The joys and challenges of family and child care social work in the context of organizational change

There is increasing recognition that Family and Child-Care services in Northern Ireland are under pressure and unable to provide the help needed by<br/>children and families due to issues such as high workloads, bureaucracy, and staff vacancies. In response, the Department of Health NI commissioned a<br/>regional review of children’s social care services which reported in June 2023 (Jones, 2023). The report again highlighted workforce issues and described<br/>the system as being in ‘crisis’, recommending that urgent action be taken to address the issues identified.<br/><br/>In addition to the regional review, the South-Eastern Health and Social Care Trust was simultaneously undertaking a review of family support and<br/>safeguarding services. Queen’s University Belfast was engaged to undertake work with practitioners to ensure their voices were heard in the review<br/>process. An important emphasis was placed on suggestions by social workers regarding changes that could be introduced to improve their work<br/>experience and their ability to meet the needs of the children and families they support.<br/><br/>AIM OF STUDY:<br/>To gain insight into the realities of being a Family and Child-Care social worker in Northern Ireland today, including what social workers enjoy about their<br/>job, the challenges they face, and their suggestions about how these could be overcome.<br/><br/>METHODOLOGY:<br/>The first author spent fifteen days over a ten-week period in seven Family and Child Care offices observing day-to-day practice and interviewing social<br/>workers in their office environments. Forty-eight interviews were undertaken with sixty-eight social workers from nineteen Child and Family and Gateway<br/>teams. The sixty-eight social workers included in the study represented 74% of social workers in post in these teams. Most interviews were with a single<br/>participant (n=35) whilst others were with two or more participants (n=13). Interviews were semi-structured in nature and were guided by four main<br/>questions:<br/>• What do you enjoy most in your job?<br/>• What challenges/frustrations do you encounter in your job?<br/>• How well supported do you feel?<br/>• What needs to change?<br/><br/>ANALYSIS:<br/>Interviews were audio-recorded with the consent of participants and were subsequently transcribed in an anonymized format using Sonix. Transcripts<br/>were thematically analysed following the six-step approach outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006).<br/><br/>SUMMARY:<br/>In relation to the questions posed, participant responses led to the following themes being identified:<br/><br/>Enjoy – direct engagement with children/families; variety and continuous learning development; seeing change/development in children/families; the<br/>team as a ‘safe space’<br/>Challenges/Frustrations – workloads and complexity; lack of time for direct work; staffing – turnover and vacancies; bureaucracy<br/>Support - Centrality of the team for support; support from managers can be impacted by workloads<br/>Changes - Pay and recognition; stability (recruitment and retention); dedicated admin and other support; streamlining of recording and reports (repetition<br/>and duplication).<br/><br/>CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:<br/>The paper will draw out the implications for support for social workers in Family and Child Care and for the positive promotion of social work in this area<br/>of practice.