Reporting year 2019

Children's social work workforce

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• Published: 30 September 2020
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Information about children's social workers employed in local authorities and agency social workers. The latest collection covers the year from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2019.

The information is based on data collected in an annual census from local authorities in England. Children and family social workers are social workers registered with the Health and Care Professional Council (HCPC) working in a local authority children’s services department, or, if working in an authority where the services are joined up, working exclusively with children and families.

This year the children and family social worker statistics are published as official statistics, whereas in previous years they have been classified as experimental statistics. More information on official statistics is available from the UK Statistics Authority.

Please note, this is a duplication of the publication released in February 2020 and does not contain new data. The data for the 2019-20 collection will be published on Explore Education Statistics only. 

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Headline facts and figures - 2019

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Number of children and family social workers

Number of social workers in post at 30 September 2019

There were 30,700 full-time equivalent (FTE) children and family social workers in post at 30 September 2019, an increase of 4.2% compared to the same point in 2018. The corresponding headcount was 32,900, an increase of 3.8% from last year. These increases continue the upward trend seen in recent years.

Age and gender of social workers

In 2019, 55% of FTE children and family social workers were between 30 and 49 years of age, with 16% aged 20 to 29 and a 6% aged 60 years or over. The overwhelming majority of FTE social workers were female (86%). 

Time in service at local authority

At 30 September 2019, 61% of FTE children and family social workers had been in service at their current local authority for less than 5 years, up from 59% in 2018. In contrast, there were slight decreases in the proportion of social workers that had been in service for longer periods of time.

Social worker role

At 30 September 2019, just over half (52%) of FTE children and family social workers were reported as being in a case holder role, which was up slightly from 51% at the same point in 2018.

The percentage of social workers that were qualified without cases fell to 13.1%, which was down from 13.8% at the same point last year and 15.0% in 2017.

Ethnic origin

Ethnicity was known for 82% of social workers (by headcount) in 2019, compared to 83% in 2018. Of those social workers whose ethnicity was known, 78% were white, 12% black, 6% Asian and 4% mixed. There was a slight decrease in the percentage of the work force that was white and a slight increase in the percentage that was black compared to last year. Otherwise, the ethnic distribution of social workers was very similar to the previous two years.

Caseload

Number of cases and average caseload

Cases

A case is defined as any person allocated to a named social worker, where the work involves child and family social work.

This may include:

• an individual child allocated to a social worker (for example a family of three siblings would be three individual cases) including those on a child protection plan, children in need, fostering and adoption cases and care leavers;

• a carer or carers allocated to a social worker for the purposes of fostering or adoption

Cases may be held by social workers regardless of their role in the organisation and not just those specifically in a ‘caseholder’ role.

Average caseload calculation

The caseload is derived as the total number of cases held by FTE social workers in post at the 30 September divided by the number of FTE social workers at 30 September that hold one or more cases. 

There were 337,400 cases held by 20,000 FTE social workers and agency workers at 30 September 2019. This was equivalent to an average caseload of 16.9, which is lower than the averages of 17.4 and 17.8 reported in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

A majority of local authorities (60%) reported a decrease in caseload compared to 2018. However, average caseload varied significantly between local authorities, with Kensington and Chelsea (12.1) reporting the lowest caseload and North East Lincolnshire (32.7) the highest. Some of this variation may be explained by different local practices in case management.

The number of cases held is typically smaller than the number of children in need at 31 March. This may be explained by a number of factors, including different count dates for the data collections and variance in the interpretation of the department’s guidance. Furthermore, not all disabled children are allocated to a social worker.

The collection of individual level data for the past three years enables us to calculate an average caseload measure. However, it should be noted that local authorities have reported some difficulties in linking cases to the social worker holding those cases. 

The above issues should be taken into consideration when interpreting caseload figures.

Agency workers

Calculation of the FTE agency worker rate

The FTE agency worker rate is derived as the number FTE agency staff working as social workers at 30 September divided by the sum of the number of FTE agency staff working as social workers at 30 September and the number of FTE social workers. 

There were 5,800 FTE agency children and family social workers at 30 September 2019, up by 7% from the same point in 2018. The corresponding headcount was 6,100, an increase of 10%.

