What are Managers’ Experiences of Managing Staff Teams with Experiences of Racism in Homeless Services?

Sheardown, Jennifer and Hodge, Suzanne and Duxbury, Anna and Abbas, Madeline-Sophie (2025) What are Managers’ Experiences of Managing Staff Teams with Experiences of Racism in Homeless Services? PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis explores how managers of homeless services manage experiences of racism among their staff teams. It comprises of four parts: a literature review, research paper, critical appraisal and ethics section. The literature review is a thematic synthesis of racialised social worker’s experiences of racism in the social work sector. Data from 12 papers were synthesised using a thematic synthesis approach, producing five themes: 1. Discriminatory treatment, 2. Strain on resources, 3. Complexities of identity and role, 4. Oppressive whiteness, and 5. Strengths, values and resistance. Findings indicate racialised social workers experience oppressive treatment, leading to a drain on resources and difficulties navigating their position in the profession. White peers enact defensive mechanisms creating barriers to change, and structural racism impedes appropriate anti-racist teaching and practice. Recommendations include increased support for racialised social workers, exploration of institutional whiteness, and greater accountability within leadership to instigate change. The empirical paper explores how managers manage experiences of racism in their staff teams in homeless services. Nine managers of homeless services participated in individual, semistructured interviews. They were analysed using thematic analysis and generated three themes and two subthemes: 1. Structural barriers, 1.1. Vague frameworks, 1.2. Whiteness in services, 2. (Mis)understandings of racism, and 3. White ignorance. Findings indicate guidelines to manage racism are vague and understanding of the complexities of racism are not captured within leadership. Recommendations include developing and embedding antidiscrimination policies and practices and recognition within homeless services of how whiteness manifests. The critical appraisal explores the broader context of psychology and racism in Britain, my whiteness, terminology, and analysis of the research process.