LGBTQ+ training in social care should be mandatory for all social workers
The knowledge base about LGBTQ+ young people and their social care experiences is relatively scarce both about practice and policy, and we have a particular gap in our understandings of their experiences in foster or residential. LGBTQ+ young people are disproportionately represented in social care and face greater health, mental health and wellbeing inequalities when compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers in care.
Findings from our collaborative qualitative interview study with LGBTQ+ young people linked with findings from others that LGBTQ+ young people experience stigma and discrimination in foster and residential care from a variety of sources; social workers, foster carers, and residential workers. LGBTQ+ young people also had more placement moves resulting in significant (and more) disruption to their education and mental healthcare. Their experiences have been collated into an animated video that outlines the challenges for LGBTQ+ young people in care in England.
Our research showed that three groups of LGBTQ+ young people have greater challenges than other LGBTQ+ young people: trans and nonbinary young people, those from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds, and lesbians and bisexual girls, all of whom face much higher levels of discrimination and victimisation in social care settings.
What was exciting to learn from our multi-pronged project was that knowledgeable and affirming care professionals are really important to the resilience of this group, in short that the individual relationships with professionals can be a major source of support. Sadly, our research also shows that many professionals report inadequate knowledge to effectively support LGBTQ+ young people - particularly trans and nonbinary young people. This lack of knowledge affects their confidence to work with all LGBTQ+ young people, and several of these groups more specifically. Social workers in England have a commitment to the values of anti-discriminatory practice and they receive equality, diversity and inclusion training as part of qualifying, as well as part of organisational continuing professional development. However, specific LGBTQ+ training is not mandated for practising social workers, or social workers in training.
Internationally, the International Federation of Social Workers has a clear statement about how social work needs to support sexual and gender minority people, and describes that social work programmes must include elements about sexual orientation and gender.
Our research is the first ever to demonstrate that training can have a significant impact on the preparedness of social workers to work with and better support LGBTQ+ young people. We worked with Stonewall, a leading LGBTQ+ human rights charity, to test the effectiveness of an e-learning training module for children and young people’s services staff; this module is already widely used by 39 English local authorities, so it was important to test its effectiveness.
We recruited 614 social workers from across England to participate in the trial, and provided them with the online training. These social workers were then surveyed to test primarily their knowledge and attitudes about working with LGBTQ+ young people, as well as about their confidence to support this group after finishing the module. The survey was benchmarked against the Habarth Heteronormativity Attitudes and Beliefs Scale and a LGBTQ+ Knowledge Scale. This is a substantial number of participants from a profession that often struggles to take part in research and trials.
Our results show that social workers who took the training felt more confident about their ability to support LGBTQ+ young people in social care settings. They had statistically significant scores on both the Heteronormativity Attitudes and Beliefs Scale and LGBTQ+ Knowledge Scale. This means participants demonstrated increased knowledge about, and improved attitudes towards, LGBTQ+ young people.
To improve the experiences of LGBTQ+ young in care, our researchers call on policymakers to implement effective LGBTQ+ training for all qualified children’s social workers, including social work qualifying courses. Our findings demonstrate that impactful changes can be made through evidence-based, cost-effective, and easily scalable training interventions, such as the one examined here.
Currently, the British social care system struggles to the meet the needs of LGBTQ+ young people. We demonstrate that comprehensive LGBTQ+ training for social workers can have a significant impact on the professionals that support these often-vulnerable young people, as well as equipping social workers with the knowledge and confidence needed to meet their unique needs.
This post was written by: Dr Jason Schaub, Prof Paul Montgomery, Dr Willem Stander and Dr Jolie Keemink
Stonewall: http://www.stonewall.org.uk/
Content moderator: Sarah Jane Fenton