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How leaders can ensure their organisation provides a safe work environment that promotes wellbeing, satisfaction, and performance.

Wellbeing

Identifying job aspects detrimental to wellbeing is essential. A study of child and family social workers in England from 2018 showed that factors like long hours, role conflict, and heavy workloads reduce satisfaction and add pressure.  Social workers leave due to high workloads and unsupportive cultures. Manageable caseloads, supportive cultures, and less paperwork encourage them to stay.

The SWORD framework: foundational principles

The Social Work Organisational Resilience Diagnostic (SWORD) framework introduces five Key Foundational Principles (KFPs). They aim to cultivate a strong culture that supports wellbeing. They help create the conditions for each KFP:

  • workplace culture promotes psychological safety and inclusion 
  • leadership is compassionate and aware of the emotional demands of social work 
  • current wellbeing policies and resources are inclusive and effective 
  • plans protect wellbeing, respond to concerns, and build capacity 
  • employees are involved in developing and evaluating wellbeing initiatives 
  • conditions are in place to improve coping skills and wellbeing 

Using the SWORD framework can improve good practices and guide interventions 

The framework helps employers identify what ‘good’ looks like and guide actions to reduce stress, prevent burnout, and support wellbeing and retention. It has six key areas: 

  1. a sustainable workload means managing workloads and promoting work-life balance. It helps practitioners stay healthy and productive
  2. choice and control: offering professional autonomy and decision-making influence boosts wellbeing and effectiveness
  3. recognition and reward: acknowledging practitioners’ efforts creates a positive work environment 
  4. a supportive work community offers a sense of belonging. It's safe and protects against burnout. It also encourages open communication
  5. fairness, respect, and social justice: promoting organisational justice enhances satisfaction, commitment, and trust
  6. clear values and meaningful work are key. They ensure work aligns with personal values. This alignment protects against burnout, showing the importance of hiring based on values

This framework highlights the critical actions for a supportive work culture. Leaders could ensure wellbeing interventions are: 

  • co-designed to meet diverse workforce needs 
  • inclusive and accessible to everyone 
  • value-driven to uphold organisational principles and trust 
  • clearly communicated to be easily accessible and understood 
  • modelled by leaders who are compassionate and understand emotional literacy 

Co-design involves input from all levels. It improves policy relevance and uptake compared with top-down approaches. 

References

This is the list of research and evidence sources used to produce this section. Publicly available links are included. 

GOV.UK (2019). Longitudinal study of child and family social workers

Research in Practice (2021). The SWORD video learning resource.   

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The resources have been developed by Research in Practice in collaboration with DfE.
Published: 30 October 2024
Last updated: 11 June 2025