Recruitment, Retention and Role Slumping in Child Protection: The Evaluation of In-Service Training Initiatives

TLDR: In response to endemic recruitment and retention problems within social work, the West London Social Work Alliance devised an ambitious initiative across eight local authorities creating a career pathway for child and family social workers through to front line team manager level.

Abstract: In response to endemic recruitment and retention problems within social work, the West London Social Work Alliance devised an ambitious initiative across eight local authorities creating a career pathway for child and family social workers through to front line team manager level. We examine the impact and effectiveness of two programmes and reveal a tendency for ‘role slumping’, whereby tasks and decision making are escalated inappropriately to higher levels. The resultant lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities can also have a more pernicious impact on the confidence and competence of those who should be performing these duties. Evidence showed these programmes increased the competence and confidence of delegates, confirmed by their line managers, but delegates also reported high job satisfaction, motivation and employer trust. The design of the training enabled improvements to be more effectively cascaded not just within one authority, but across all. Our evaluation reveals an array of tangible benefits for individuals and employers, but raises concern about the potential longevity of these benefits. The programme needed ongoing engagement and communication with managers and those new to the organisation concerning the programmes' content and there was no concurrent attention towards organisational push factors, which also contribute to staff turnover.

Figures

Table 3: Comparison of survey means: Senior Social Worker programme - Delegates

Table 4: Mean Delegates' Outcome measures

Table 1: WLP survey participation rates

Table 2: Comparison of survey means: Team Manager programme - Delegates and

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Recruitment, Retention and Role Slumping in Child
Protection: The Evaluation of In-Service Training
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How to cite:
Searle, Rosalind H. and Patent, Volker (2013). Recruitment, Retention and Role Slumping in Child Protection: The
Evaluation of In-Service Training Initiatives. British Journal of Social Work, 43(6) pp. 1111–1129.
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Recruitment, retention and role
slumping in child protection: the
evaluation of in-service training
initiatives
Searle, R. and Patent, V.
Author post-print (accepted) deposited in CURVE July 2014
Original citation & hyperlink:
Searle, R. and Patent, V. (2013) Recruitment, retention and role slumping in child protection:
the evaluation of in-service training initiatives. British Journal of Social Work, volume 43 (6):
1111-1129.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcs043
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Recruitment, retention and role slumping in child protection:
The evaluation of in-service training initiatives

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Abstract
This paper explores recruitment and retention of frontline child protection social
workers across eight West London local authorities. Our multi-method study of this multi-
organisational in-service training initiative gathered insights from distinct stakeholders, and
examined the design and delivery of two high quality, bespoke, evidence-based skills
programmes for team managers and senior social workers. We found the programmes
supported retention though clear career progression, and provided participating authorities
with an array of skill-enhancing and confidence boosting opportunities for staff, more
cheaply and with greater accessibility than could be achieved by any single authority. Integral
action learning sets allowed rapid development and dissemination of new ideas, enabling
organisations to benefit immediately from delegates' new learning, while also providing peer
support to delegates. We identify the pernicious affect of role slumping within social work,
and showed how through agreed role criteria and competencies up to first level management
its impact might be reduced. We discuss further improvements that could be made to increase
the current and longer term impact of the initiatives.
keywords
In-service training evaluation , recruitment and retention, role slumping
Introduction
There are endemic problems across many countries in the recruitment and retention of
social workers, especially in child protection (Caringi et al., 2008). Within the UK, while a
high proportion of newly-qualified staff take up initial paid employment in the profession,
there is scant attention paid to their on-going retention (Moriarty and Murray, 2007). Indeed,
comparisons of the expected average working life of other professions within a care context
shows the relatively short retention of trained social workers (Curtis et al., 2009).
Studies have identified a range of factors that contribute to social workers’ decisions
to leave both their current employer and the profession as a whole. These factors include:

