‘Race’, Ethnicity, and Experiences of Practice: Perspectives of Child and Family Social Workers Working in England

Abstract

This article reports a portion of the findings from a 5-year longitudinal study on child and family social work, commissioned by the Department for Education. The study explored issues relating to child and family practice over the five years, utilising a mixed-methods design, including large-scale surveys, quantitative telephone interviews and semi-structured interviews and culminating in an annual report, published by the Department for Education at the end of each wave. This article focusses on wave four, and on the semi-structured interview phase, which explored how practitioners felt their racial or ethnic identity impacted on their experiences of practice. Five themes were developed across the different topics explored in the interviews; structures and organisations; workforce and colleagues; lack of diversity; working with families and intersectionality. This article presents these themes as part of the challenging context of inclusivity and anti-racism in contemporary social work, and makes recommendations regarding workforce diversity, training needs and reducing the additional burden carried by social workers from minoritized ethnicities, by amending the regulatory requirements of practitioners, education providers and continuing professional development recording.