9
The European Social Work Research
Association Award for an
Outstanding Publication
Researchers from Ulster
University, Queen's
University Belfast, King's
College London and Bath
Spa University have been
awarded the European
Social Work Research
Association Award for an
Outstanding Publication in European
Research for their investigation into
social workers' wellbeing and attitudes
to ageing in their profession. The report
was led by Dr Paula McFadden, Senior
Lecturer in Social Work and co-authored
by Dr Patricia Gillen, Reader in Nursing
and Midwifery and Dr John
Mallett, Senior Lecturer in
the School of Psychology.
Queen's University Belfast
academics Dr John
Moriarty and Dr Heike
Schroder also co-authored
the study. Based on a
survey of over 1300 social
workers across the UK the study
findings showed high demand for
increased work flexibility and suggested
that many social workers may retire
early if provisions aren't put in place to
offer more support.
Speaking about the achievement, Dr
Paula McFadden said:
"Our continued engagement with the
social care sectors as well as the NI
business community pointed us to a real
need to better understand the
phenomenon of growing old in
high-demand, high-stress professions.
What we produced is an example of low
cost, high impact research using those
very networks to access
individuals in a range of
service contexts.
The paper will directly
feed into the ongoing
Social Work Workforce
Review by the Department
of Health in Northern Ireland, and we
hope this review will be a model for the
other UK nations to plan for shifting
demographics in the workforce and the
population at large."
Dr Patricia Gillen also commented:
"The issue about the ageing workforce is
a critical matter, and health and
education sectors have already begun to
address this through their workforce
planning and research. It is therefore
important that we know more about
demographic changes in social work, to
inform workforce strategy for this
profession."
On presenting the Outstanding
Publication Award to Dr McFadden,
ESWRA Chair Professor Judith Metz
commented:
"The Awards panel received a total of 24
nominations for this award, and
unanimously agreed that the publication
is an excellent article, which constitutes
a relevant piece of research in social
work, focusing on a very interesting
topic for social work practitioners,
educators, researchers and policy
makers. I would like to congratulate Dr
McFadden and co-authors on this
outstanding work."
Dr McFadden accepted the Award on
behalf of herself and co-authors at
the Opening Ceremony of the virtual
ESWRA Conference, hosted by the
University of Bucharest, Romania on
4th May 2021.
CONGRATULATIONS -
PRESTIGIOUS AWARD