The social work team post-COVID: why workers are still in recovery

Abstract

The relationship between team membership in child and family work, social work and retention has been noted in studies of wellbeing, resilience, burn out and retention itself. That you work surrounded by good colleagues in friendly teams is rated by workers as one of the most important reasons for staying in these jobs. However, figures show increasing rates of leaving from 2017 to 2023, with a numerical spike from 2020 to 2023. This paper examines the implications of this exodus for working in teams. It considers why the team might be highly valued, what kind of impact the pandemic had on this and why its re-establishment has been far from complete. Drawing on recognition and psychosocial theory and from the author’s research on retention and well being in child and family social work, it examines the implications of the absence of work group.