Retaining child welfare and protection workers: Messages from a longitudinal study of 'stayers'

The retention of child welfare workers in a perennial issue in the social work and child welfare literature and concerns associated with high turnover/low retention have been well documented. However, there are fewer studies... [ view full abstract ]

The retention of child welfare workers in a perennial issue in the social work and child welfare literature and concerns associated with high turnover/low retention have been well documented. However, there are fewer studies that examine ‘stayers’ and teams with high retention rates in child welfare. This paper presents the findings from a longitudinal study of social workers’ retention over a 9-year period in Ireland. 35 social workers in child welfare and protection were interviewed in 2005/6 and 20 of the original cohort who are still working in child welfare and protection were re-interviewed in 2014.

In this paper we explore the learning from ‘expert’ social workers with between 10-20 years experience who have remained in child welfare over this period. Why do these social workers remain in child welfare? How do they understand their individual choices and choices made by others to remain/leave? What professional and organisational factors impact on their decisions? What can be learned about the resilience/self-care strategies of these social workers?

The research is unique because it is longitudinal and because at the end of each interview social workers are asked to comment on what they said in their original interview. This enables us, and the social workers, to track variations in their decision-making over time and an opportunity for social workers to engage with their own professional histories/narratives. The paper explores social workers’ perceptions of the key changes in child welfare and protection in Ireland over the decade and how these changes influence their current intentions to stay or leave this work, as well as engaging in debates in the collection, creation and analysis of professional histories/narratives.

key words: child protection; retention; longitudinal research; turnover; social work