Qualitative analysis of frontline practitioner experiences

1. People’s experiences of working
in social services
Ian Cunningham, Colin Lindsay and
Chandrima Roy
Strathclyde University

2. The Study: Front-line practitioner
views from private, public and
voluntary sector providers
• ‘Cultural probe’ or ‘Diary method’
Practitioners were required to:
• complete a diary each day
• record the activities they undertook at specified time
periods
• take photographs as appropriate
• respond to a series of prompts
• retrospectively consider how they spent their time.

3. The Study: The Themes
• Pay and conditions
• Work-life balance
• Challenges and opportunities
• Relationships – what made care workers feel valued at
work
• Support and supervision
• Learning and development
• Future aspirations

4. Pay and Conditions
• Majority were dissatisfied with their pay and conditions
package. Dissatisfaction was most pronounced in the
private and voluntary sectors.
• Workers felt under-valued in their work, with a small
minority indicating experience of in-work poverty.
• Participants expressed concerns about the impact on
service quality as people left the sector, or feared the
poor wages and conditions would erode goodwill
among staff.

5. “Pay on paper looks good, but as I don’t get paid for
travel time I often find I am working a 14 – 15 hour day
and only earning 6 – 8 hours of pay. We are supposed
to get a 2 hour break but in reality with travelling on a
good day its half an hour maximum. I don’t have a car, I
have to get buses everywhere and I resent it”
(Participant 29, Private Sector).
“I can’t afford to provide my family with a decent
life/standard of living on such a poor wage and so I am
always looking out for a new job in the same sector
(health and social care) but with an average wage”
(Participant 53, Voluntary Sector).

6. Work-life balance
• Most employees worked more hours than what they are
contracted for, often to cover staff shortages.
• Unscheduled changes to shifts made it difficult to
plan/engage in family activities or personal relationships
outside work.
• Workers reported taking work home and cutting breaks
short.
• Negative wellbeing impacts, including sleep deprivation,
stress and a loss of enjoyment in the job.
• Some noted benefit of organisational flexi-time policies or
a good relationships with line managers.

7. “I work too much!! Particularly just now, as I am covering
sickness, work in my own project and two other projects. I
have lost my social life since starting in the company! Making
more of a conscious effort to go out with friends when I am
free – but always so tired…”
(Participant 33, Voluntary Sector).
“My work-life balance at the moment is certainly not equal. I
work most, if not every day – covering holidays and sickness
and have a short time at night to spend with family and
friends”
(Participant 4, Private Sector).

8. Challenges in Social Care
• Work intensification (having to do more with the
same or less resources) most significant challenge.
“The volume of work we are expected to be
responsible for… it is unmanageable and
unrealistic”
(Participant 14, Public Sector).
• Short staffing and increased workloads hindered
learning, the amount of time spent with users, and
led to diminishing perceptions of job security and
well-being among staff.
• A minority reported poor inter-personal relations with
line managers, colleagues and some service users.

9. Opportunities working in Social Care
• Personal relationships with line managers and colleagues
were helpful to them achieving their goals
• Praise for line managers and their contribution was
particularly common among public and voluntary sectors
workers.
• Training and good communications were seen as helpful in
achieving successful outcomes in social care.
• The ability to exercise independence in decision-making in
some aspects of work and participate in shaping services

10. “I get a great deal of self-satisfaction
knowing I have supported someone –
helped them access the local community,
meet friends, even wash their hair, put
their bins out – knowing that I help make
that person’s life a little easier and that
helps them to feel good.”

11. What made people feel valued
at work?
• Positive feedback from managers, colleagues
and service users
• “Knowing that the persons I support are
happy and I feel I have a good working
relationship with them” (Participant 27, Private Sector).
• Feeling “listened to” by senior colleagues
• Strong teams: proactivity, collaboration and
mutual support

12. “I feel valued at work when I get positive
feedback from my colleagues and supervisors.
After every shift my team leader makes a point -
thanking each member of staff for their hard
work. All of the co-ordinators also make a point
of thanking staff and highlighting good practice”
(Participant 40, Private Sector).

13. Support and Supervision
• Across all sectors experiences of supervision was
mixed, but with the majority reporting largely positive
responses.
• Good supervision influenced other aspects of work:
training, relationships with team and managers.
• Successful supervision: supportive supervisors;
listening skills; supervisors who have ‘been there’;
consistent and regular contact; focus on learning
rather than KPIs
• Some employees raised concerns about the quality of
supervision; and resource pressures affecting
accessibility of managers and meetings.

14. “My experiences with support and supervision, up until
now have been a success. I feel that the office staff and
managers have been ‘out in the field’ providing care, so
they can mostly relate to any queries or issues I may
have…” (Participant 4, Private Sector).
“I feel very strongly that by reducing our team meetings
to 1 hour every 2 months it has greatly reduced our
opportunity to receive much more support and
supervision and have made my feeling very clear. I believe
this has a knock on effect on the standard of care we
provide (which is good but could be better)”
(Participant 56, Public Sector).

15. Learning and Development
• Many positive experiences of SVQ-accredited,
employer-provided training and development.
• Learning and development had been affected by
budget and time constraints. This meant for
many only mandatory training was available,
leading to levels of dissatisfaction.
• Evidence of employees taking initiatives on their
own to share learning and maintain skills.
• Web-based information from statutory and
other sources such as newsletters were also
seen as useful learning devices.

16. Future aspirations
• Most wanted to stay in care work, although sometimes
expressing a hope for a better pay.
• Desire to maintain contact with service users.
• Public sector workers were more optimistic about being
able to secure a ‘traditional’ career path by gaining
qualifications.
• Career aspirations were seen to be limited by lack of
progression opportunities in some areas.
• A minority wanted to the leave, mainly due to stress and
low pay.

17. • Continue ‘national conversation’ on value of care work.
• Collaboration between government, employers, unions on National Living
Wage, and progress on ‘real’ Living Wage.
• Promote the business and employee wellbeing case for action on work-life
balance.
• Resource and support consistent, high quality supervision.
• Support opportunities for (quality-assured) informal learning and practice-
sharing.
• Promoting care sector as ‘good place to work’ because of its close,
supportive team-based working relationships.
• Research and explore prospects for developing stronger career paths in all
areas to retain valuable staff.
• Further research on commissioning practices and how these influence
staffing levels at the front-line and with line management roles.
Some recommendations