4.2 Article

COVID-19 Impact on Children's Social Work Practice and Social Worker Well-being: A Mixed Methods Study from Northern Ireland and Great Britain during 2020-2022

Journal

BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK
Volume -, Issue -, Pages -

Publisher

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcad220

Keywords

burnout; children's social workers; COVID-19; well-being; working conditions

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This study examines the well-being, burnout, and work conditions of UK children's social workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings indicate a decrease in participants' mental well-being and an increase in work-related burnout as the pandemic progresses. In the later stages of the pandemic, children's social workers in Northern Ireland showed better well-being and lower burnout levels compared to their counterparts in Great Britain. The qualitative analysis reveals four major themes: changes in service demand and referrals, adapted ways of working, staff shortages, and emotional impact.
Social workers were heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we examined the well-being, burnout and work conditions of UK children's social workers at five time points of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a cross-sectional mixed methods study analysing data from 1,621 social workers who worked in children's services in the UK in 2020-2022. Data were collected using anonymous online surveys which included both quantitative and qualitative questions. The mental well-being of participants decreased as the pandemic progressed and work-related burnout increased. In the later stages of the pandemic, children's social workers in Northern Ireland fared better than their Great Britain counterparts in relation to their well-being and levels of burnout. Thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed four major themes: Changes in service demand and referrals, Adapted ways of working, Staff shortages and Emotional impact. The findings highlight the challenges that the children's social workers encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic and have implications for policy, practice and research. This article examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the well-being, burnout and working conditions of UK social workers working in children's services. Data came from a wider study of health and social care professionals who completed online surveys at five different time points during the COVID-19 pandemic. The surveys contained both quantitative and qualitative questions. We analysed the responses of 1,621 social workers working in children's services between 2020 and 2022. We found that their well-being decreased and work-related burnout increased as the pandemic progressed. We also found that client-related burnout was consistently lower than personal and work-related burnout. In the later stages of the pandemic, children's social workers in Great Britain reported worse well-being and more burnout than their Northern Irish counterparts. Participants also reported more work pressures due to greater service demand and referrals, increased complexity of cases and staff shortages.

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