Three out of every four social workers have blamed burnout and a heavy administrative workload as the key reason for quitting the frontline, new research has shown.
For years, stakeholders have warned of a shortage of registered social workers and even fewer professionals who continue practising social work until retirement.
According to research by senior social worker and lecturer Holger Suarez, by the end of 2021, there were 661 registered social workers, 34 of whom were still in the first two-year process before applying for a warrant.
Not all registered social workers are practising professionals.
Of the registered social workers, slightly more than half – 55.3 per cent are frontliners – while 22.8 per cent occupy managerial posts.
Six per cent have moved out of the social work or social field and 5.3 per cent are retired.
The research by Suarez, who has been active in the sector for 20 years, shows that the older social workers get, the more likely they are to leave the frontline, with three in four flagging risk of burnout and lack of time as ‘big or very big’ issues.
A heavy caseload and too much administrative work follow at 71.8 per cent and 68 per cent, respectively.
Furthermore, 39.8 per cent of the research respondents do not view social work as respected by other professionals, while 41.8 per cent do not think the public respects social work.
Downward trend in number of graduates:
Suarez’s research also shows a general downward trend in the number of social work graduates, a repeat of what happened a decade ago.
In 2010, there were 33 graduates, who gradually dropped to 17 in 2016. Numbers seemed to have picked up again in 2017 and 2018 with 33 graduates each year before another downward trend emerged.
In fact, 13 are expected to graduate this year, with the projected number of social work graduates in 2025 hovering around 14.
Projected numbers may vary depending on the number of students requesting extensions, drop-outs and new enrolment in the master’s degree in social work.
The research is part of a doctorate in social work which is being carried out under the supervision of Maureen Cole, from the University of Malta, and Campbell Killick from Ulster University, supported by the Tertiary Education Scholarship Scheme.
The results are drawn from replies of 412 registered social workers who participated in an online survey.
According to the replies, over a third of social workers are aged between 30 and 39, while four of five are women.
Suarez comes up with recommendations for the profession that deals with “the most vulnerable and often invisible people in society”:
- Promote the social work profession among students looking into their post-secondary career paths.
- Improve working conditions, including career progression and salaries to attract new candidates and retain frontliners.
- Provide social workers with support such as pairing them with assistants so that they do not invest their time on administrative tasks that do not require their professional input.
- Avoid duplication of work, bureaucracy and unnecessary administrative work by improving collaboration between different state agencies.
- Respect the social work profession’s status, boundaries and autonomy. Social workers should be allowed to use their professional judgement - they are not simply paper-pushers.