29 September 2023
In April 2023, I stepped back from my role as a social worker working with adults, and into the role as the first Research and Training Fellow with Kent Research Partnership. Within a week I underwent a dramatic change of pace and place, going from home visits, assessments and paperwork to attending the NIHR annual conference, sitting amongst some of the best minds in British social care research in the opulent Law Society headquarters in London. 
Since then, I have had opportunities to learn and build professional networks at events such as the Centre for Health Service Studies (CHSS) Annual Lecture, Kent Care Summit, and the Applied Research Collaboration Kent Surrey and Sussex Research Symposium. I have also attended the monthly Kent Research Partnership Community of Practice sessions focussing on the social care workforce, learning more about up and coming research in the area and also having the opportunity to present my own research. A stand-out event for me was the Centre for Health Studies Away Day, which gave me valuable insight about where my research stands in the wider picture of health and social care research, and how everything interlinks. It was also a really fun opportunity to get to know my colleagues in the Centre – and be part of the team that almost won the afternoon quiz!
Of course, my fellowship journey has not just been about attending events and networking. My project, which explores burnout in the social work workforce, is well underway. I chose to research burnout in social workers as I have seen and felt the impact of it first-hand, and this is backed up by evidence I have looked at in the literature review. Burnout is a syndrome linked to long-term work related stress (World Health Organisation, 2019) and is characterised by exhaustion, disengaging from your job, and low personal accomplishment. As a syndrome it has wide-reaching impacts. As of 2016, the average career span of a social worker was said to be just 8 years (Beer and Asthana, 2016) and that this picture has worsened with the compounding impact of austerity, the cost-of-living crisis and Covid-19. Local authorities experience recruitment and retention issues (Gesler, Berthelsen and Muhonen, 2019), with high vacancy and turnover rates (Skills for Care, 2022). This then leaves a higher workload to the social workers that remain in role, making them more vulnerable to stress and burnout (Cominetti, 2023). This all has a knock-on effect on the clients that we support, leaving long waiting lists of clients waiting to be assessed (Gillen et al., 2022 and poorer quality support (Ravalier, 2019).
Fortunately, I am not facing this issue alone, and am not making all research decisions in a vacuum. I have valuable mentorship from the University of Kent and Kent County Council, and I’ve been lucky to have had support from within the partnership itself, the workforce Community of Practice, from CHSS, and from colleagues and supervisors from previous roles and studies, and with this support I have built a steering group to advise the research project. 
The composition of the group is varied: academics in social work and public health, practicing social workers, experts by experience, individuals with impressive PPI experience, and individuals working for agencies that provide social care and work closely with social workers. This group of volunteers all have both an interest in burnout in social workers, whether this be from an academic, professional or personal standpoint, as well as the passion and determination to be part of something to make a positive difference in this area.
I have also climbed the learning curve of wrangling research databases, gradually getting them to work in my favour in order to build up my literature review – with advice (and gentle challenge) from my mentors. Each day of the literature review uncovers something new and intriguing – such as which countries currently lead research into social work burnout (so far, Israel, Spain, China, UK and USA are frontrunners). Also interesting is what is focussed on and where: after 2020, there has been a heavy focus on the impact of Covid-19, and many Middle Eastern countries also focus on the impact of conflict and working with refugees on burnout in social workers. The literature review is helping me build a map of the priorities in global research in this area and guiding my research towards its focus.
While reading through burnout literature, it’s easy to transfer the worst parts of my own experience from 5 years as a social worker, particularly working through the pandemic, onto the experiences reported through academic papers: it’s a blessing and a curse, providing extra insight and a risk of bias all in one. Researching what you have personally experienced can be a double-edged sword in that way, however I feel that the benefits outweigh the risks – this fellowship is proving itself to be a unique and wonderful opportunity for me to explore the world of research, develop my research skills with support from some wonderful colleagues and to delve deep into an area that interests me from both an academic and practice perspective. Ultimately I hope to use this fellowship to make a meaningful change for social workers like me and the people we support, and continue to marry research and practice together throughout my career in a way that can make the best impact.
With 18 months of my Fellowship remaining, there are plenty of opportunities to be involved for everyone, whether you have an academic interest, professional interest, personal interest or just want to find out more – please contact me on hk417@kent.ac.uk if you’d like to learn more.
There are also plenty of opportunities to be involved with the wider Kent Research Partnership – for more information please visit Kent Research Partnership – Centre for Health Services Studies – Research at Kent or email KentResearchPartnership@kent.ac.uk
References
Beer, O. and Asthana, S., 2016. How stress impacts social workers–and how they’re trying to cope. Community Care.
Cominetti, N. 2023. Who cares? The experience of social care workers, and the enforcement of employment rights in the sector. Resolution Foundation, London.
Geisler, M., Berthelsen, H. and Muhonen, T., 2019. Retaining social workers: The role of quality of work and psychosocial safety climate for work engagement, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 43(1), pp.1-15.
Ravalier, J.M., 2019. Psycho-social working conditions and stress in UK social workers. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(2), pp.371-390.
Skills for Care, 2023. Headline social worker information: Social workers employed by local authorities in the adult social care sector. Skills for Care, Leeds.
World Health Organisation, 2019. Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. Available at: https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases (Accessed 12 May 2023)