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Dr. C. Niall McElwee, President Irish Association of Social Care Educators, Head of Department of Humanities, Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone, Ireland  nmcelwee@ait.ie and Denis Ryan, Nurse Tutor, Regional School of Mental Health Nursing, Mid Western Health Board, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Mulgrave St. Limerick, Ireland denisryan@mwhb.ie

Abstract
Social care practice, as with other caring occupations, forms a vital element of both the voluntary and statutory social and health care provision systems in Ireland. Personal and professional demographic data is notable by its absence in this field. This study was designed to elucidate data in relation to establishing a profile of social care practitioners in Ireland and establish issues of professional and occupational concern within the field through the utilisation of a self report questionnaire, developed specifically for this study. This paper presents the descriptive data that emerged. There was a response rate of 25% from an overall distribution of 100 questionnaires at a National Conference of social care practitioners. The study confirms that social care practitioners are predominantly female with an ageing profile. It further suggests that Practitioners continue to work predominantly in residential care settings and their work continues to be practice based as opposed to being focussed on education policy or research. Issues of major concern currently and for the future of social care practice as identified by the respondents in this study are also discussed.
 

Introduction
This pilot study has its genesis in related research the authors competed with three other colleagues in the area of recruitment to caring occupations and in particular psychiatric nursing for the Irish Department of Health and Children which was published in the summer of 2000 (Wells, Ryan, McElwee, Forkan & Boyce, 2000). Whilst engaged in that study it became obvious that there was a paucity of data on social care/child and youth care practitioners also. Therefore a small-scale pilot study was designed and undertaken to commence the process of rectifying this deficit.
Within the broad scope of health and social care/child and youth care provision in Ireland, the need for accurate and current information on the profile of the workforce has been highlighted in relation to manpower planning (McElwee, 1998a; Ryan, 1999; Wells et al., 2000; Department of Health and Children, 2000; McElwee, 2000b). Within Irish social care practice, as with other areas of the health and social care arena, the need for such data has been a significant concern in recent times (IASCE, 1997). The requirement for such data was one of the primary reasons for the initiation of this pilot study. While Canadian and North American child and youth care literature contains extensive commentary on profiling practitioners (Garfat, 1998), the same cannot be said of the Irish situation. In fact, when this study commenced, there was no centrally held data with regard to the numbers of social care practitioners in this country, their age profile, their gender composition, their qualifications and grading structures and their length of employment across a range of services.
The absence of such basic and, indeed, essential data is likely to impact on manpower and resource planning, on staff recruitment and retention in addition to planning for undergraduate and post graduate education and training. It could further be argued that it reflects poorly on the emerging and emergent professional status of social care/child and youth care practice. The lack of an accurate profile of practitioners is all the more surprising in Ireland in that practitioners are represented by two professional Associations (the Resident Managers’ Association and the Irish Association of Care Workers) and there is also in existence a dedicated Child Care Policy Unit within the Department of Health and Children. There is now widespread acceptance of this knowledge deficit and a concerted effort to collate data, across a range of areas, on the profile of the Irish child and youth care practitioner has been launched (HETAC, 2001; IMPACT, 2001). It is hoped that this paper will contribute to the emergent discussion on child and youth care practice in this country.

Method
This study utilised a survey design with a convenience sampling technique. The aims of the study were to establish a profile of social care practitioners in Ireland as well as identify issues of professional concern to social care practice. The questionnaire was designed to capture information on the personal and professional demographics of respondents. It looked specifically at the types of work areas and descriptions of respondents as well as their employment history associated with social care work. It also sought to establish the level of preparedness of practitioners in terms of both their experience and academic qualifications. Additionally, it elicited a range of responses focussing on the opinions of respondents in relation to issues affecting the scope of professional practice and development of social care work in Ireland. The questionnaire was distributed to delegates attending the Annual Conference of the Irish Association of Care Workers in Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland at registration (n =100). This paper presents the preliminary findings of the study and concentrates on the descriptive data which emerged.

Results
Of the 100 questionnaires distributed, 25 were returned making for a response rate of 25%. In terms of personal demographics, one respondent did not either identify their age or sex. Of those who did, the majority (16) were female and 8 males were included among the respondents. The age of the sample ranged from 23 – 52 years with a mean age of 34.6 years (ñ =34.6 – s.d. 8.8) The findings of the study will be outlined in relation to Employment Profile and Issues relating to Professional Practice.

Employment Profile
The following table presents the range of titles used (as it appears on their contract) by respondents:

Table 1 Job Titles as Per Respondents’ Contracts of Employment

Approximately 40% of respondents have the description ‘houseparent’ included in their job description indicating that they work within the residential child care sector. Interestingly, the data also suggests the range of occupational settings in which social practitioners operate in Ireland. Based on the contractual job title which respondents have, social care practice would seem to be spread amongst the drugs area, project work, government advisory services, community child care and residential child care.

