Exploring workforce retention in child and family social work

Stan Houston; Stephen Knox

doi:10.1921/swssr.v11i2.432

Authors

Stan Houston
Stephen Knox

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1921/swssr.v11i2.432

Keywords:

staff retention in social work, critical social theory, pedagogy, action research

Abstract

Child and family social work in the United Kingdom is facing a staff recruitment and retention crisis in many areas. Occupational stress, burnout, heavy workloads and insufficient resources combine to make the social work role highly demanding and unattractive to prospective recruits. This paper explores one approach to the problem which synthesises Giddens’ philosophical ideas on discursive consciousness, Habermas’ precepts on moral discourse, Boal’s use of empowering theatre and Lewin’s rendition of the action research cycle. These theoretical, philosophical and methodological components, when combined, offer a radically different approach to staff retention strategies within child welfare organisations by centring on the transformative power of human agency. It is concluded that the approach described can be extrapolated to the management of other human service professions experiencing similar recruitment and retention difficulties.

References

Alexander, J. (1989) Sharing a vision. Business Horizons, 32, 3, 56-60\nBalloch, S., Pahl, J., and McLean, J. (1998) Working in the social services: Job satisfaction, stress and violence. British Journal of Social Work, 28, 329-350\nBarak, M., Nissly, J., and Levin, A. (2001) Antecedents to retention and turnover among child welfare, social work, and other human service employees: What can we learn from past research? A review and meta-analysis. Social Service Review, 75, 4, 625-661\nBellarosa, C., and Chen, P. (1997) The effectiveness and practicality of occupational stress management interventions: A survey of subject matter opinions. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2, 3, 247-262\nBennett, P., Evans, R., and Tattershall, A. (1993) Stress and coping in social workers: A preliminary investigation, British Journal of Social Work, 23, 31-44\nBoal, A. (1979) Theatre of the Oppressed. London: Pluto\nBoal, A. (1992) Transcription from a ‘Theatre Workshop’, Derry, Northern Ireland\nBoal, A. (1998) Legislative Theatre. London: Routledge\nBourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social critique of the judgement of taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press\nBradley, J., and Sutherland, V. (1995) Occupational stress in social services: A comparison of social workers and home help staff. British Journal of Social Work, 25, 313-331\nCovey, S. (1992) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. London: Simon and Schuster\nCulley, L., and Genders, N. (2003) Nurse cadet schemes in the British NHS: Challenges and opportunities. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 41, 607-614\nCutlip, S., Center, A., and Broom, G. (1985) Effective Public Relations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall\nDepartment of Health (2000) The Children Act Report 1995-2000. London: TSO\nDollard, M., Winefield, A., and Winefield, H. (2003) Occupational Stress in the Service Professions. London: Taylor and Francis\nEwalt, P. (1991) Trends affecting recruitment and retention of social work staff in human services agencies. Social Work, 36, 214-219\nFook, J. (1999) Critical reflectivity in education and practice. in B. Pease, and J. Fook (Eds.) Transforming Social Work Practice: Postmodern critical perspectives. London: Routledge\nFoucault, M. (1970) The Order of Things: An archaeology of the human sciences. London, Routledge\nFriere, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Harmondsworth: Penguin\nGibson, F., McGrath, A., and Reid, N. (1989) Occupational stress in social work. British Journal of Social Work, 19, 1-16\nGiddens, A. (1976) New Rules of Sociological Method. London: Hutchinson\nGiddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity\nGiddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford: Stanford University Press\nGiddens, A. (1992) Modernity and Self Identity. Cambridge: Polity\nGiddens, A. (1998) The Third Way: The renewal of social democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press\nGleeson, D., and Husbands, C. (2003) Modernising schooling through performance management: A critical perspective. Journal of Education Policy, 18, 499-511\nHabermas, J. (1990) Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Cambridge: Polity Press\nHandy, C. (1994) The Empty Raincoat. London: Arrow Business Books\nHarlow, E. (2004) Why don’t women want to be social workers anymore? New managerialism, postfeminism and the shortage of social workers in Social Services Departments in England and Wales. European Journal of