Those are the words which a child
protection social worker writing in Community Care used to describe herself. She considers herself a “veteran” in child
protection. Very few other social workers have stuck the course as long as she has, she says.
How long has she been working in child
protection? Eight years – yes eight years!
Of course it is not survey or a research
finding – it’s just the personal report of one person – but research does
support the view that eight years is a long time in child protection social
work [1]. And it is a graphic way of putting it – “long in the tooth” she says!
We really have to get to grips with this
issue. A profession that burns out its members in under 10 years is always
going to struggle. It will struggle because the initial training cost per post
will be unrealistically high. It will struggle to find sufficient new recruits. It will struggle because the proportion of
recently qualified people in the workforce will be very large. It will struggle
to find mentors and senior practitioners. It will struggle to deepen the pool
of professional learning and experience. It will struggle to provide continuity
to service users.
If this new government had any sense it
would prioritise RETENTION of social workers in child protection.
But I don’t expect it will … hey ho!
[1] Curtis L, Moriarty J and Netten A
(2010), ‘The expected working life of a social worker’. British Journal of
Social Work 40(5), 1628-1643.