Table 2 - Employment History Profile in Social Care Work

The majority of respondents (76%) reported being in permanent employment with a relatively even distribution between those employed in the voluntary sector (46%) and statutory services (54%). The vast majority of respondents (96%) were in paid employment. While this group of respondents seem to have been working in the social care area for nearly 10 years (ñ = 9.9; s.d. 5.4), it would appear that there is a wide range in relation to continuity in their current employment (range = .5 to 21 years). However, the mean length of time in their current employment is 3 years ( ñ = 3 s.d. 4.3).

Staff Turnover
Staff turnover in social care has been identified as an issue of serious concern, both professionally and from a service delivery perspective in several recent national reports (SSI, 2000; McElwee, 2000b). In order to determine stability of postholders in this field and examine the issue of turnover, respondents were invited to identify the length of time they were working in the child and youth care field. Among those who identified the number of paid employments they held in the past 5 years (n = 9), the average number of posts held was 2.2 posts. Interestingly, the average number of social care posts held in the same time was 1.8.

Table 3 -Work Setting in Current Employment

Of those who indicated the work setting where they currently practice, 71% work in residential care. The findings here support the predictions of the National Council for Educational Award’s (1992) Report on Social and Caring Studies, which suggested that residential care would continue to be a major employment source.

Main Focus of Work
The main focus of work is a crucial area in terms of deciding the elements of any education and training programme for social care practitioners. One has to make decisions on the balance between the theory and practice components on any module.

Table 4 Main Focus of Work

A total of 68% of respondents indicated that the main focus of their work was practice based as opposed to management, research, education or other areas.

Qualifications Held

Table 5 - Standard of Qualification

In relation to qualifications held, the majority of respondents are educated to either Certificate or Diploma level (64%), with most having qualifications in the areas of social care or child care (72%). However, 36% of respondents did not hold relevant formal qualifications. This is confirmed in relevant literature (see McElwee, 2000a).

Professional Change and Development
In relation to professional practice, respondents were asked to indicate whether their work had changed since commencing practice and if it had, they were invited to both rate the extent of the change and provide some examples of change. In total, 88% felt their work had changed. Despite the fact that 12% indicated that their work had not changed since commencing practice, when asked subsequently to rate the extent of change, all respondents indicated that there was at least some change, while 60% rated the level of change as being either ‘substantially’ or ‘totally’.
A significant finding is that despite the fact that so many felt their work had changed significantly since commencing practice, 56% of the group did not feel adequately prepared for the changes they reported. This has implications for any educational or training initiatives run by colleges, professional associations or government departments and will be addressed in the second Working Party Report on Social Care (HETAC, 2001).

Table 6 - Factors Which Most Contributed to Social Care Change

When asked to indicate the issues which had driven changes in social care work, a total of 41% suggested that changes were driven by ‘client’ needs. However, 32% reported that the major issues to drive social care practice were public scandals. This has been identified by separate research as a determining factor in young people choosing not to take up a career in social care (Wells et al, 2000; McElwee, 1998a; 2001).
Two areas of virtual unanimity were the issues around statutory registration and the expansion of social care/child and youth care work. There was a strongly held belief that practitioners should be registered practitioners (92%). Again, it is of note that the Department of Health and Children aspire to statutory registration being in place by late 2002.
A belief was expressed that the practice areas of social care work will expand in the future (96%). Despite the belief that social care would expand in the future, the vast majority of respondents (77%) believed that there were barriers to that expansion. Again, this is important in terms of in-service training and continued professional development portfolios. We need to equip practitioners with specific skills that are unique to social care/child and youth care (McElwee & Garfat, 2001).

Legislation and Social Care
The final issue addressed in the survey was the attitude of social care practitioners to legislation. More than half of the respondents (56%) reported that they believed that legislation either informed or enabled social care work practice.

