CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) Alfred Grixti is advocating for a new centralised facility, where all its services can be in one place.

Speaking during an interview with this newsroom, Grixti said that a challenge the foundation faces is geographical dispersion, as the foundation's services are found all over the country.

Grixti said that during the pandemic, the FSWS conducted an internal study on the time their employees spend travelling for work.

"In one month, 972 individuals attended meetings on our premises. Another 1,781 went to meetings outside. That month, they covered nearly 4,300 kilometres and lost over 46,000 hours in travel time," Grixti said.

To address this, the FSWS is advocating for a new centralised facility, where all its services can be in one place.

"We need one large site where all our services can be housed. Agenzija Appoġġ's lease ends next year, and Sedqa's is renewed annually. These buildings are old," he said.

Asked if there are plans to open such a premise, Grixti said that the foundation is "in talks with government, making its case." "We need a one-stop shop," he said.

The FSWS oversees a wide spectrum of services under one umbrella. Grixti said another one of the internal challenges is the so-called "silo mentality."

"We have very dedicated professionals. Their job is their life. But too much of a good thing can have side effects," he said.

To improve collaboration, Grixti said that the FSWS regularly holds "Getting to Know Your Foundation" sessions for its staff.

He recalled a case where a woman undergoing cancer treatment turned out to be a victim of sexual exploitation, identified only through inter-agency collaboration.

"We need more of our services working together. They already do, but we need to keep improving," Grixti said.

Sources told The Malta Independent that some social workers are managing caseloads of around 40 clients each, and  Grixti was asked whether this is sustainable, and how the FSWS is ensuring that quality of care is maintained under this kind of pressure.

"Depends which service, not all cases are the same. Firstly, our average case load is 25, which is something we have worked on. The long-term goal is to get more people in the profession," Grixti said, mentioning the approval to employ all social work graduates.

Pressed on recent reports that social work was not attractive to students, as well having an uncompetitive salary compared to other professions, Grixti said that the foundation has had two very good collective agreements.

He said that in 2012, there were very few NGOs getting funding for providing their services to the Ministry, the funding of which amounted to €2.6 million, which has gone up to €13.5 million this year. Factoring in disability sector NGOs, that is another €9 million in funding, Grixti said.

Grixti said that the FSWS has created a career path which did not previously exist for social workers, as in the past, they could not rise in their scale.

Now, they can go up to Scale 1, and there is no differentiation between a social worker, a family therapist, a psychologist or psychotherapist, he said.

'Take-home pay at the very top is very competitive compared to other jobs in the public sector'

"The take-home pay at the very top is very competitive compared to other jobs in the public sector. What we cannot beat is if somebody wants to practise their field, such as psychology, privately, or a social worker becoming a therapist," Grixti said.

He said that he would not say it is just the social work field that is failing to attract students, despite discussions happening in that regard.

Grixti said that his relative who lectures Accounts say they need around 600 students to graduate in the subject every year, with all that is happening in the economy, and they are getting only 60 graduates.

"I think the challenge is how do we attract people to stay in education when out there, the type of consumerist society we are living in is sending out messages that one does not need a degree to make money, that one can make a fast buck even if a person can hardly read and write," Grixti said, adding he comes from a generation where studying was heavily encouraged.

Grixti said that while he is concerned for the sector, the good career path for social workers the foundation created and the collective agreements have helped.

"There is still a shortage, but we got the green light to employ students who graduate, and we have also worked with MCAST, making amendments so that it also offers a degree in Social Work," Grixti said.

Grixti said that there is a cohort of people who go to MCAST instead of University, and without any promotion for the course, 17 people are enrolled in the MCAST course, who will be concluding their first year at the end of June.

In their second year of the degree, these students will be offered an apprenticeship by the FSWS and other entities, which means that there are another 17 prospective social workers in the pipeline, Grixti said.

He said that roughly 15 graduate from the Faculty of Social Wellbeing at the University every year, and added up with the MCAST students, three years down the line, there will be an additional 30 social workers.

"That is going to make a difference. Do we need more than 30? Probably yes. For example, we need more social workers within the Education Ministry to address issues within schools," Grixti said, adding that there is the need for not only more social workers, but other professionals in the sector.

Risk assessments are not a tick-the-box exercise

Grixti mentioned risk assessments and said that he was the one to stop the first draft of the law from being adopted in its entirety, as it had initially proposed that social workers be the ones who conduct risk assessments on victims.

"Risk assessments are not a tick-the-box exercise, risk assessors engage and take anywhere between one to two hours, if done properly. However, this is not social work. The social worker would then engage in support and assistance in anything the victim needs, after the risk assessments," Grixti said.

He continued that one must listen to society and its problems, to determine which skills are needed to face these challenges.

He was asked if he found that professionals working within FSWS tend to stay in their specialised fields, or if there is a high turnover and internal reshuffling due to burnout or resource gaps.

Grixti was also asked about consequences of this on the consistency of care.

"People are very dedicated, but tend to really want to stick to their preferred field, and that has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is the experience and knowledge these professionals acquire, tending to identify only with their service, that which is also the negative, when they are so dedicated it becomes their life," Grixti.

He said that over time, they have to change their field. Grixti said that his long-term wish is to build up enough human resources so that after around five or six years in a unit, it would be time for a change for the professional.

"People who have been around have had success stories and have gone all the way to the top. Most of the directors began in child protection, then they moved to other services, and eventually rose to their positions," Grixti said.

He said that there are services which truly bring the best out of a professional and can help them progress in their careers.

"Beyond that, we need people to realise they may not do be doing what they are doing all their lives. I come from education, and there are many good teachers out there, but there are some who started teaching Year 1 and 2 fresh out of University and are still in that position 40 years later. That is not good for anybody," Grixti said.

Asked if many professionals end up leaving the FSWS altogether, Grixti said that there are those people who leave annually.

However, he said that around 30% leave the FSWS but go to an NGO or another social entity within government.

He said that about a third leave the profession completely, and some emigrated.  Asked if there are many professionals who end up leaving the public sector to work privately, Grixti said that if a social worker becomes a therapist, that can happen, but in Malta there are no privatised social work entities.

Between 2019 to 2022, 35% of social workers specifically stopped working in the sector, whilst 17% worked as social workers in the public sector. 15% worked as social workers in NGOs in the social sector. 13% migrated, while 10% had retired, figures presented by Grixti showed.

Grixti's role as Head of FSWS is a high-profile and demanding one, and over the years there have been both achievements and criticisms.

In 2020, the Maltese Association of Social workers had released a statement that social workers said they found it difficult to work with Grixti, due to a comment he had made about refugees.

Asked how he took those criticisms on board, and if there were any changes from that experience, Grixti simply said that he got on with the job He said he has a meeting scheduled with the association next July, and the matter is in the past, clarifying that what he said was also taken out of context and twisted.

The first part of the interview was carried yesterday