Reporting year 2020

Children's social work workforce

Annual statistics on child and family social workers, including agency social workers, employed in local authorities in England.

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    Data sets present comprehensive open data from which users can create their own tables using the EES table tool or download a zipped CSV file.

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

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3 data sets available for download

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  • Starters and leavers characteristics

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Age, gender and time in service (leavers only) of children and family social workers starters and leavers in the year ending 30 September. Characteristics are provided on a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis.

    Number of rows
    18,201
    Indicators
    • % of children and family social workers leaving during year
    • % of children and family social workers starting during year
    • Number of children and family social workers leaving during year
    Filters
    • Characteristic type
    • Count type
    Time period
    2017 to 2020
    Data set information page for Starters and leavers characteristics
    Create table using Starters and leavers characteristics

  • FTE and headcount characteristics

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Age, gender, role, time in service and ethnicity (headcount only) of children and family social workers in post at 30 September. Characteristics are provided on a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis.

    Number of rows
    30,551
    Indicators
    • % of children and family social workers at 30 Sept
    • Number of children and family social workers at 30 Sept
    Filters
    • Characteristic type
    • Count type
    Time period
    2017 to 2020
    Data set information page for FTE and headcount characteristics
    Create table using FTE and headcount characteristics

  • FTE and headcount rates

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Absence, vacancy, turnover and agency worker rates, and caseload of children and family social workers. These measures are reported on a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis where applicable.

    Number of rows
    651
    Indicators
    • Absence rate throughout year (FTE)
    • Agency cover rate (FTE)
    • Agency cover rate (Headcount)
    Time period
    2017 to 2020
    Data set information page for FTE and headcount rates
    Create table using FTE and headcount rates
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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 describes the data included in the children’s social work workforce official statistics underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License (opens in new tab) and is intended to meet at least three stars for Open Data (opens in new tab).

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 information in this statistical release is based on data collected in the annual statutory census collection on the children’s social work workforce. The census collects information from all local authorities in England on the children and family social workers and agency workers they employ within their children’s services department. Underlying data is provided for the reporting years 2017 to 2020.

Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames submit a joint return through Achieving for Children and their data is reported together against Kingston upon Thames.

File formats and conventions

Confidentiality

  • Where necessary we have replaced figures with the letter ‘c’ to preserve confidentiality. Secondary suppression may also be applied to preserve confidentiality. 
  • Where any number is shown as zero (0), the original figure submitted was zero.
  • :  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.

The symbols used are in accordance with the latest Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidance. (opens in new tab)

Rounding

  • Figures for full-time equivalents (FTEs), rates and percentages have been rounded to one decimal place.
  • Headcounts are reported to the nearest whole number.
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Contact us

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

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

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

Phone: 0370 000 2288

Opening times

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

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