| Abstract: | Summary Turnover and wastage rates among social work staff are highand subject to marked variation between grades, locations andlocal authorities. Such high rates have a number of deleteriouseffects on the quality of social work, and consequently on clients,on the costs of delivering personal social services and on thegeneral administration and organization of social care. Employingdata on 13,750 basic grade field social workers employed byEnglish and Welsh local authority social services departmentsin 1974–75, turnover and wastage rates were predictedusing information on the personal characteristics of employeesand the workplace locations. The analyses revealed the importanceof age, sex, educational background, social work qualifications,length of service and workplace in determining the probabilitiesof changing social work jobs and leaving social work completely. |