Discussion:
A number of issues emerge from this study. It is clear from the data that the majority of respondents were working in the residential child care sector. However, the findings would also point to an ageing population of social care practitioners, who are predominantly female and operating with a wide and diverse range of job titles, which might suggest divergent work focus within social care practice. The mean age of the social care practitioner in this study is 34.6 years which is older than previously found. This study also reconfirms that there are more women than men working in the social care system if we take the gender of responses into account. In even this small-scale study, out of 25 respondents, fifteen titles are in use, which confirms one of the author’s results in a national study for the Irish Association of Care Workers where over 55 titles were reported as in use (McElwee, 2000a).
Another issue to emerge was the professional qualifications of social care practitioners. Over one third of the sample (36%) reported that they do not have relevant formal qualifications for the work that they are undertaking. While the issues of top-up training and continued professional development continue to be controversial within child and youth care practice (McElwee, 2001), they are ones that need to be directly addressed at policy level. While it would be unfair and inaccurate to generalise to the whole population of social care practice nationally based on the sample size in this study, were such findings to emerge from a more comprehensive survey, they could not be ignored in terms of either best or safe practice.
In relation to staff turnover and post stability, the findings suggest that turnover of staff may not be as serious an issue as has been portrayed in the media in social care work settings. High levels of staff turnover has been an issue that has been highlighted in a number of instances both in the Courts and in the media and in these instances issues of stability and continuity of staff have been highlighted as having central importance in relation to the development and maintenance of therapeutic relationships with vulnerable populations.
One of the most interesting findings of this survey relates to the near unanimity of the desire for statutory professional registration. This strongly expressed desire has, of course, practical difficulties associated with it in relation to possible registration processes and requirements. Based on the findings that over one third of the sample reported not possessing relevant qualifications for the posts which they currently hold. It was also reported to one of the authors that approximately 47% of the members of the Irish Association of Care Workers were unqualified to Diploma level in March 2000 (McElwee, 2000b). This has obvious implications in relation to training and development, and indeed establishing eligibility and qualification criteria for registration. The other major issue of concern in relation to professional issues to emerge from this study related to the fact that nearly one third of respondents expressed the belief that the activities of social care practice were driven by scandals as opposed to being driven by the profession itself or the needs of service users or, indeed, research.
As with any study, it is necessary to draw attention to the limitations of the study itself. Perhaps the major limitation of this study is the rather poor response rate with an eventual sample size of only 25 respondents (n=25). It cannot be assumed that such a small sample would necessarily be representative of the national population of social care practitioners, and therefore the generalisability of the findings are certainly limited. It should also be noted this study has only presented the descriptive data from this study. This relates to certain ambiguities that emerged in relation to the structure of the questionnaire. Based on the replies of respondents it would seem that the questionnaire would require revision for larger scale studies.
However, despite these limitations the study does, at least, provide a snapshot of social care practitioners attending one of their annual national conferences. This pilot study is primarily intended to inform interested parties and stimulate debate related to social care practice in Ireland and abroad. It has shown, albeit with a very small sample, that there are some interesting developments in the social care field which need to be addressed with some urgency. Finally, it would be recommended that further studies be undertaken at a national level with more representative samples.

Department of Health and Children. (2000). Role of Professional Bodies and Registration Structures in the Context of a Statutory Registration System. Dublin: DOHC.

Department of Health and Children. (2000). Workshop on Statutory Registration for Health and Social Care Professionals. Dublin: DOHC.

Department of Health and Children. (2001). Dublin: DOHC.

Garfat, T. (1998). ‘The effective child and youth care practitioner: A phenomenological inquiry’. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 12, 1-2.

IMPACT. (2001). National Study on Social Care. Dublin: IMPACT.

Irish Association of Social Care Educators. (1997). Submission to the Higher Education Authority. Sligo: IASCE.

Ryan, D. (1999). ‘Student recruitment and psychiatric nursing’. In (Ryan, D., Jacobs, A and Kirwan, M. eds.) Reflection and Rejuvenation; Issues for Irish Psychiatric Nursing into the Millennium. Kilkenny. Association of Psychiatric Nurse Managers.

Wells, J.S.G., Ryan, D., McElwee, C.N., Boyce, M. and Forkan, C.J. (2000). Worthy not Worthwhile? Choosing a Career in Caring Occupations. Waterford: Centre for Social Care Research, Waterford Institute of Technology.

McElwee, C. N. (1998b). ‘Professional child/social care in the Republic of Ireland: The road less travelled’. ISPCC Journal of Child Centred Practice. 5:1.

McElwee, C.N. (2000b). To Travel Hopefully: Views From the Managers of Residential Child Care Units in the Republic of Ireland. Waterford: Centre for Social Care Research.

McElwee, C. N. (2001). Child and Youth Care in Ireland: an Educator’s Perspective. Paper to the Alberta & Calgary Associations of Child and Youth Care Workers Conference. Calgary, Canada. 6^th May 2001.

National Council for Educational Awards. (1992). Report of the Working Party on Social and Caring Studies. Dublin: NCEA.

Higher Education and Training Awards Council. (2001). Second Working Party on Social Care. Dublin: HETAC.

Social Services Inspectorate. (2001). Report of Findings in Relation to the Inspection of Children’s Residential Centres. Dublin: SSI.

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