Children's social work workforce
Annual statistics on child and family social workers, including agency social workers, employed in local authorities in England.
- Published
Background information
This release provides information about children and family social workers and agency social workers employed in local authorities.
The information is based on data collected in an annual census (opens in new tab) of local authorities in England. The latest collection covers the year from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2022.
Children and family social workers are social workers registered with Social Work England (SWE) working in a local authority in a children’s services department or, if working in an authority where the services are joined up, a social worker that works primarily on children and families work. Figures are shown on both a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis.
The timeseries in this release features data from 2017 onwards, which is when information on individual social workers was first collected by the Department for Education (DfE). Refer to the ‘Background and coverage’ section of the methodology page for more information.
A time series of national, regional and local authority breakdowns of the data is available in the ‘Explore Data and Files’ section.
Headline facts and figures
In 2022, the number of children and family social workers fell for the first time since the series started in 2017. This has likely contributed to increases in the number of vacancies (a series high), agency worker employment (a series high) and average caseload. The sickness absence rate also increased in 2022 (another series high).
The latest results from the Children’s Services Omnibus (opens in new tab) showed that, of the third of local authorities who responded, a majority cited recruitment and retention to be a key challenge. Additionally, there were no Step Up to Social Work graduates (opens in new tab) in 2022, since the training programme delivers a new cohort of qualified social workers in alternate years.
The reported difficulties in recruitment and retention and the lack of newly qualified Step Up graduates helps to explain the fall in the number of children and family social workers in 2022.
Agency workers
Agency workers (FTE)
Agency workers are child and family social workers not directly paid by the local authority. These may be social workers who are paid by an agency rather than the local authority or who are self-employed.
The FTE agency worker rate is calculated as the number of FTE agency staff working as (children and family) 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 6,800 agency social workers in post at 30 September 2022, up by 13% from 6,000 in 2021. This is the highest number and the largest annual increase since the series started in 2017.
This rise meant the agency worker rate increased from 16% in 2021 to 18% in 2022, which was also the highest rate and the largest annual increase in the series.
Agency workers covering vacancies (FTE)
Four out of every five or 80% of agency social workers were covering vacancies, compared to 76% last year and 74% in 2017.
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.
Caseload
Cases
A case is defined as any person allocated to a named social worker, where the work involves child and family social work. Cases may be held by social workers regardless of their role in the organisation and not just those specifically in a ‘case holder’ role.
Average caseload calculation
The average caseload is calculated as the total number of cases held by FTE social workers (including agency workers) in post at 30 September divided by the number of FTE social workers (including agency workers) in post at 30 September that hold one or more cases.
There were 335,600 cases held by 20,200 FTE children and family social workers and agency workers at 30 September 2022, which is equivalent to an average caseload of 16.6. This was higher than the average caseload of 16.3 reported in 2021, but below the average of 16.9 reported in 2019. The increase between 2021 and 2022 was accounted for by a fall in the number of case holders, as the number of cases held remained stable.
Vacancies
Vacancies
Vacancies are defined as any FTE (child and family social worker) 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 calculated as the number of FTE vacancies at 30 September divided by the sum of the number of FTE vacancies at 30 September and the number of FTE social workers at 30 September.
There were 7,900 child and family social worker vacancies at 30 September 2022, an increase of 21% or 1,400 vacancies from a year earlier. This represents both the highest number and the largest annual increase since the series started in 2017.
The corresponding vacancy rate increased to 20%, or one in every five social work positions, up from 17% in 2021 and the highest rate reported in the series.
Overall, 69% of vacancies were covered by agency workers in 2022, down slightly from 70% last year. This is despite the proportion of agency workers being used to cover vacancies being the highest in the series in 2022 (as shown in the agency worker section).
Sickness absence
Calculation of the sickness absence rate
The sickness absence rate is calculated as the number of days missed due to sickness absence during the year divided by the number of FTE social workers at 30 September multiplied by 253 days (the number of working days in a non-leap year, taking account of bank holidays).
The sickness absence rate for children and family social workers in the year ending 30 September 2022 was 3.5%, up from 3.1% in 2021. This is the highest rate and the largest annual increase since the series started in 2017.
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.ukContact 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
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