Looking back- Looking forward: messages from experienced social workers for the recently qualified

Abstract

This paper first briefly scopes what is known about social workers who make a long-term commitment to working within child and family services, and possible explanations why some choose to remain long-term within this service setting. It then reports on the response of 32 long-serving social workers from 9 countries to an open-questions survey about the messages they would want to pass on to beginning social workers. The thematic analysis seeks to tease out the motivations, rewards and strategies that are associated with those who, in different country contexts, remain committed to and find satisfaction in child and family work. Whilst identifying similar themes to those reported in earlier publications on why some social workers leave and others stay, it adds to the still comparatively limited literature reporting on career-long child and family social workers.