As many as half of Scotland’s social workers from minority ethnic backgrounds say their experience of racism in the workplace means they are considering leaving their jobs – with six in ten reporting that racism is affecting their wellbeing.

Researchers who surveyed 200 members of the profession also found significantly fewer white social workers in Scotland believe racism is a problem in their profession compared with their colleagues from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The NHS Education for Scotland conference heard that, of those social workers surveyed who had faced racism, many felt unsupported in the workplace.

The research was carried out by social work and social care charity the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (Iriss), in partnership with the Scottish government last year.

Presenting the initial findings of the social work staff survey on racism in practice, the speakers emphasised that, while this survey is not the whole picture, it lays bare the need for training and much stronger reporting structures so people feel safer to report racism and trust that action will be taken without repercussions.

Around 82% of those surveyed from across Scotland’s local authorities identified as white and 18% as minority ethnic.

Speaking after the conference, Development Lead at Iriss, Kerry Musselbrook, told healthandcare.scot that racism has a “significant impact” on the mental health of social workers, from minority ethnic backgrounds:

“Racism has also resulted in about 50% of minority ethnic respondents to consider leaving the social work profession.”

The survey found more than 60% of minority ethnic respondents experienced increased anxiety and worsened mental health because of racism.

They reported verbal and physical abuse because of their race, and microaggressions such as questioning their capabilities, minimising experiences and the refusal to use their real name.

A Scotland problem too

The conference heard that a “significant gap” remains in the understanding of racism between white and minority ethnic social workers, with researchers calling for better anti-racism training.

The survey heard from people at different career stages and areas, spanning from mental health officers, adult social workers to protection officers and children and families’ social workers.

It found that while 94% of minority ethnic individuals saw racism as an issue in social work, only 61% of white respondents believed this.

Research and Analysis Lead at Iriss, Katie Feyerabend emphasised the importance of recognising that Scotland’s health, social care and social work workforce face a racism problem.

She highlighted that an anti-racism approach – which moves beyond acknowledging the existence of racism to engaging actively in challenging racism and dismantling biases, beliefs and the structural inequalities resulting from racism – is needed across the workforce:

“There’s not been a lot of Scotland-specific data, and we’re hoping this helps show that racism is a Scottish problem, and we do need to address it.

“While the majority of people we surveyed seemed very keen to engage with anti-racism work, there was also some responses that showed lack of understanding anti-racism and why this work is important in Scotland.

“In particular, there is a lack of understanding of what microaggressions are and how to address those. It is important for us to work better as the social work community to not only acknowledge and notice the most violent and obvious forms of racism but to get better identify more subtle and common forms of racism.

“Part of these answers including questioning the relevance of anti-racism work in Scotland, believing that white people were experiencing racism in the UK, often phrased in line with rhetoric around ethnicity and race as portrayed in the US from Donald Trump and other right-wing individuals.”

Jointly chaired by the Scottish Association of Social Work (SASW) and the government’s Office of the Chief Social Work Adviser, the Social Work Anti-racism Oversight Group produced an anti-racism statement of intent to address racism in social work in 2023.

It is set the launch a national action plan to tackle systemic racism within the social work sector later this year.

The action plan will be informed by the report from this latest survey, which the group commissioned Iriss to conduct last year.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) has commissioned anti-racism training materials for social workers.

These are currently being created by SASW and are set to be made available later this year.

Ms Musselbrook told healthandcare.scot that this survey highlights the collective responsibility to tackle racism and the need for systems to improve their reporting structures and monitor progress in addressing racism within social work:

“We would like to see all of us take up more responsibility to eliminate racism in all forms in our profession and in wider society.

“This includes ensuring that anti-racism is embedded in all our work and embedded in our institutions.

“We hope the new National Social Work Agency will also provide extra thrust and help maintain this as a priority and drive forward change in the coming months and years.

“We need to monitor progress on changing experiences, attitudes and behaviours; to create accountability; and continue to learn what supports and what hinders progress – respecting people’s lived experience, whilst accepting that responsibility for change lies with us all.”

The anti-racism survey is set to be repeated in 2026.

Alongside this, the Iriss team hope that the forthcoming training created by SASW can “play its part” in addressing racism, and that Scotland continues to “listen and learn from social workers”.

The full report from the survey is set to published in the coming weeks.

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