Child protection social work is emotionally demanding, ethically complex, and deeply relational work. Yet one group within the workforce remains largely overlooked: women who are both social workers and mothers.
Given that women make up most of the UK social work workforce, this matters. Many practitioners are caring for children professionally while also caring for children at home, but little attention has been paid to how these identities intersect and what this means for wellbeing, retention, and practice.
My doctoral research explored this issue through interviews with 15 child protection social workers who are mothers across England. The project aimed to better understand their emotional experiences, how these dual roles shape practice and family life, and what organisations can do to better support them.
What the research found
The findings showed that motherhood and social work are rarely experienced as separate roles. Instead, they are often entangled, influencing one another in both positive and challenging ways.
Many participants said becoming a mother strengthened their professional practice. It increased empathy, patience, and understanding of the pressures families face. Several described moving beyond procedural responses towards more compassionate, relationship-based practice.
However, the emotional costs were also significant. Exposure to abuse, neglect, and trauma at work often affected home life. Some participants described heightened anxiety, hypervigilance with their own children, difficulty switching off, and guilt about the emotional energy left for family life.
A further key finding was that these pressures are not experienced equally. Black and Asian participants described additional emotional labour linked to racism, scrutiny, and feeling less supported in organisational systems.
The research also highlighted the importance of support. Where supervision was reflective, emotionally containing, and relational, practitioners were better able to sustain themselves and practise ethically. Where support was limited to targets, performance, and case progression, social workers often felt left to carry emotional burdens alone.
Why this matters
The profession depends heavily on emotional labour, particularly the labour of women. Too often this is assumed, normalised, and unsupported. If organisations fail to recognise these realities, the impact can include burnout, sickness, turnover, and reduced capacity for relational practice.
Supporting social workers who are mothers is therefore not a niche issue. It is a workforce issue, a leadership issue, and ultimately a practice issue.
What needs to happen next?
There are practical steps organisations can take:
- Strengthen reflective supervision so it goes beyond task management and allows space for emotional processing.
- Ensure manageable workloads and realistic expectations.
- Embed anti-racist practice with visible accountability.
- Create peer support and reflective spaces for staff.
- Recognise that practitioners’ personal and professional identities do not exist in isolation.
More broadly, the sector must move away from expecting individuals to simply be more resilient and instead create systems that actively contain and support emotional labour.
I hope this research encourages leaders, practitioners, educators, and policy makers to reflect on how we support those who care for children both professionally and personally. If you are a social worker, manager, or parent in the workforce, I would welcome your reflections and experiences so this conversation can continue.
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