Employment-Based Training on Alcohol and Other Drugs in England: Bridging the Gap

Abstract

The first of its kind in England, this study explored the extent and nature of employer-based training on alcohol and other drugs for social workers working in children's and adults' services. A national survey of workforce development departments was undertaken to find out how social workers are being prepared by their employers for engaging with people who use alcohol and other drugs. Based on a response rate of 46%, the findings show that a majority of departments (82%) provided training on these issues in the year 2011–2012. However, most of this training was not mandatory. These courses are targeted most often at those working in children's services rather than those in adults' services. Most courses are offered at basic or intermediary level, and content of training is covered inconsistently. These findings suggest a need to increase the priority of alcohol and other drugs' training across adults' services in particular and to make this training mandatory, as well as ensuring that staff have adequate time and incentive to attend. Effectiveness of social care practice for all social care practitioners around alcohol and other drugs use could be improved with more focus on training practitioners how to talk to service users about their substance use.

Keywords::

• Substance Misuse
• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Social Work
• Training And Learning
• Workforce Development
• Professional Development

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Alcohol Research UK for its funding and support and the University of Bedfordshire. We would also like to acknowledge Drs. Sarah Galvani and Cherilyn Dance who were also key members of the project and provided valuable feedback on this article.

Notes

^[1] Social work in England has recently been the subject of wide-ranging reforms, set out in the report Building a Safe, Confident Future (Social Work Task Force, 2009). The Social Work Task Force (SWTF) had responsibility for driving a cross-Government Social Work Reform programme to improve frontline practice and management. The SWTF was commissioned to do this work in response to emerging recognition that the profession had become weakened by problems with recruitment, retention, frontline resources, training, leadership and public understanding. Part of their recommendations included reforms to career training and preparation, supervision and management.

^[2] See Allnock and Hutchinson (2013) for description of full study including all research questions.

^[3] Of the 98 surveys, four were multiple responses from the same Local Authority. For example, surveys were returned from a workforce staff member as well as from a staff member associated with a specialist team such as a Local Authority Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DAAT). However, both surveys provided different and unique information about substance use training that, when combined, formed a full picture of training accessed by their workforce department.

^[4] Learn to Care represents heads of social care learning and workforce development in all councils in England. Members are situated in a range of organisational structures while retaining responsibility for the social care workforce. The committee represents the nine regions of England and members, along with other colleagues, are responsible for commissioning and/or delivering learning and development activity for the adult and children's social care workforce across local authorities and other partner organisations.

^[5] Although data were provided for 166 courses, it was not possible to accurately interpret responses for 70 courses. This survey question was limited by its construction which allowed respondents to choose ‘as needed/as requested’ or ‘other’. These responses tell us little about the frequency of course delivery, and therefore they have been excluded from this analysis.