Nice people, shame about the job

Nice people, shame about the job

Our social worker is sharing her thoughts on how we should be improving the social work profession. In a highly pressurised and often emotional environment such as social work, could peer support help us to do our jobs effectively?

Is a pleasant team enough to keep you in a job? I wonder how many of us have remained in a role we found unsatisfying, stressful or downright miserable (or all three) just because we liked the people we worked with. Colleagues are an important factor in how we perceive job satisfaction.

I remained in a job I hated for several years, mainly because I liked the people I worked with. We were a close-knit group who supported one another, shared information, and stuck together as a team. Informal peer support can often make or break a job, but camaraderie isn’t only about going to the pub or gossiping over the kettle. It’s about pooling knowledge, expertise, and knowing who to approach for answers on a issue. A great role is all very well, but your colleagues need to be up to scratch too.

Working in mental health, I hear a lot about peer support for clients. Studies have shown that they find it hugely beneficial. However, I also think about my colleagues and their mental health. In many workplaces it’s not a priority. Retention of staff is a big issue and I am convinced that formal peer support systems may be the way to help.

Given the recognised strengths of peer support, I’m frequently surprised at the lack of formal provision in teams, though I have worked in teams where attempts were made to address this. Group allocation was one idea. The concept was that social workers would share their opinions, discuss strategies and offer support on cases. It failed when everyone realised there was nothing beneficial by attending apart from an increased caseload. Peer support was distinctly lacking.

It’s important to consider what can be done if camaraderie is non-existent. Is a culture of peer support something that can be grown and nurtured? I like to think it can be, by developing a systemic peer support strategy and embedding it in a team’s structure. I’m interested in accessible mentoring schemes, buddying up for new staff members, a proper induction programme for all (not just a pile of e-learning) and expert managers taking the lead. Whilst it’s important that managers are on board, it's vital that practitioners are too. Everyone needs to be engaged, otherwise nothing changes.

A system which supports experienced workers in taking on a specialist role, ready to share their knowledge of local resources, specific policies or an area of specialism would be of benefit to teams. A culture of asking questions and being heard is important. People shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help.

Office layout can foster peer support. Many teams have adopted an ’agile working’ policy (also known as hot desking) which can be isolative and divisive. A colleague told me about the time his ‘desk neighbour’ noticed he’d been out a long time and managed to track him down to a police station where he had gone to act as Appropriate Adult for a client. As a newly qualified social worker, the duty sergeant had exploited his lack of experience and had kept him busy in the station for most of the day. Luckily his colleague knew better and got him out. Hot desking wouldn’t have picked up on this.

All of these ideas aren’t new, but they require time and resources as well as support and engagement from managers and practitioners. There are teams, of course, who work well together and are supportive but it’s very much on a frontline and informal level. If employers are serious about retention, then they could start looking at what many practitioners are already doing informally and making it something more established and supported.

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