Social Work, 7, 167-179\nHeidegger, M. (1962) Being and Time. Oxford: Blackwell\nHodgkin, S. (2002) Competing demands, competing solutions: Differing constructions of the problem of recruitment and retention of frontline rural child protection staff. Australian Social Work, 55, 193-203\nHouston, S. (2003) A method from the lifeworld: Some possibilities for person centred planning for children in care. Children in Society, 17, 57-70\nJones, F., Fletcher, B., and Ibbetson, K. (1991) Stressors and strains amongst social workers: Demands, supports, constraints, and psychological health. British Journal of Social Work, 21, 443-469\nJones, C. (2001) Voices from the front line: State social workers and New Labour, British Journal of Social Work, 31, 547-562\nKyriacou, C., Kunc, R., Stephens, P. and Hultgren, A. (2003) Student teachers’ expectations as a career in England and Norway. Educational Review, 55, 255-263\nLevi-Strauss, C. (1963) Structural Anthropology. New York: Basic Books\nLewin, K. (1951) Field Theory in Social Science: Selected theoretical papers. New York: Harper\nLloyd, M. (1999) The body. in F. Ashe, A. Finlayson, A. M. Lloyd, I. Mackensie, J. Martin, and S. O’Neill (Eds.) Contemporary Social and Political Theory: An introduction. Buckingham: Open University Press\nMagill, T. (1995) Applying Boal in Belfast: Two contrasting case studies. Contemporary Theatre Review, 3, 51-65\nMerleau-Ponty, M. (1962) The Phenomenology of Perception. London: Routledge\nMeyer, R., Mannix, M., and Costello, T. (1991) Nursing recruitment: Do health-care mangers gear strategies to the appropriate audience?, Hospital and Health Services Administration, 36, 447-453\nMondros, J., and Wilson, S. (1986) Recruitment and retention of organizational participants: What’s happening out there now?, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 13, 507-521\nParker, S. (2002) One in ten social work vacancies unfilled. <a target="_blank" href='SocietyGuardian.co.uk'>SocietyGuardian.co.uk.</a>\nParry, K. (1999) Transformational Leadership: Developing an enterprising management culture. Warriewood: Business and Professional Publishing\nParton, N., Thorpe, D., and Wattam, C. (1997) Child Protection: Risk and the moral order, Basingstoke: Macmillan\nPerls, F. (1973) Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and growth in the human personality. Harmondsworth: Penguin\nPottage, D., and Evans, M. (1996) The Competent Workplace: The View from within. London: National Institute for Social Work\nPowell, M., and York, R. (1992) Turnover in County Public Welfare Agencies. Journal of Applied Social Sciences, 16, 2, 111-127\nPrasad, R. (2001) Vanishing workforce. <a target="_blank" href='SocietyGuardian.co.uk'>SocietyGuardian.co.uk.</a>\nRees, S. (1999) Managerialism in Social Welfare: Proposals for a Humanitarian Alternative. An Australian perspective. European Journal of Social Work, 2, 193-202\nSamantrai, K. (1992) Factors in the decision to leave: Retaining social workers with Masters of Social Work in Public Child Welfare. Social Work, 37, 454-458\nSenge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The art and science of the learning organisation. London: Century Press\nSimmons, M. (1996) New Leadership for Women and Men: Building an inclusive organisation. Aldershot: Gower\nSmith, C. (2001) Trust and confidence: Possibilities for social work in high modernity. British Journal of Social Work, 31, 287-305\nSmith, M., Nursten, J., and McMahon, L. (2004) Social workers’ responses to experiences of fear. British Journal of Social Work, 34, 541-559\nSpratt, T., and Houston, S. (1999) Developing critical social work in theory and in practice: child protection and communicative reason. Child and Family Social Work, 4, 315-324\nSpratt, T. (2000) Decision making by senior social workers at point of first referral. British Journal of Social Work, 30, 597-618\nSpratt, T. (2001) The influence of child protection orientation on child protection practice. British Journal of Social Work, 31, 933-954\nSpratt, T. (2003) Child protection work and family support practice in five family centres. Child Care in Practice, 9, 1, 18-31\nTaylor, M. (2000) Follow the standards. Community Care, 17th August\nThompson, N., Stradling, S., Murphy, M., and O’Neill, P. (1996) Stress and organizational culture. British Journal of Social Work, 26, 647-665\nWebb, C. (2001) Where Are We Heading? An examination of the perceptions of child care social workers about their daily tasks in the light of two opposing paradigms: The task-centred approach and the approach based on therapeutic relationship. Unpublished Masters Dissertation. Queen’s University Belfast\nWillmot, R. (1997) Structure, culture and agency: Rejecting the current orthodoxy of organisation theory. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 27, 1, 93-112\n