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work stress and burnout, job dissatisfaction, low organisational and professional
commitment, inadequate reward, and lack of social support (Barak et al., 2001; Burns, 2010).
Healy et al.’s (2009) recent study of social work retention outlined two competing tensions:
the pull of career opportunities, and organisational push factors creating disincentives to
remain. They discussed the need to develop clearer pathways that support career progression
from newly-qualified social worker through to experienced team manager level. Our study
evaluated the impact of developing such a pathway on a multi-organisational basis for
frontline child protection social workers across eight West London local authorities.
This paper begins by identifying the wider context for this profession, highlighting the
external pressures and exploring how and why social workers are leaving frontline work.
Then this in-service training initiative is summarised and their early impact on staff retention,
and other indicators outlined. Finally, we consider the effectiveness of these programmes,
and identify some additional steps to help consolidate their impact.
We make three contributions. First, we reflect how current externally-derived
concerns are promoting a climate conducive to micro-management and task checking, which
effectively duplicates effort. We develop the concept of role slumping, building Katz and
Kahn’s (1978) roles theory and research showing how clarity of role division has a clear
moderating impact on the relationship between role efficacy and role performance
effectiveness (Bray and Brawley, 2002). Role-slumping is defined as a process where critical
tasks are inappropriately undertaken by staff at a higher level. This process can impact by
eroding the confidence and competence of social workers whose roles are being performed
by those more senior. Second, we assess the impact of this in-service training to improve
retention through creating clearer progression within social work. We use a multi-method
approach for data collection incorporating a variety of outcome measures. Finally, we

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in "Recruitment, retention and role slumping in child protection: the evaluation of in-service training initiatives" ?

In this paper, the authors present two in-service training projects aimed at team managers and senior social workers. 

Q2. What are the future works mentioned in the paper "Recruitment, retention and role slumping in child protection: the evaluation of in-service training initiatives" ?

Further longitudinal analysis is suggested to explore the stability of these findings in the long term, and the direction of causality. While the attention on appropriate training and development is laudable, it is evident from the literature that without attention on both of these issues, push factors will remain and may ultimately undermine any gains made to recruitment and retention. The project has offered the means for social workers at all levels to be potentially released from the ongoing cycle of micro-management. 

Q3. What is the main reason why a larger number of social workers will need to be trained?

In order to prevent shrinkage of the available national labour pool, a larger number of social workers will need to be trained simply to replace those who have left. 

Q4. What is the effect of the peer support in the programmes?

The peer-support inherent in both programmes is likely to promote further employee well-being and job satisfaction (Collins, 2008). 

Q5. What is the effect of anxiety management on staff?

Extant research has shown that effective anxiety management can influence retention and effectiveness of staff positively (Healy et al., 2009), as well as reduce burnout and enhance job satisfaction (Zapf, 2002). 

Q6. What is the effect of the current cycle of monitoring and infantilising social workers?

Without knowledge of the newly-acquired skills of delegates, and support from middle managers in challenging and prompting line managers to be more empowering, the current cycle of monitoring and infantilising social workers is likely to remain. 

Q7. What is the effect of a social worker leaving?

During the interim period between a social worker leaving and a replacement beingfound, existing social workers can be placed under increased strain, which contributes to increased turnover intention (Kim and Stoner, 2008). 

Q8. What is the value of peer support systems?

Evidence has suggested that peer support systems can enhance well-being (Collins, 2008) and results from both surveys and focus groups confirmed the value of such networking and cross-borough peer support. 

Q9. What was the effect of the delegates' perceived enhanced level of confidence?

Although the sample size was small, a stepwise hierarchical regression indicated that nearly 60% of the variance in senior social workers' levels of motivation in their job was predicted by their perceived enhanced level of confidence (R2adj = .59, F(1, 14) = 21.02, p<.001). 

Q10. What did the delegates and their managers report in the post-training training?

For those attending the team manager training, delegates and their line-managers confirmed improvements in team organisation, along with smaller increases in the quality of teams' assessments and analysis. 

Q11. What did some of the team managers say they needed to do?

While some team managers "felt privileged to have been nominated for the programme", others reflected how it met their ambitions; for example, "my need to further develop my skills and knowledge base." 

Q12. What are the main factors that contribute to the retention of social workers?

Healy et al.’s (2009) recent study of social work retention outlined two competing tensions: the pull of career opportunities, and organisational push factors creating disincentives to remain. 

Q13. How many delegates were interested in staying with their current employer?

In terms of retention, 82% of delegates who responded indicated an intentiontoremain with their current employer, with no differences between the programmes.