The Scottish Government

A Workforce in Transition

The Careers and Experiences of the Staff of Social Work Departments

Dorothy Buglass, Susan Balloch, Toby Andrew, Barbara Davey,
Linda Dolan, Mike Fisher, Jay Ginn, John McLean and Jan Pahl.

Main Findings

• Women comprise the majority of the workforce (89%), which is a mature one (65% were over 40 years of age). Half the women, but only 4% of men, worked part-time.
• Since first entering social care, staff had spent the majority of their working lives (89%) in social work departments: 90% of managers had spent over five years in a SW department.
• Staff changed jobs frequently within their social work department: between the first and second interview, 24% had changed job or job title, and over a third of these changes were required by the organisation.
• Over a third of staff had caring responsibilities outwith their work, with three per cent having caring responsibilities amounting to more than 20 hours per week.
• Most managers and field workers reported an increase in time spent on administration and in training between the first and second interviews, and a decrease in the time spent in direct contact with service users.
• Levels of stress in the workforce are high. Over 80% of managers and field workers reported that they had suffered from work related stress over the previous twelve months.
• A high level of physical and verbal abuse is suffered by social work department staff, with 18% having experienced physical attack in the 12 months prior to the second interview.
• Social work qualifications were unevenly spread throughout the workforce: 70% of field workers, 56% of managers, and 7% of residential workers were professionally qualified.

Introduction

NISW began this study of the workforce in social work departments in Scotland in 1993. The aims were to examine career patterns, to investigate aspects of work experience, and to consider training issues. The research paralleled similar studies by NISW in England and Northern Ireland.

A stratified sample was selected from the four job types of manager, field worker, home care worker and residential worker in two Scottish local authorities.

Between June 1994 and February 1995, interviews with 393 respondents explored their work experience. Work history data was gathered from the respondents' first job in social care to their current job. Further interviews with the respondents still working in their departments were carried out in 1996. Interviews were achieved with 317 (81%) of the participants in the first interview. Eight per cent of the first interview respondents had left the workforce before the second interview.

The staff

At first interview, 89% of the sample were women and 65% were over 40 years of age. Five per cent were managers, 17% field workers, 56% home care workers and 23% residential workers. Half the women, but only 4% of men, worked part time at each interview. By the second interview, 24% of those still working in the department had changed employment status - job or job title or both.

Just over a third of job changes arose from reorganisation or a request to change. Ten per cent of those who had changed employment status gave dissatisfaction with job or employer as the main reason for change and 19% said that dissatisfaction played some part in the move.

Just over a third of respondents at the second interview had caring responsibilities outwith their job. Three per cent of respondents had caring responsibilities amounting to over 20 hours a week. Since the first interview, twice as many staff had taken on a caring role as had relinquished it.

Work content

The three top priority tasks for each of the four job types were:

• managers: staff supervision; managing a service; planning;
• fieldworkers: family support; child protection; counselling;
• home care workers: preparing or serving meals; shopping; personal care;
• residential workers: providing social and emotional support; personal care: implementing care programmes.

Most managers reported a reduction in face to face contact with service users since the first interview and more time on administrative tasks. Field workers also reported an increase in administrative tasks. All four job types reported an increase in the time spent being trained. When asked about changes affecting their own work, different demands on staff and the need to learn new skills were the items most frequently reported by all four job types.

Job satisfaction and stress

Levels of satisfaction with most aspects of the job were high. Least satisfaction was expressed with the chance of promotion. Managers and fieldworkers were less often satisfied with the way the department was managed than were the other two job types.

The stressor reported most frequently by all four job types was not being able to get people what they need. On the GHQ12 scale 1, 43% of respondents scored high enough at one or other interview to be considered in need of psychological assistance. Home care workers had a lower level of stress and higher satisfaction scores than any other job type. Half of those who had experienced stress at work in the last 12 months thought they did not receive enough support to deal with it.

Low satisfaction in conjunction with low control was associated with high stress. Those who changed their job or job title by the second interview had lower satisfaction, lower control over work and higher stress scores at first interview than those who did not.

Experience of violence and abuse

The experience of physical attack, actual and threatened, and of verbal abuse in their current job was common. Residential workers were most frequently exposed to all types of abuse followed in rank order by managers, field workers, home care workers. At second interview, 18% of all staff had experienced physical attack, 20% had been threatened with attack and 42% were shouted at or insulted in the last 12 months. Residential workers experienced a high level of violence - 58% had experienced physical attack, 49% threatened attack and 60% verbal abuse. Home care workers rarely experienced actual or threatened attack but 25% reported verbal abuse. The level of physical attack experienced by residential workers was double that found in the English study. The most likely explanation for this is the inner city location of the residential units visited in Scotland.

A third of those who experienced a violent incident thought that the help provided by their employer was much less than that required.

Qualifications and training

At second interview 70% of field workers, 56% of managers, and 7% of residential workers, held a professional qualification in social work. No home care workers were so qualified. The proportion of staff who had taken a course leading to a work related qualification in the last 12 months increased from 11% at first interview to 30% at second interview. At second interview 24% of residential workers and 11% of home care workers had or were working towards an SVQ.

Training not leading to a qualification increased from 37% of staff at first interview to 53% at second interview. Despite this investment in training, 41% of staff at the second interview said that they were unable to undertake the training they would have wished in the preceding 12 months.

Work histories

Since first entering social care, the majority of staff working time (89%) had been spent in social work department employment. Ninety per cent of managers had spent over five years in a social work department, as had 80% of residential workers, 75% of home care workers and 66% of field workers.

The majority of staff remained in their first work setting with their first user group. The most common changes between first and current job were from residential work to area team/field work and from generic work to work with older people or with children and families.

Movement within the workforce

There was a substantial degree of job mobility. Nineteen per cent of the sample had applied for another job in the last 12 months. Only 13% of applications were for jobs outwith social care. Sixty five per cent of applications were for a job with the existing employer. Half the managers and field workers said they were likely to look for another job in the next 12 months compared with a quarter of home care and residential workers.

Over 80% of managers and home care workers and over 90% of field workers and residential workers expected to remain in a social work department after their next career move. Looking two years ahead, more than half of home care and residential workers hoped to be in the same or similar job at that time. Nearly half of managers and field workers hoped for promotion or to have moved on within the next two years.

Eight per cent of the original sample had left the workforce by the time of the second interview; 5% were economically active and 3% not.

Conclusions

The study sets out a benchmark against which future trends in the social work department workforce in Scotland may be measured. The evidence suggests this workforce is committed, mature, stable and resilient. These qualities are, however, threatened by some aspects of current working conditions. The levels of stress, exposure to violence and abuse and uncertainty about the changing nature of the job detract from the ability of the workforce to work effectively.

The study suggests some of the key ingredients for a Human Resource Management policy for the workforce. Such a policy would include:

• recognizing the impact and extent of change faced by staff;
• recognizing the workforce commitment to providing social services, and exploring how this commitment may be maintained;
• maintaining the pressure to develop a continuum of training and education throughout the social work department workforce;
• addressing the high degrees of stress and high levels of violence;
• recognizing the extent of outside caring responsibilities among staff.

'A Workforce in Transition', the research report summarised in this Research Findings, may be purchased (price £6 per copy).

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1 The GHQ (Goldberg 1972) was originally designed to detect psychiatric disorders in the general population, but has since been used for measuring stress in the general workforce. Evidence from other studies suggests that at any given time 13-28% of adults will be 'cases' (Bowling et al, 1992).