How do we Achieve Workforce Stability in Social Work?
Welcome back to the Social Work Café!
This month, I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with another inspiring social worker who reached out to me out of the blue: Ali Trewhella.
Ali is a friend of Jody Bell, who many of you might remember from last month’s post.
By the way, exciting update. Jody has since been awarded her Churchill Fellowship. A huge congratulations to her!
Ali, on the other hand, has already walked the Churchill Fellowship path, and we had a rich conversation about her journey, her research, and her deep commitment to strengthening our profession.
With over 20 years’ experience, especially in child protection, both here in Australia and in the UK, Ali brings incredible insight to the table. Over the course of her career, she has become particularly passionate about supporting newly qualified social workers and promoting psychosocial safety in the workplace.
Both of these themes are close to my own heart, and it was energising to hear her speak with such clarity and conviction about the changes our profession needs.
In 2022, Ali was successful in securing her Churchill Fellowship, with her project focused on recruitment strategies and workforce stability in child protection.
Her research took her overseas in late 2023 to Sweden, the UK, and the US, to learn about innovative approaches to retain social workers and keep the profession attractive to new entrants.
I loved her use of the word attraction. We often talk about retention, but attraction points to something deeper: making social work a profession that people want to enter, and want to stay in. It’s a concept I’ll be exploring more in my own research.
A few of Ali’s insights really struck me. First, in Sweden, social work enjoys high status and societal recognition, which has a profound effect on professional pride and wellbeing.
In the UK, some agencies are formally assessed not just on service quality, but also on worker experience. Imagine if we had that here in Australia! It would shift the focus onto organisations to actively support their workforce.
More broadly, embedding psychosocial safety in organisations is non-negotiable for workforce stability.
Ali also emphasised the importance of reflective supervision, not as an optional extra, but as a standard expectation built into a social worker’s workload (yes please, we need that here in Australia).
What came through most strongly in our conversation was Ali’s sense of pride in social work and her hope for its future.
Connecting with other passionate social workers, she said, reignited the fire that was already burning in her.
I know many of us can relate to that need for connection, especially in challenging work environments.
I always love ending conversations with the season 3 “big question”: What would you change to make social work better?
Ali offered two powerful ideas:
Recognition of the value of paid placements, which would also signal broader respect for the profession.
Allowing social work students to undertake two direct placements.
Both points sparked some great reflection for me, and I’d love to hear what you think too.
I’m so grateful to Ali for reaching out, as well as Jody for being the conduit that connected us.
Conversations like these are exactly what the Social Work Café is all about: making space to share insights, build connections, and imagine a stronger future for our profession.
Stay tuned for more chats over coffee,
Dr. B
