Methodology

Children's social work workforce

• Published: 10 March 2025

Background and coverage

The information in this statistical release is based on data collected by the Department for Education in the annual statutory census collection on the children’s social work workforce (CSWW). The census collects information from local authorities in England on the social workers and agency workers they employ within their children’s services departments.

The guide to submitting data (opens in a new tab) provides information on how local authorities should collect and submit data to complete the CSWW census.

Child and family social workers are social workers registered with Social Work England (SWE) (opens in a new tab) working on children and families social work. A fuller description is given in the definitions section below.

Since 2013, the CSWW census has collected data for each full year ending 30 September. Data was collected at aggregate (local authority) level from 2013 to 2016. From 2017 onwards data has been collected on individual social workers, with the latest collection covering the year from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024.

Prior to 2013, the primary source for information on the child and family social work workforce was the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC). This was a voluntary return. The last report on this data published by the department covered the workforce at December 2012 and used data returned by 68 out of the 152 local authorities. There has been a 100% response rate for each of the statutory collections since 2013.

The information in this release is based only on data collected since 2017; the first year data was collected on individual social workers. Data for earlier years is published in the children’s social work workforce statistics collection (opens in a new tab).

These statistics have been published as official statistics since the 2019 release, whereas previously they were classified as experimental statistics (now referred to as ‘Official Statistics in Development’). More information on the Code of Practice for Statistics (opens in a new tab) is available from the UK Statistics Authority.

Official statistics in development (opens in a new tab) are official statistics that are undergoing development (previously called experimental statistics). Data on attrition, at national level only and with no further breakdowns, is contained in this statistics release for the second time. The figures for years prior to 2024 were revised slightly in this year’s release due to improved methodology. Previously, figures on attrition were published in the 2021 ad-hoc Department for Education statistics release ‘Children’s social work workforce: attrition, caseload and agency workforce’.

Users should read this methodology page and the footnotes for the underlying data to understand the practical applications and limitations of the data. In particular, comparisons with earlier years should be made with a degree of caution, as any changes may in part be as a result of improvements in data quality. Refer to the ‘Data Quality and Uses’ section for more information on data quality issues.

Reporting arrangements for specific local authorities

Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames

Kingston upon Thames and Richmond upon Thames submit a joint census for each year through Achieving for Children, a social enterprise company created by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to provide their children’s services. As a result of this arrangement their data cannot be broken down to an individual local authority level and is instead reported together against ‘Kingston upon Thames / Richmond upon Thames’. This arrangement has no impact on the regional and national totals included in this publication.

North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire

In April 2021 Northamptonshire local authority was replaced with two new unitary authorities, North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. Since 2021 they have submitted a joint census return and data for both unitary authorities is reported is reported against ‘North Northamptonshire / West Northamptonshire’ in this statistics publication.

Regional adoption agencies

A regional adoption agency (RAA) is a shared adoption service for several local authorities, working with Voluntary Adoption Agencies and other partners to deliver a system wide approach. RAAs were introduced with the aim that a larger service would be more efficient and effective than a fragmented system of smaller services in each local authority. For a list of current RAAs, see Adoption UK (opens in a new tab). Where the RAA is hosted by a local authority and staff have been transferred, the social workers working within the RAA are recorded against the host local authority in the children’s social work workforce data census.

Data collection and cleaning

Data collection

Local authorities are required by the Department for Education (the department) to collect and return individual level data on child and family social workers. Information on the data items collected in the census, including those collected on a voluntary basis, is provided in the guide to submitting data (opens in a new tab).

Data is collected at an individual social worker level and figures in this statistics publication are shown on both a headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE) basis. The only exceptions to this method of collecting data are the number of vacancies (FTE) and the number of FTE agency workers covering vacancies that are collected at an aggregate (local authority) level.

Data cleaning

Local authorities submit their data to the department through the COLLECT (collections online for learning, education, children and teachers) data collection system. This data is stored securely by the department and access to it is restricted to a small number of officials prior to publication.

COLLECT has built-in validation rules (opens in a new tab) which identify invalid data (i.e. errors) or where the data quality is questionable but could be accurate in certain circumstances (i.e. queries). This allows local authorities to identify errors and discrepancies and clean the data before they submit it to DfE.

Local authorities must check and, where necessary, correct errors and discrepancies within their data. All local authorities are asked to provide comments against any validation queries in their data and to confirm that the data submitted was accurate.

The validation rules are reviewed each year and where necessary, improvements made. For example, in 2024, queries relating to year-on-year checks (which check for large changes between the latest year’s data and data from the previous year) were expanded to cover all of the core variables collected.

