Wellbeing
Social care leaders need to manage the risks of stress and burnout. Social care is rewarding but demanding and comes with heavy emotional and work pressures. These can make it tough for workers to manage their personal and professional lives and often lead to neglecting self-care.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it more likely for social care workers to suffer moral injury, affecting their wellbeing, happiness at work, and ability to help those they serve. High stress, unhappiness at work, and struggles to balance work with life are causing more people to leave the sector.
Leaders need to tackle the causes of stress, whether they’re related to the organisation, the job itself, or personal issues. Studies have found that poor wellbeing can harm health and make it harder to keep staff. However, a positive workplace helps both organisations and their employees.
It’s essential to have a workplace where staff can talk freely and take risks without worry. This environment boosts health, job satisfaction, resilience, and work performance. It can also reduce staff turnover.
The second part of this resource provides tools to help social workers protect vulnerable individuals and support independent living. A safe workplace enables staff to excel. Meeting this standard also aligns with key standards like Employer standard 1: Clear social work framework, Employer standard 5: Supervision, and Employer standard 6: Continuing professional development.
Improved health and wellbeing, reduced stress and burnout
Work-related stress and burnout greatly impact organisations. They harm employees' health. They cause the most sick leave for social workers. Research published in the British Journal of Social Work included data from 128 councils in England. It showed these factors caused nearly one-third of absence days in 2022 to 2023, totalling over 500,000 Full-time equivalent (FTE) days.
Stress and burnout often lead to a situation where employees are at work but not fully functioning due to health issues. This is particularly common among helping professionals, affecting both their health and their effectiveness at work. However, a positive workplace culture can improve practitioner health, professional effectiveness, and retention.
Social workers who manage stress well report better wellbeing, job satisfaction, and commitment. This develops organisational and individual resilience.
Organisational resilience is a shield against burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue. It also boosts stress management and compassion satisfaction. Resilience encourages practitioners to stay with their organisation.
Improved job satisfaction, engagement, and retention
Recruiting and training new staff is expensive. High turnover can affect service quality and increase the workload of remaining social workers. A focus on wellbeing and belonging at work boosts job satisfaction and engagement. This reduces turnover.
Despite the stress, practitioners often find their work rewarding. Seeing their work as meaningful helps lessen the negative effects of job demands. Job satisfaction improves how well they manage their caseload. Social workers in supportive environments report higher satisfaction and commitment, which improves retention.
Improved professional effectiveness and job performance
Wellbeing management is directly linked to performance, with healthier workforces showing greater productivity. High-pressure environments can affect social workers' effectiveness, impacting on emotions and problem-solving skills. This can lead to negative attitudes towards those they serve and to compassion fatigue.
A positive workplace culture can improve direct practice. It improves performance, learning, and open discussion of concerns by providing safety and support. This may reduce errors. A well-run organisation prevents stress and burnout, enhancing resilience among social workers so they:
- cope better with challenges.
- stay calm under pressure and take care of themselves
- improve their relationships and performance
Resilient teams that align on goals:
- adapt to change and use problem-solving networks
- provide effective feedback and show greater empathy
- support team members and recognise when colleagues are struggling
- understand their colleagues’ needs, enhancing team performance and wellbeing.
Reducing costs
Ineffective wellbeing management incurs significant costs. This standard calls for organisational-level interventions to improve wellbeing. Though potentially disruptive and resource-intensive, early intervention and prevention-focused measures are cost-effective.
References
This is the list of research and evidence sources used to produce this section. Publicly available links are included.
British Psychological Society. (2023). One third of social care workforce sickness absence due to mental health and stress, troubling new figures reveal.
Cotton, P., & Hart, P. M. (2003). Occupational wellbeing and performance: A review of organisational health research. Australian Psychologist, 38(2), 118-127.
Deloitte. (2022). Mental health and employers: The case for investment – pandemic and beyond.
Edmondson, A. C., & Lei, Z. (2014). Psychological safety: The history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 23-43.
Frost, N. (2017). From “silo” to “network” profession–a multi-professional future for social work. Journal of Children’s Services, 12(2-3), 174-183.
Geisler, M., Berthelsen, H., & Muhonen, T. (2019). Retaining social workers: The role of quality of work and psychosocial safety climate for work engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 43(1), 1-15.
