Burnout

Summer ‘16 The Local Government Association has stated “In local government, 34.6 per cent of days lost in long-term sickness absence cases are attributable to work-related stress, which we estimate could cost councils around £120 million per year. The costs to productivity are even greater”.

The HSE (Health & Safety Executive )has identified the main cause of stress as excessive workload. However they also show that lack of support and control, changes at work and role uncertainty are significant factors.

Last month UNISON National officer Matthew Egan welcomed a report from the University of East Anglia, which says realistic workloads and continuous emotional support are essential for social workers to do their jobs and manage stress.

Senior managers should ensure there are clear systems to hear the views of social workers about workload issues and to provide feedback as to what action has been taken to address such issues.

Senior managers need to establish regular systems to monitor stress in their workplace and involve their team managers and social workers in finding solutions to workload issues and improving the workplace environment.

Team managers should ensure that social workers have the opportunity for reflective supervision.

Much of this is already reflected in Wolverhampton Councils Work related stress policy which recommends a number of actions The research findings were presented at a university confer- including : * Regular team meetings and ‘walk throughs’ involving ence on children and families in London and Mr Egan commanagers walking through a section and discussing with mented: “This study reflects what UNISON’s social worker staff practices/conditions which could lead to excessive members have been saying for years. pressures.

“Children and family social workers are all too often facing caseloads that are far too high and many do not have the necessary levels of support to help them with their extremely demanding roles.”.

* Focus groups of 8-10 people to identify issues .

Sadly focus groups no longer take place and discussion of issues at team meetings usually (from our anecdotal evidence )invariably focus on operational issues rather than wellbeing It is known that the rate of work related stress and burnout There appears no serious strategy by the employer to address issues of burnout and work related stress, other among social workers is high compared to similar professions. This contributes to high vacancy rates, particularly in than through the Management of attendance procedure, when staff have already been affected to the extent that the areas of child care, young people and families, which has they are absent from work because of it and their stress is consequences for colleagues and those the service is trying then added to by being drawn into this procedure. to help.

There also appears rising concern that phased returns ,which are a vital part of rehabilitating staff back to work are increasingly being based on what the emChildrens Sw posts remain vacant and half of the workforce ployer wants rather than as a shared discussion between has less than 5 years experience . the employee and manager.

This goes towards explaining why nationally 20% of

Three of the reports recommendations were;

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Both the TUC and the HSE suggest a practical step employers can take , is to set up a group to oversee a stress management programme.

Wolverhampton Council have over recent years abandoned the wellbeing programme which used focus groups and questionnaires to identify and address stress causes, in favour of a ‘resilience’ agenda.

This focuses more on making workers more resilient rather than tackle the underlying causes of stress.

UNISONs concern with this approach is that it shifts responsibility away from the employer to that of the individual worker.

Stress intervention programmes with lunchtime exercise etc may be popular with staff and there is nothing intrinsically wrong with such activities (provided you are able to identify a lunchtime !) but there is no evidence that they have any lasting effect on the individual’s ability to cope with stress and they do not tackle issues of high workload and pressures of deadlines.

ise the consistent findings of the Employers organisations, the HSE and Unions.

The Communities H&S committee have now agreed to set up such a working group and it is an issue we will raise at the Children's H&S committee as well.

UNISON has a myriad of reports and national and council statistics on numbers on the issues and we have the anecdotal evidence of many members who have suffered from Work related stress.

What we have had difficulty with in the past is compiling evidence within Wolverhampton of the specific issues of staff such as workload .

Our last stress survey had such a poor response that no meaningful data could be extrapolated .

Rather than a survey we would like to begin a conversation with Social Workers so that when we continue to raise issues at H&S meetings and Joint Consultative panels , we can properly represent their views regarding work related stress .

Wolverhampton UNISON branch continues to raise We would like to hear from individual Sws and the issue of work related stress at both corporate meet teams . and departmental levels.

If you or your team want to be part of this Our employer has recognised the scale of the prob- conversation , please email us at lem , the impact on the health of affected employ- wolvesunison@btconnect.com ees and the cost of stress related absence, but I would add that our current lack of UNISON backs away from addressing the key causes . representatives within Social Work teams We believe that rather than the issue being merely hampers our communication, so if anyone is interested in becoming a formal UNISON rep an agenda item at Corporate and Departmental H&S meetings , the first step needs to be to set up and want to know more contact us a working party which will look at the issues and make recommendations going forward, which util-

UNISON NATIONAL SURVEY The government is proposing major reforms to social work in England. including outsourcing the work to 'social work trusts', via its Children and Social Work Bill: UNISON wants to know social work members' view – please take part and share the link to the survey at

surveymonkey.co.uk/r/RT3T9RC

UNISON, in partnership with Community Care, is once again running ‘Social Work Watch’ to shine a light on a typical working day in social work.

On Wednesday 21st September we want as many social work staff as possible to fill in a survey about their working day. We will use the results to promote understanding of social work, and highlight the daily pressures staff have to contend with.

Branches are asked to let members know about the initiative and use it to talk to non-members with a view to recruiting them into the union.

UNISON is teaming up with Community Care to run the second ‘Social Work Watch’. On 21st September we want as many social work staff as possible to take part by filling in a survey to tell us about their day. We will ask them to give details of their caseload on that day, how many hours they worked, what they did, how it made a difference, and the pressures and challenges they faced.

We will use the findings to highlight for the public and policy makers the challenges and pressures social work staff face every day. We will also use it to celebrate the value and importance of the work they do, in spite of the cuts, staff shortages and media hostility.