Reporting year 2021

Children's social work workforce: attrition, caseload, and agency workforce

Analysis on children's social workers covering those leaving local authority children's social care, agency social workers, and social worker caseload.

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11 data sets available for download

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  • Attrition by age

    National

    Data on the breakdown of attrition based on the age of the social worker on 30 September 2021.

    Number of rows
    14
    Indicators
    • Attrition into agency FTE
    • Attrition rate into agency
    • Full attrition FTE out of CSC
    Filters
    • Age group
    Time period
    2020 to 2021
    Data set information page for Attrition by age
    Create table using Attrition by age

  • Agency rates

    Local authority, National

    Agency rate data, at local authority and National level.

    Number of rows
    154
    Indicators
    • Agency Rate
    • Agency Rate Group
    • Agency-employed Social Worker FTE
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Agency rates
    Create table using Agency rates

  • Additional attrition estimates

    National

    Additional attrition estimates are calculated with sub-groups of the main data, estimating attrition with leavers from the first six months of the collection period (October ‘20 and March ’21), and the leavers from October '20 only.

    Number of rows
    4
    Indicators
    • Annual attrition FTE estimate
    • Annual attrition rate
    • Annual leavers FTE estimate
    Filters
    • Timeframe
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Additional attrition estimates
    Create table using Additional attrition estimates

  • Attrition by time in LA

    National

    Data on the breakdown of attrition by time in local authority (LA) are presented. Time in local authority is a measure for how long a social worker has worked in their current local authority. Where time in LA is provided for leaver and attrition groups, this is how long the social worker had worked in their LA before leaving the local authority. time in local authority is not a measure of the duration an individual has been registered as a social worker.

    Number of rows
    15
    Indicators
    • Full Attrition FTE
    • Full Attrition Proportion
    • LA Workforce FTE
    Filters
    • Years in LA
    Time period
    2020 to 2021
    Data set information page for Attrition by time in LA
    Create table using Attrition by time in LA

  • Caseload breakdown

    National

    Breakdown and distribution of how many cases were held by social workers on 30 September 2021.

    Number of rows
    51
    Indicators
    • Cumulative FTE
    • Cumulative FTE Proportion
    • Total FTE
    Filters
    • Cases Held
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Caseload breakdown
    Create table using Caseload breakdown

  • Caseload by organisation role

    National

    Breakdown of how many cases were held by social workers at each different organisation role type, provided for agency-employed social workers and LA-employed social workers.

    Number of rows
    24
    Indicators
    • Mean cases held
    • Proportion holding cases
    • Total FTE (including non-case holders)
    Filters
    • Organisation role
    • Worker type
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Caseload by organisation role
    Create table using Caseload by organisation role

  • Caseload groups

    National

    Grouped data on the number of cases held by social workers.

    Number of rows
    8
    Indicators
    • Proportion of all Case Holders
    • Total FTE
    Filters
    • Number of Cases Held (Group)
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Caseload groups
    Create table using Caseload groups

  • Time between roles - all movers

    National

    Breakdown of the number of days between social workers leaving one role and starting their next role, for Social Workers who left their role in the year ending 30 September 2021.

    Number of rows
    142
    Indicators
    • Cumulative FTE
    • Cumulative proportion of total FTE
    • FTE
    Filters
    • Days between roles
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Time between roles - all movers
    Create table using Time between roles - all movers

  • Attrition overall

    National

    Breakdowns of the various levels of attrition, with comparisons to the LA-employed social work workforce on 30 September 2021.

    Number of rows
    11
    Indicators
    • Proportion of Attrition
    • Proportion of LA Workforce
    • Proportion of Leavers
    Filters
    • Variable Name
    Time period
    2020 to 2021
    Data set information page for Attrition overall
    Create table using Attrition overall

  • Time between roles - October movers

    National

    Breakdown of the number of days between social workers leaving one role and starting their next role, for social workers who left their role in October 2020.

    Number of rows
    33
    Indicators
    • Cumulative FTE
    • Cumulative proportion of total FTE
    • FTE
    Filters
    • Days between roles
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Time between roles - October movers
    Create table using Time between roles - October movers

  • Organisation role types

    National

    Data on the proportions and FTE of the organisation role types of agency-employed children's social workers.

    Number of rows
    18
    Indicators
    • Proportion of FTE (%)
    • Proportion of known FTE (%)
    • Sum of FTE
    Filters
    • Organisation Role
    • Worker Type
    Time period
    2021
    Data set information page for Organisation role types
    Create table using Organisation role types
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Data guidance

Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.

Description

This document covers analysis and data from the attrition, caseload, and agency workforce publication 2021. 

This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License and is intended to meet at least three stars for Open Data.

The methodology should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, coverage and quality, as well as explaining the methods used to produce the data

Coverage

The Children’s social work workforce census covers all local authorities in England and all children and family social workers employed by those local authorities.

Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames submit a joint return each year, and the numbers are reported against Kingston upon Thames. This arrangement has no impact on regional and national totals.

Northamptonshire local authority was replaced with two new unitary authorities, North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire, in April 2021. Data for both unitary authorities is reported against North Northamptonshire in this publication. 

File formats and conventions

Data and metadata are provided in csv format

Where any number is shown as zero (0), the original figure submitted was zero.
x  indicates that data is not available. This may be because a local authority was unable to return a particular data item in the census, or data was not available because of concerns regarding quality.
z indicates data is not applicable.

Rounding

Figures for full-time equivalents (FTEs), rates and percentages have been rounded to one decimal place.

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Children's social work workforce: attrition, caseload, and agency workforce statistics and data:

Social work workforce analysis

Email: CSCWorkforce.ANALYSIS@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Daniel Knowles
Telephone: 0

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

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If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Phone: 0370 000 2288

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Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm (closed on bank holidays)

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