The panel

Anthony Douglas, chief executive, Cafcass

David Niven, former national chair of the British Association of Social Workers and presenter of the Social World podcast

Vimla Nadkarni, president of the International Association of Schools of Social Work and vice president of the Bombay Association of Trained Social Workers.

Nushra Mansuri, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers

Vasilios Ioakimidis, secretary of the European Association of Schools of Social Work and programme director of MA international social work and community development at the University of Durham

Rory Truell, secretary-general of the International Federation of Social Workers





Does social work have a problem with morale?



Vimla Nadkarni: “Social work morale is a major issue which needs to be addressed by our social work organisations within countries and across the globe. In some of our countries, social work is still to receive social and legal sanction as a profession and a discipline. The governments are also under pressure to reduce investment in the social sector, thus affecting the status of social workers in state-funded programmes as is happening in the UK and several European countries.”

Rory Truell: “I think one of the world wide problems is that anyone whose work that is evaluated by an instrument that does not correlate to her or his professional values is bound to feel low morale over a period of time. Agencies are often far too concerned with short term outcomes which inadvertently cause long-term problems. In my experience social workers do not want rotating doors at the front of their workplaces.”

Vasilios Ioakimidis: “Low morale among social workers is not a UK specific problem. Across Europe, many social workers feel alienated and frustrated. There is strong evidence to suggest that there is a link between alienation of frontline practitioners and the dramatic cuts on social spending across Europe. Also, the stigmatisation of service users and the emergence of managerialism appear to be crucial factors affecting social work morale.”

Is there a link between morale and social work education?

Ioakimidis: “There is a strong link. What we hear from our EASSW members across Europe is that very often cuts in social services go hand in hand with cuts in higher education and more specifically in social work programmes. In some countries social work programmes are at risk of closure (Italy or Greece for example) while in other countries (like the UK) the creation of five-week qualifying routes has undermined the values and complex learning needs embedded in social work education.”

David Niven: “I spoke with Antonina Dashkina, president of Russian Union of Social Workers and she was talking about the 500,000 social workers (her figure) in Russia and saying that 200,000 have five year degree courses and have a high public recognition factor. Now I’ve no detail about their challenges or downsides but the obvious pride she demonstrated in her interview was impressive.”

Anthony Douglas: “I am a visiting lecturer at two universities in England and I am more and more impressed with the quality of students close to completing their courses. I think this is an important point and whilst some new entrants to all professions are unsuitable, my experience on the ground is that standards are improving, though the bar has been raised because operational life for many new graduates is too difficult at to early a stage in their professional career and development.”

Practical ways to improve morale

Douglas: Some steps we’ve found helpful in Cafcass are a permanent staff group, a workload weighting scheme worked out with our unions, good equipment for practitioners like tablets and 4G laptops, a health and wellbeing plan which covers early assessment and treatment of nearly all health and medical conditions, and making sure supervision levels are high. We have downsides too, all organisations do, but I have seen the morale of our practitioners improve steadily and we are determined to continue this trend.”

Nushra Mansuri: “We entertained visitors from South Korea a few years ago, who provided social workers with a facility for retreat and replenishment which I thought was a great initiative!”

Niven: “I’ve been involved for some time in dealing with the media and have increasingly felt the need to hear frontline voices talking about the significant amount of good news and success stories. Not the crises or difficult high profile stuff – which is rightly for senior staff to deal with. It really would help open up and balance what we do.”

Ioakimidis: The question of social work morale seems to be a structural one rather than an issue of “personal weakness”. This is much more visible nowadays that practitioners experience heavy case loads and cuts in resources. It is important that no social worker goes through this process alone and in isolation, internalizing the pressures and reducing a broader issue to self-pity and quit. Networking, models of collective supervision and building of alliances/ partnerships with other colleagues and service users are useful ways of empowerment. The Swan in the UK and the Orange Tide in Spain are excellent examples of a proactive and collective response to this issue. Unions have also a crucial role to play in this respect.”

Looking to the future

Mansuri: “The danger ironically in a world where social media has revolutionised our ability to communicate with one another is that we can still be very insular in our thinking and parochial (speaking of course, in terms of my experience of social work in England and not for others). Social work is a global profession and we are very proud of that and need to have more opportunities to exchange ideas, share concerns and look for solutions together as we are after all, part of the social work community where collaboration is vital.”

Nadkarni: “I hope we can end with an optimistic note that social work as a profession is growing in several of our countries specially in the Asian region and IASSW is committed to supporting social work education and maintaining quality education and practice to promote human rights and social development. Morale of social workers is dependent on several micro and macro level factors which we must analyse, understand and address.”

Douglas: “I would like to see the development of global social work standards as the forum has shown how much all countries have in common: how many inspiring examples of high morale there are; and how many serious moral problems also persist which need urgent attention. The solutions are obvious from this string, it is a question of doing something about them sustainably.”

Reader comments

Deona Hooper: “With recent news, I know many may feel the UK system is imperfect. However, in my opinion, it’s one of the most progressive social care systems in the world. The unionisation of the social care labor force, the registration system, and even the HCPC grievance system for clients are all lacking in the United States. In my opinion, if the quality of social workers are failing then its the quality of education and training that is failing them. I believe this profession has become extremely privileged with a lack of diversity which is reflected in recruitment,admissions, and faculty at schools of social work.”

Ulene Schiller: “I would like to comment on the morale issues amongst social workers in South Africa as well. There are a lot of positive things happening and motivated social workers, but poor working conditions and unmanageable caseloads has a negative impact on our social workers morale. Being a lecturer at the University of Fort Hare, it is sad to see how students are so well prepared and go into practice and soon realise that the low morale forces them to also become unmotivated.”

Discussion commissioned and controlled by the Guardian, hosted to a brief agreed with Cafcass. Funded by Cafcass



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