Reporting year 2021

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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  • Characteristics of social workers (including totals)

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Characteristics of children and family social workers in post at 30 September by FTE and headcount. Data is provided for overall totals, age, gender, ethnicity (headcount only), time in service and organisation role.

    Number of rows
    38,259
    Indicators
    • % of children and family social workers at 30 September
    • Number of children and family social workers at 30 September
    Filters
    • Characteristic type
    • Count type
    Time period
    2017 to 2021
    Data set information page for Characteristics of social workers (including totals)
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  • Characteristics of starters and leavers (including totals)

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Characteristics of children and family social workers starting and leaving a post at a local authority during the year ending 30 September by FTE and headcount. Data is provided for overall totals, age, gender and time in service (leavers only).

    Number of rows
    22,793
    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 2021
    Data set information page for Characteristics of starters and leavers (including totals)
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  • Caseloads, absence, vacancies, turnover and agency workers

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Figures on social workers (FTE and headcount), leavers and turnover (FTE and headcount), absence (FTE), agency workers (FTE and headcount), vacancies (FTE) and caseload (FTE).

    Number of rows
    815
    Indicators
    • Agency cover rate (FTE)
    • Agency worker rate (FTE)
    • Agency worker rate (Headcount)
    Time period
    2017 to 2021
    Data set information page for Caseloads, absence, vacancies, turnover and agency workers
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  • Organisation role by ethnicity

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Children and family social worker role by ethnicity.

    Number of rows
    3,431
    Indicators
    • Number of children and family social workers whose ethnicity was Asian (Headcount)
    • Number of children and family social workers whose ethnicity was Black (Headcount)
    • Number of children and family social workers whose ethnicity was Mixed (Headcount)
    Filters
    • Organisation role
    Time period
    2019 to 2021
    Data set information page for Organisation role by ethnicity
    Create table using Organisation role by ethnicity
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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 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 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 2021.

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.

Northamptonshire local authority was replaced with two new unitary authorities, North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire, in April 2021. Data for both unitary authorities was submitted by North Northamptonshire in the 2021 census and is reported against North Northamptonshire in this statistics publication. North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire should be able to make separate census returns in 2022.

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.

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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