worker. Another said: “I was a manager but left to return to frontline work and plan to stay here.”

There is a perception of management always getting the blame and not being supported, Louise Grant, deputy programme director and head of academic studies at graduate trainee scheme Frontline, says. “There is a concern that when you reach manager level there isn’t the same kind of support as there is at practitioner level. They are worried about being isolated and blamed when things go wrong.”

Improving professional development courses is one way to ensure managers are better equipped to deal with pressures, Grant says, which could then mean others are more likely to feel motivated to progress. “I think we need to pay more attention to developing managers, and to developing a systemic approach to resilience – at all levels; public policy, organisational level and team level, as well as individual.”

The survey also found that 92% felt undervalued by the media, which Allen believes has an impact on retention. She says: “Negative public image is a really important nut to crack because it’s quite corrosive on social workers’ confidence. I think it helps explain why longer-standing social workers are much more jaded.

“There is a shift with the media, it feels like the journalists who call us are less likely to ask questions that vilify social workers. But I think there has been such a long history of it that social workers can’t see enough change yet.”