Reporting year 2022

Children's social work workforce

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

Not the latest releaseView latest release: Reporting year 2025All releases in this series
Download all data (ZIP)Create your own tables
Release type
Published

On this page

Skip in page navigation

Explore data used in this release

This page provides a range of routes to access data from within this statistical release to suit different users.

Download all data (ZIP)

This includes all data sets, guidance files and any supporting files

More options

  • Featured tables

    Featured tables are pre-prepared tables created from a statistical release's data sets. They provide statistics that are regularly requested by users and can be adapted to switch between different categories.

  • Data sets: download or create tables

    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.

  • Data guidance

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

  • Data catalogue

    Alternatively use our data catalogue to search and filter for specific data sets from this release or our entire library, providing full data summaries, data previews and access to API data sets.

Data sets: download or create tables

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.

5 data sets available for download

Download all (ZIP)

  • Headline measures

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Data on children and family social workers in post (FTE and headcount), agency workers (FTE and headcount), leavers and turnover (FTE and headcount), vacancies (FTE), caseload (FTE) and sickness absence (FTE).

    Number of rows
    978
    Indicators
    • Agency cover rate (FTE)
    • Agency worker rate (FTE)
    • Agency worker rate (Headcount)
    Time period
    2017 to 2022
    Data set information page for Headline measures
    Create table using Headline measures

  • Workforce characteristics

    Local authority, National, Regional

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

    Number of rows
    45,966
    Indicators
    • Number of children and family social workers in post at 30 September
    • Percentage of children and family social workers in post at 30 September
    Filters
    • Characteristic type
    • Count type
    Time period
    2017 to 2022
    Data set information page for Workforce characteristics
    Create table using Workforce characteristics

  • Starters and leavers characteristics

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Characteristics of children and family social worker starters and leavers (FTE and headcount). Data for overall totals, age, gender and time in service  at local authority (leavers only).

    Number of rows
    27,384
    Indicators
    • Number of children and family social workers leaving during year
    • Number of children and family social workers starting during year
    • Percentage of children and family social workers leaving during year
    Filters
    • Characteristic type
    • Count type
    Time period
    2017 to 2022
    Data set information page for Starters and leavers characteristics
    Create table using Starters and leavers characteristics

  • Workforce role by ethnicity

    Local authority, National, Regional

    Children and family social workers by role and ethnicity.

    Number of rows
    4,578
    Indicators
    • Number of children and family social workers in post at 30 September with known ethnicity (Headcount)
    • Number of children and family social workers whose ethnicity was Asian (Headcount)
    • Number of children and family social workers whose ethnicity was Black (Headcount)
    Filters
    • Organisation role
    Time period
    2019 to 2022
    Data set information page for Workforce role by ethnicity
    Create table using Workforce role by ethnicity

  • National headline measures

    National

    Underlying data for headline boxes in statistical commentary.

    Number of rows
    1
    Indicators
    • Agency worker rate (FTE)
    • Agency workers (FTE)
    • Average caseload (per FTE)
    Time period
    2022
    Data set information page for National headline measures
    Create table using National headline measures
Back to top

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 underlying data files of the 2022 official statistics release ‘Children's social work workforce’.

This data is released under the terms of the Open Government Licence (opens in new tab) and is intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data (opens in new tab). 

The methodology document should be referenced alongside this data.

Coverage

This release provides statistics on children and family social workers and agency social workers employed in local authorities in England.

The information is based on data collected by the department from local authorities, in the annual Children’s social work workforce census (opens in new tab). 

The underlying data files include national, regional and local authority level information for the years 2017 to 2022.

File formats and conventions

The following symbols are used in the underlying data files as follows: 

     c     to protect confidentiality - secondary suppression may also be applied to figures to protect confidentiality

     z      data not applicable 

     x      data not available 

Where any number is shown as zero, the original figure submitted was zero.  

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.

Specific local authorities

Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames submit a joint census return each year 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. A joint return was submitted for the 2021 and 2022 censuses and their data is reported together against North Northamptonshire. 

Back to top

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)

Back to top