Social worker morale has fallen since 2020, finds study for regulator

Social workers are significantly less likely to have high morale or to recommend the profession to friends or family than in 2020, research released this week has found.

High workloads and burnout were key concerns for practitioners, who said these risked creating a "spiral" of social workers leaving their roles and leaving colleagues even more overworked than before, found the Social Work England-commissioned study.

And though pride in the profession remains high, this has also fallen in tandem with the drop in morale, according to the survey of 1,260 current and 115 former social workers, carried out carried out from May to June 2023.

The study follows a similar YouGov survey conducted for the regulator in 2020. While the authors of the latest research said that comparisons between the two datasets should be made with caution, because of the different samples of practitioners, they added that they had reported on those they deemed appropriate.

Drop in social worker morale

This included a substantial drop, from 43% to 26%, in the proportion of current social workers with high morale, and an accompanying rise, from 24% to 41%, in those reporting low morale.

Also, while 26% were likely to recommend the profession to friends or family in 2020, this had dropped to 16% by 2023, with the proportion saying they would not recommend social work at all increasing from 8% to 17%.

Though 83% said they were very or fairly proud to tell others about their job, pride in the profession had fallen from 89% in 2020. This was seemingly driven by the drop in morale: almost all practitioners with high morale (96%) were proud of the profession, compared with less than three-quarters (72%) of those with low morale.

High morale was more prevalent among men (31%) than women (25%), among those in upper management (39%) than those without management responsibility (21%), and among NHS practitioners (41%) and agency workers (34%) compared with local authority staff (22%).

There were similar differences in current practitioners' propensity to recommend the profession, with 41% of those in upper management doing so as against 24% among those without managerial responsibility, and NHS staff (42%) being the most likely employment group to do so.

Rising levels of burnout on back of Covid

The changes over time in morale coincide with the Covid-19 emergency and its aftermath. Separate research with practitioners carried out last year found that social workers were working more overtime, experiencing greater levels of burnout and reporting lower work-related quality of life than at the start of the pandemic.

The YouGov study uncovered similar themes, both through the survey and in qualitative research with 30 current social workers, six ex-practitioners, 10 employers and 10 people with lived experience.

In answer to the survey, eight in ten current social workers (79%) cited high workloads and burnout as a main challenge facing their organisation over the coming year, with this feeling being particularly acute among local authority practitioners (87%).

This was strongly linked to retention risk. Four in five social workers said they had been actively job hunting over the past 12 months, with 55% of this group citing excessive workload, and 52% the impact of their work on their mental health, as key reasons.

'Spiral' of social workers quitting jobs

This was echoed in the qualitative interviews, with many practitioners speaking of a potential "spiral" of "burned out social workers leaving the profession, creating more work for those who they leave behind, causing them to become fatigued and leave the profession faster and thus contributing to the same problems they were victims of".

The findings echo those of BASW's latest survey of the profession, also released this week, which found most practitioners had seen more of their experienced colleagues leaving their roles over the past 12 months, with the vast majority of this group saying this had had a negative impact.

Employers interviewed by YouGov also cited burnout and workloads as the biggest contributors to low retention in their organisations, while two-thirds of current social workers and 56% of former practitioners picked reducing workloads as one of the top three factors that would help retain staff. This rose to 72% among current and former children's social workers, compared with 55% of current or former adult practitioners.

The research also explored current social workers' experiences of their first role in the profession, with 9% of respondents saying they had left the role within a year and a further third (32%) leaving between one and three years after taking up the post.

While a quarter (24%) of those who left within three years were promoted out of their first role, a similar proportion (25%) cited excessive workload as a reason and 21% not being supported by their manager or employer.

Likelihood of leaving profession

Overall, 39% of current practitioners were very or fairly likely to leave the profession within five years, the same proportion as in 2020.

The rate was higher among social workers from an ethnic minority (48%), a finding that follows research showing that council social care staff from minority backgrounds face disproportionately high levels of workplace bullying, disciplinary action and fitness to practise referrals.

Also, disabled practitioners were more likely than non-disabled counterparts to say they were very likely to quit social work within five years (23% versus 14%).

The YouGov research for Social Work England also identified issues around paperwork and pay facing social workers.

Organisations seen as 'process-oriented'

Almost half of current social workers (44%) described the culture of the organisation they worked in as "process-oriented", compared with 12% who said it was dynamic and creative.

In interviews, several practitioners "expressed frustration with having to follow strict bureaucratic processes and paperwork that take time away from working directly with clients".

Respondents were more positive about other aspects of their workplace, with 83% saying employees respected and valued each other's opinions, to a great deal or a fair amount, and 69% saying that they felt they belonged.

"Social workers spoke highly of their teams and their managers, saying they felt comfortable in their organisation and that they could use their co-workers as a resource when they were struggling, had questions, or needed a second opinion," said the report.

Most social workers do not feel fairly rewarded

However, just 36% said employees were rewarded and recognised fairly for their work, with 61% saying this was not the case.

The real value of council adult social workers’ wages has fallen progressively over time, with the average full-time equivalent pay in September 2023 - £41,500 - being worth 7.2% less than the average in 2016, according to Skills for Care data.

Interviewees also said they felt some people were "deterred from entering the profession due to poor reputation and negative associations with social work, particularly due to the messages portrayed in the media, such as social workers taking children away".

Parallel research by YouGov for Social Work England found that 44% of members of the public thought that the profession was well-respected within society, while 39% felt practitioners often got things wrong.

Change the Script campaign

On the back of findings such as this, the regulator has launched a campaign, Change the Script, urging the entertainment industry to change how it portrays social workers to ensure this is accurate.

Previous research into TV plot summaries from the 1950s to the 2010s, by linguistics academic Dr Maria Leedham, found that social workers rarely featured in programmes. When they did, they almost always worked in child protection and were described as either "judgmental bureaucrats or child snatchers".