Social work is essential for the aid and protection of vulnerable people within society. Social workers support and empower people to make positive changes within their own lives. However, child protection social work carries a lot of stress and pressure. Child and family social workers are facing a huge problem with staff retention. This issue has been researched for over 30 years, yet the problem continues to increase. An answer to the staff retention problem has yet to be found. Emotional resilience within social work will allow social workers to manage with stresses within the job role and bounce back from times where this has felt unmanageable. Therefore, more emotional resilient social workers may be able to stay within the profession despite the stress and pressure. This paper uses a literature review to explore secondary research for four identified themes. The themes will be analysed to understand their role for the retention of child and family social workers. These themes include; the role of supervision on staff retention, the impact of workload on social work staff retention, emotional resilience as an answer to staff retention and education’s role to prepare social work students for the profession. The impact of agency social workers will be explored and the gaps within research will be highlighted. Although this is a huge problem for social workers, it also effects service users. With social workers leaving work prematurely, it can prevent relationship-based practice. Social workers who are under a lot of pressure and stress may not produce effective work and support for service users. The social work staff retention problem must improve for the wellbeing of social work staff and to enhance practice and results for service users within the UK.