The FTE agency worker rate at 30 September 2019 was up slightly to 16%, from 15% in 2018. The percentage of these FTE agency social workers that were covering vacancies fell slightly to 77%, compared to 78% last year. This rate varied considerably between local authorities. Some local authorities reported that less than 10% of their agency workers were covering vacancies, while others reported all of their agency workers were covering vacancies. 

In situations where agency workers are not covering vacancies they may be employed by a local authority to manage seasonal peaks, or deal with acute backlogs, as an alternative to employing social workers on a permanent basis. For this reason, high agency worker rates do not necessarily imply a local authority has recruitment and retention issues.

Vacancies

Vacancies

For the purpose of this collection vacancies are defined as any FTE vacancy within a local authority’s organisational structure, including vacancies that are not being actively recruited for, and those covered by agency workers. 

Calculation of the vacancy rate 

The vacancy rate is derived as the number of vacancies at 30 September divided by the sum of the number of vacancies at 30 September and the number of social workers at 30 September. 

There were 6,000 children and family social worker FTE vacancies at 30 September 2019, up from 5,800 compared to the same point in 2018. Despite this increase, the overall vacancy rate was relatively unchanged at 16.4%. As in previous years, there was considerable variation in vacancy rate between the regions, with the North East of England (8%) having the lowest vacancy rate and London (24%) the highest.

Overall, 73% of children and family social worker vacancies were covered by agency workers in 2019, up slightly from 72% in 2018.

Absence

Calculation of the absence rate

The absence rate is derived as the number of days missed due to sickness absence during the year divided by the product of the number of FTE social workers at 30 September and 235, where 253 is the number of working days in a year, taking account of bank holidays. 

This measure covers all absences, including long-term sickness.

The absence rate in the year ending 30 September was 3.1%, relatively unchanged from last year. This rate varied regionally, with London having the lowest absence rate of 2.0% and Yorkshire and the Humber the highest at 4.2%. 

Starters and Leavers to the local authority

Number of starters and leavers to the local authority

As in previous years, there were more children and family social worker starters than leavers, with the gap between the two widening this year.

There were 5,900 FTE social worker starters in the year ending 30 September 2019, an increase of 13.4% compared to 2018. The corresponding headcount of starters was 6,500, an increase of 13.2%. 

Starters

Starters are social workers who joined a vacant social worker post at a local authority in the year ending 30 September. This includes social workers who have previously worked in the same local authority, but in a non-child and family social worker role. 

A move or promotion from one child and family social work position to another within the same local authority is not counted as a starter. Similarly, social workers returning from maternity or sick leave are not counted as starters.                

The number of FTE leavers during the year also increased, but at a slower rate and was up by 3.6% from last year to 4,700. The corresponding headcount of leavers showed a similar increase and was up by 2.6% to 5,300. 

Leavers

Leavers are social workers who left a social worker post at a local authority in the year ending 30 September. This includes social workers who are staying at a local authority, but moving to a non-child and family role, for example moving to adult social care.

Leavers also include social workers who have begun a career break, those seconded out of an organisation or those leaving the profession altogether. They do not include social workers who have started maternity or sick leave.

Despite this increase in leavers, the FTE turnover rate remained relatively unchanged at 15.1%. The corresponding headcount turnover rate was 16.1% and again was relatively unchanged compared to 2018.

Turnover rate

The turnover rate is derived as the number of FTE social workers leaving a social work role in the year divided by the number of FTE social workers in post at the 30 September. 

Age of starters and leavers

As might be expected, a greater proportion of FTE starters (29%) were aged 20 to 29 years compared to leavers (15%), whereas a greater proportion of FTE leavers (31%) were aged 50 or over compared to starters (17%). For 30 to 49 year olds, a similar percentage were recorded as starters and leavers.

Time in service of leavers

During the year ending 30 September 2019, 68% of FTE children and family social worker leavers had been in service in their local authority for less than 5 years, which was the same as 2018.

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Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

• Children's social work workforce

Official statistics

These are Official Statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:

• managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
• meet identified user needs
• produced according to sound methods
• well explained and readily accessible

Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

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

Children’s Services Statistics Team

Email: csww.stats@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Andy Brook

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