A major concern for the Social Work profession concerns the frequency of burn-out and high turnover of staff with the average career lasting just 7-8 years in the UK (McLenachan 2006). The characteristic of resilience has been identified as playing a crucial role in the ability of social workers and other health and social care professionals to have a satisfying and successful career thus a critical role for health and social care education is to develop resilience in students (McAllister & McKinnon 2009). However a recent UK government investigation into education in Social Work the Neary report (2014) recently condemned its effectiveness concluding that the introduction of the social work degree had not increased the academic standing of social work nor the rigor of social work practice. Therefore we currently need to know more about how to train resilient social workers who will also increase the academic standing of the profession. Although previous research has examined these factors this field would benefit from a stronger theoretical foundation (Sheppard 2016). Self-determination Theory (SDT) (Deci & Ryan 2000) is a robust evidence-informed psychological theory that has been applied internationally to numerous contexts including health and employment (www.selfdeterminationtheory.org). It predicts that when our needs for competence (effectiveness at mastering the environment) autonomy (sense of control and freewill) and relatedness (interacting and connecting with others) are satisfied we experience higher degrees of motivation to succeed and wellbeing. Thus when these three needs are met in social work students (and students in allied health and socialcare professions) they have the potential to raise academic standards and promote wellbeing characteristics that contribute to the development of resilience.
