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Who would work in a children's home? If press reports are anything to go by, residential care is beset by scandals and interminable public inquiries. The sector has had to absorb the impact of major new pieces of legislation, including a standards regime, in the past few years. There are already recognised difficulties in the recruitment and retention of staff. The job itself is stressful and undervalued. No wonder staff morale in the sector is widely regarded as low.

But is it? Before we can raise the status of the profession or improve matters, it is necessary to examine this notion that there is a crisis of morale in the residential child care sector.

The National Children's Bureau (NCB) recently carried out a research project, commissioned by the Social Education Trust, to test these assumptions and determine levels of staff morale in residential child care. Contrary to popular belief, the picture is remarkably positive: three-quarters of respondents said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs, and nearly three-quarters reported that morale was okay or high in their homes.

There were other positive findings. For example, information exchange within children's homes works well. Staff feel there is clear guidance and they have enough information to do their work. Care staff were generally positive about the management style in their homes, indicating that their managers were approachable and supportive and had a good understanding of the activities and occurrences in the homes. All these factors boosted overall morale.

Some 72 per cent of residential workers felt the most important single contributor to morale was teamwork. The ability of staff to work as a team was crucial to the smooth running of the home and to meeting the needs of young people. One respondent said: "Unless we've got a happy staff team we're not going to do anything for the young people, are we?"

The emphasis on teamwork is not surprising given the context. Care home staff work in tough circumstances with vulnerable young people, many of whom have been through difficult times. Mental health problems are common, some may have behavioural problems and a few are violent.

Support from colleagues and managers is hugely valued by staff. A good team not only provides moral support but also consistency and a unified approach when dealing with residents. The staff questioned during NCB's research were clear that the team is the single most important aspect of residential care for young people.

With such strong and commonly held views, the role of teamwork in children's homes should be a major focus for managers. Making time for team building activities can be difficult, but it is a worthwhile investment. The research also showed that staff meetings did not allow for team issues to be addressed. This is compelling evidence to suggest the national minimum standards on care should focus strongly on teamwork as a critical factor in improving the overall quality of service in children's homes.

The importance of teamwork could also be given greater prominence within training. The NCB's research suggests that development of the workforce may benefit from examining the social pedagogical model of training used in Europe, which acknowledges teamwork as a vital component in effective practice.

Residential workers want to achieve best outcomes for children and young people, and this is largely why they work in the sector. They are naturally frustrated when other parts of the system let young people down. To give one example, they would like more active involvement from field social workers once the children are placed in a home. This is, inevitably, most often a question of workload: field workers often have "more pressing" priorities, such as child protection cases. But there is a feeling that children are "dumped" in residential homes.

"Trying to get a social worker to come and visit over and above what they should be doing is totally and utterly out of the question," said one respondent. "I know they have a high workload but we are not dealing with a commodity, we are dealing with human life."

There is a similar sense of frustration with the education provisions for young people in care. The government's social exclusion unit emphasises the critical role education plays in outcomes for looked-after children. Educational attainment for these children is extremely low for many reasons: missed schooling, a lack of available educational placements and a high proportion of young people with special needs, to name a few. In 2001-2, only 41 per cent of young people leaving care had even one GCSE or GNVQ.¹


Residential staff are clearly affected by such poor outcomes for the young people they work with and feel strongly that more should be done. One residential worker said: "In children's residential care, a young person can be out of school for 12 months and I don't think that is right. It's an absolute tragedy for the child because, given the right help, you could get that child back into education. Social services, education and residential care have to get together, link in the resources more."

Issues such as these make working in residential child care difficult for staff who are genuinely committed to helping vulnerable young people. However, the research shows that staff do gain a great deal from their work. Besides enjoying successful teamwork, workers also derive satisfaction from the daily contact with young people and the chance to help them progress. They also enjoy the team interaction. These factors should be emphasised more strongly in recruitment campaigns to challenge negative perceptions which may deter prospective applicants.

Positive publicity needs to be generated and this should be more wide-ranging than the targeted recruitment campaigns. The perception that residential child care is an unskilled job needs to be challenged. There is reason to believe that recognition for the valuable work that staff perform may raise their confidence, increase retention and attract others to the sector.

At present there is a real feeling that residential child care is, in the words of one care home manager, "the Cinderella of social work". Staff and managers alike feel that field social workers do not appreciate the work that residential workers do. There is a clear need for a validation of the identified skills and qualifications of residential care workers. This would both attract quality applicants to the sector and encourage those already there.

It is also important that residential staff have a clear development plan setting out both the aims of their work and opportunities for career progression. This would confirm the work carried out is within a valid profession, raise its profile and increase the confidence in the sector. In turn, this may have positive impacts on staff recruitment and retention, bolster morale and ultimately benefit children and young people in public care.

There are more improvements which could be made, such as in training provision and shorter work shifts. Nonetheless it is cheering to see that residential care staff are motivated, committed and generally satisfied in their work. Now this message needs to be spread to a wider audience. The care of our most vulnerable young people requires dedication and enormous skill and should be given the credibility it deserves.

Amanda Mainey is a research officer for the National Children's Bureau, and author of Better than You Think: Staff Morale, Qualifications and Retention in Residential Child Care, available from NCB book sales on 020 7843 6028/29 or online at www.ncb-books.org.uk 

References

¹ Department of Health, Social Services Performance Assessment Framework Indicators 2001-2, DoH, 2002