Number of social workers
There were 31,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) children and family social workers in post at 30 September 2022, a decrease of 2.7% or 900 social workers from a year earlier. The corresponding headcount also fell, by 2.9% to 33,700.
These falls are the first annual decreases since the series started in 2017, with both the FTE and headcount measures now below the level reported in 2020.
The latest results from the Children’s Services Omnibus 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 in 2022, since the training programme delivers a new cohort of qualified social workers in alternate years [1].
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.
[1] The Skills for Care ‘Social Work Education’ report, published in June 2022, shows that the latest Step Up to Social Work graduate cohort in March 2021 produced 658 newly qualified social workers.
Age and gender of social workers (FTE)
With the exception of those aged 60 and over, the number of children and family social workers fell across all age groups between 2021 and 2022. Those aged 20 to 29 (330 social workers) and 50 to 59 (320) accounted for 75% of the overall fall of 900 social workers.
Nearly 9 in 10, or 87%, of children and family social workers were female. This is higher than the 75% seen in the teaching profession [1] and the 45% seen in professional occupations [2].
Although males accounted for 13% of social workers, they accounted for 20% of the overall fall between 2021 and 2022 (a decrease of 200).
[1] State-funded schools in England. From 2021 DfE statistics on School workforce in England.
[2] Based on estimates from Nomis of the Annual Population Survey, October 2021 to September 2022. Major groups ‘managers, directors and senior officials’ and ‘professional occupations’ from the 2020 SOC (Standard Occupational Classification).
Time in service at local authority (FTE)
Time in service is a measure of the total time in years that a social worker has been employed continuously in any children and family social worker role at their current local authority, rather than only the time they have spent in their current children and family social worker role.
The overall fall of 900 child and family social workers between 2021 and 2022 was largely accounted for by a decrease in workers who had been in service for less than 5 years (down by 1,300). However, this was partially offset by rises in workers who had been in service for 5 years or more but less than 10 years and 20 years or more but less than 30 years, which increased by 500 and 100 respectively.
Social worker role (FTE)
A case holder is a children and family social worker that manages cases, but is not in a senior manager, middle manager, first line manager or senior practitioner role (however, cases can be hold by those not in case holder roles).
Between 2021 and 2022, the overall fall of 900 child and family social workers was mainly accounted for by a decrease in those in case holder roles (down by 800).
The number of first line managers and senior practitioners also fell over the period, whereas there was a slight increase in middle managers and senior managers.
In 2022, some 47% of children and family social workers were reported as being in a case holder role, down from 51% in 2017.
Ethnic origin (headcount)
Ethnicity was known for 81% of child and family social workers in 2022. Of those, 24% were from ethnic minority backgrounds (excluding White minorities), up from 23% last year and 20% in 2017. These changes are mainly due to an increase in social workers from Black ethnic groups since 2017.
At 24%, the proportion of social workers from ethnic minority backgrounds (excluding White minorities), is greater than the 10% seen in the teaching profession [1] and the 16% seen in professional occupations [2]. However, it is lower than the 30% seen in the children in need [3] population.
[1] State-funded schools in England. From 2021 DfE statistics on School workforce in England.
[2] Based on estimates from Nomis of the Annual Population Survey, October 2021 to September 2022. Major groups ‘managers, directors and senior officials’ and ‘professional occupations’ from the 2020 SOC (Standard Occupational Classification).
[3] From 2022 statistics on Characteristics of children in need. The majority of children in need have a child and family social worker allocated to their episode of need.