Factors influencing child welfare employee's turnover: Focusing on organizational culture and climate

Ambiguous loss of home: The experience of familial (im)permanence among young adults with foster care backgrounds ☆

Differential factors influencing public and voluntary child welfare workers' intention to leave

A Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime: Relational Permanence Among Young Adults with Foster Care Backgrounds

This article reports on an innovative way to measure the expected working life of social workers and social care professionals using a methodology already developed in studies of health care professionals. Previous work has estimated that the expected working life of a doctor is 25 years compared with 15 years for nurses and 28 years for pharmacists. In this work an estimate of the number of years a social worker uses his or her qualification is provided. It appears that at eight years and 13 years, the expected working life of a social worker and social care worker is shorter than these health care professionals and that gender differences are less apparent. It suggests that there is some evidence of exit to other professions and concludes that further research is needed to identify its extent and some of the underlying reasons why this should be the case.

The Expected Working Life of a Social Worker

This paper provides an overview of the current state of knowledge on the causes and effects of workforce turnover in child welfare. The causes of workforce turnover are abundant and have been categorized into three areas cited most often throughout the literature: individual factors, supervisory factors, and organizational factors. On the other hand, the empirical research on the effects of workforce turnover in child welfare is scant. This paper discusses the need for new empirical knowledge on the relationship between turnover and child welfare outcomes. The authors conclude with consideration of the gaps in the research and implications for social work practice and profession.

Msw Jessica S. Strolin PhD

Papers

Causes and Effects of Child Welfare Workforce Turnover