IFSW - English 2023

The purpose of this page is to explain why you are being asked to take part in a research study which is being run jointly by Prof Jermaine Ravalier (Bath Spa University), the International Federation of Social Workers (see below for contact details), and Dr Paula McFadden (University of Ulster) who are sending it to you as a social worker in an IFSW country. 

The project has received ethical approval from the Bath Spa University School of Sciences research ethics committee. 

What is the Purpose of this Study? 

We are aiming to collect information from a global sample of social workers from across the world in order to investigate your working conditions, and how these conditions may influence your psychological health. This is an important study because we appreciate that social work can be a stressful and yet extremely rewarding occupation, but there have been very few large academic studies into the working conditions that may influence this stress. 

Therefore we are asking you to complete a single survey – which will take between 10 and 15 minutes – which will investigate working conditions and your wellbeing. We will work completely anonymously – this means that no one will know who has taken part in the study – and confidentially – meaning any responses given will be treated with the strictest confidence. Indeed simply by exiting the survey before the end we will remove your data from the dataset. 

Why Should I Take Part? 

You will be contributing to the largest investigation of social worker working conditions and wellbeing ever conducted. Your individual contributions will therefore provide a key role in our understanding of how social worker working conditions affect wellbeing. We will provide both academic publications and media coverage from this work, and IFSW will continue to promote the findings. However, again it is important to emphasise that anonymity will be maintained throughout. 

Do I Have to Take Part? 

No – your involvement is completely voluntary. All we ask is that you are a social worker and are over the age of 18. If you decide not to continue with the project, simply close the web browser – any information that you have provided will then subsequently be deleted. However, once you have completed the whole of the work then we will not be able to withdraw data as we won’t know which data belongs to which respondents. You are not compelled to answer any questions – if you don’t want to, you are free not to. 

If you consent to taking part in the study, please click on the box below and continue to the survey. Again this will only take 10-15 minutes of your time, and will provide a valuable contribution to our knowledge. Data will be held in an encrypted folder on a laptop owned by Prof Ravalier. The study complies with European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

Kind regards, 

Prof Jermaine M Ravalier 

wellbeingresearch@bathspa.ac.uk 

If you feel as though your physical or psychological health have been affected by the study, please contact your general practitioner/doctor, your local social work professional organisation, or IFSW. You can find IFSW contact details for your region here: https://www.ifsw.org/regions/