"You can't eat salad with a spoon": What social workers say they need

Whilst there is little doubt that social work is a rewarding career that many enter for altruistic reasons, contemporary literature clearly evidences the challenges of the role and the concerning picture of social workers leaving or thinking of leaving the profession. This issue needs to be addressed for a number of reasons, firstly the impact on social workers of workplace stress, secondly on organisations who have to employ qualified social workers, and thirdly on those in need of safety and support who may be impacted by changes of social worker. Although much is already known and understood about the challenges of the role and the factors that can impact workplace wellbeing, there is limited knowledge about what is effective in making a positive and long-lasting impact in addressing this. This thesis sought to explore social worker wellbeing using Appreciative Inquiry as a research approach, a participatory approach with the assertion that effective change happens when rather than focusing on deficits, the focus is on what is already working well and building on this. The aim was to understand better what social workers identified they needed and creating an intervention to meet these identified needs. Data was collected through four studies: a scoping review, semi-structured interviews and two focus groups, the latter stages involving participants working in statutory social work roles, and the outcome was a co-designed intervention which provided the mechanism for a meaningful conversation about wellbeing at work. The key findings in this thesis were that social workers reported that their wellbeing comprised of number of facets: practical working conditions, support, opportunity, personal satisfaction and making a difference and that these facets could be placed in hierarchical order. This order provided the foundation for the co-design of the intervention, a structured evidenced based discussion to optimise the opportunity for social workers to experience wellbeing at work. These findings not only make an important contribution to academic knowledge about interventions that support social worker wellbeing but, in the potential, to influence and impact social work experience and practice.