GOV.UK. (2022). Children’s Social Work Workforce.
Grant, L., Kinman, G., & Alexander, K. (2022). Social Work Research Diagnostic. Research in Practice.
Hakanen, J. J., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2012). Do burnout and work engagement predict depressive symptoms and life satisfaction? A three-wave seven-year prospective study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 141(2-3), 415-424.
Hartwig, A., Clarke, S., Johnson, S., & Willis, S. (2020). Workplace team resilience: A systematic review and conceptual development. Organizational Psychology Review, 10(3-4), 169-200.
Health and Safety Executive. (2022). Work-related stress, anxiety or depression statistics in Great Britain.
Kalliath, P., Hughes, M., & Newcombe, P. (2012). When work and family are in conflict: Impact on psychological strain experienced by social workers in Australia. Australian Social Work, 65(3), 355-371.
Kim, H., Ji, J., & Kao, D. (2011). Burnout and physical health among social workers: A three-year longitudinal study. Social Work, 56(3), 258-268.
Kinman, G. (2019). Sickness presenteeism at work: prevalence, costs and management. British Medical Bulletin, 129(1), 69-78.
Kinman, G., & Grant, L. (2011). Exploring stress resilience in trainee social workers: The role of emotional and social competencies. The British Journal of Social Work, 41(2), 261-275.
Kinman, G., & Grant, L. (2022). Being ‘good enough’: Perfectionism and well-being in social workers. The British Journal of Social Work, 52(7), 4171-4188.
Kinman, G., & Grant, L. (2023). Building resilience in social workers: A systemic approach. In R. Fotinatos-Ventouratos, C. Cooper, & A. Stamatios-Antoniou (Eds.), Resilience in Modern Day Organisations. Routledge.
Kinman, G., & Grant, L. (2023). Building resilience in social work: A multi-level approach. In R. Fotinatos-Ventouratos et al. Resilience in Modern Day Organisations. Routledge.
Kinman, G., & McDowall, A. (2014). The work-home interface: Building effective boundaries. In L. Grant & G. Kinman (Eds.), Developing resilience for social work practice (pp. 33-53). Bloomsbury Publishing.
Kinman, G., & Grant, L. (2011). Exploring stress resilience in trainee social workers: The role of emotional and social competencies. The British Journal of Social Work, 41(2), 261-275.
Kinman, G., & Grant, L. (2020). Emotional demands, compassion and mental health in social workers. Occupational Medicine, 70(2), 89-94.
Lizano, E. L., & Barak, M. M. (2015). Job burnout and affective wellbeing: A longitudinal study of burnout and job satisfaction among public child welfare workers. Children and Youth Services Review, 55, 18-28.
Marenus, M. W., Marzec, M., & Chen, W. (2022). Association of workplace culture of health and employee emotional wellbeing. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12318.
McFadden, P. (2015). Measuring burnout among UK social workers. Community Care.
McFadden, P., Mallett, J., Campbell, A., & Taylor, B. (2019). Explaining self-reported resilience in child-protection social work: The role of organisational factors, demographic information and job characteristics. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(1), 198-216.
Newman, A., Donohue, R., & Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521-535.
Ravalier, J. (2018). The influence of work engagement in social workers in England. Occupational Medicine, 68(6), 399-404.
Ravalier, J. M. (2019). Psycho-social working conditions and stress in UK social workers. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(2), 371-390.
Ravalier, J., McFadden, P., Gillen, P., Mallett, J., Nicholl, P., Neill, R., … & Curry, D. (2022). Working conditions and well-being in UK social care and social work during COVID-19. Journal of Social Work, 23(2), 14680173221109483.
Tu, B., Luo, X., Sitar, S., & Huang, C. (2022). Job demands, resources, and task performance in Chinese social workers: Roles of burnout and work engagement. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 908921.
Williamson, V., Murphy, D., & Greenberg, N. (2020). COVID-19 and experiences of moral injury in front-line key workers. Occupational Medicine, 70(5), 317-319.
Next page: Action planning to achieve the standard
The resources have been developed by
Research in Practice
in collaboration with
DfE.
Published: 30 October 2024
Last updated: 04 November 2024
Published: 30 October 2024
Last updated: 04 November 2024