COLLECT features various reports (opens in a new tab) which local authorities can run to review their data and resolve any potential issues as follows:

• A summary of all errors and queries generated by their data
• A summary of the notes they have added to the census return
• A data summary report of key variables at an aggregate level
• A summary of any inconsistencies around the reporting of social workers across years
• A summary of any duplicate social workers reported across local authorities

In 2024, the data summary report was expanded to include all headline variables and to incorporate data from the previous year and the percentage change between years. The aim was to make it easier for local authorities to review their data and identify any anomalies that might require attention. The data summary report is also a useful report to assist local authorities with their sign-off processes, as the report can be shared with senior managers as an overview of the data returned, and the improvements made also add further value with respect to this.

Improved data cleaning methods were applied to Social Worker registration numbers to improve the accuracy of the attrition estimates. As a result, figures for years prior to 2024 were revised slightly in this year’s release.

Definitions

Child and family social workers

Child 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. Child and family social workers are employed and paid directly by the local authority.

Agency workers

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.

Headcount

Headcount is a count of all individual child and family social workers regardless of their working pattern. Where a social worker holds more than one post within a local authority, only one post is counted (the more senior role where applicable) to avoid duplication.

For headcount at 30 September of the reporting year, duplicates are removed based on local authority, SWE identifier, date of birth, sex and ethnicity.

For starters and leavers during the year duplicates are removed based on local authority, SWE identifier, date of birth, sex, ethnicity and starting or leaving date.

Duplicate records for agency workers are not removed, with each record regarded as a separate individual.

Full-time equivalent

FTEs are calculated by aggregating the total number of hours that child and family social workers are contracted to work and dividing by the standard hours for their grade. As a result, part-time workers are converted into an equivalent number of full-time workers to enable more meaningful comparisons.  Duplicates are not removed from full-time equivalent (FTE) figures.

Some social workers have an FTE recorded as zero and so these are not accounted for in the FTE figures; this was 0.6% of records for child and family social workers in post at 30 September 2024, compared to 0.5% in 2023 and 1.0% in 2017.

Starters

Starters are social workers who joined a vacant child and family social worker post at a local authority in the year ending 30 September. 

The social worker starters figures include those joining from:

• the same local authority, but from a non-child and family social work position.
• a child and family social work position in another local authority in England.
• an agency child and family social work position.

The social worker starters figures exclude those:

• moving or being promoted from one child and family social work position to another within the same local authority.
• returning from maternity or sick leave.
• starting and leaving in the same reporting year.

Refer to the data quality section for details of data quality issues regarding this measure.

Leavers

Leavers are social workers who left a child and family social worker post at a local authority in the year ending 30 September. 

The social worker leavers figures include those:

• staying at the same local authority, but moving to a non-child and family social work position, for example moving to adult social care.
• moving to a child and family social work position in a different local authority in England.
• moving to an agency child and family social work position.
• beginning a career break.
• being seconded out of an organisation.
• leaving the profession altogether. 

The social worker leavers figures exclude those:

• moving or being promoted from one child and family social work position to another within the same local authority.
• starting maternity or sick leave.
• starting and leaving in the same reporting year.

Movers between local authorities 

Movers between local authorities refers to FTE child and family social worker leavers (as above) who have moved to a child and family social work position in a different local authority in England (and were identified as such on 30 September of the reporting year).

Agency attrition

Agency attrition refers to FTE child and family social worker leavers now working as an agency child and family social worker, either in the same or a different local authority in England (and were identified as such on 30 September of the reporting year).

Full attrition

Full attrition refers to FTE child and family social worker leavers who were not identified as a child and family social worker or agency child and family social worker within any local authority in England (on 30 September of the reporting year).

Cases

A case is defined as any person allocated to a named social worker, where the work involves child and family social work. This may include:

• an individual child allocated to a social worker (for example, a family of three siblings would be three individual cases) including those in early help, on a child protection plan, children in need, fostering and adoption cases and care leavers.
• a carer or carers (where they are classified as a single unit) allocated to a social worker for the purposes of fostering or adoption.

Cases may be held by social workers regardless of their role in the organisation and not just by those specifically in a ‘case holder’ role.

The number of cases held doesn’t account for the complexity of the cases held and this should be considered when interpreting the caseload figures.

Sickness absence

Sickness absence is the number of working days missed due to sickness absence during the year to 30 September, of those in post at 30 September. It is possible that this measure of sickness absence did not give a full picture of capacity shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic; for example, workers may have been working from home whilst shielding and unable to carry out face to face work.

The Vulnerable children and young people survey (opens in a new tab) collected information on social workers unavailable to work due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

Vacancies

The number of FTE child and family social worker vacancies within the local authority at 30 September. This is an aggregate (local authority-level) number provided by the local authority.

Age and sex

Age and sex breakdowns are provided on both an FTE and headcount basis for:

• Social workers in post at 30 September.
• Starters.
• Leavers.

For child and family social workers in post at 30 September (including those who started during the reporting year), age is derived from the date of birth recorded in the census and is their age at 30 September of the reporting year.

The age of leavers is the age of the child and family social worker when they left their post at the local authority.

Sex is taken from the ‘sex’ data item collected in the census.

Ethnicity

Ethnicity groups are based on the ethnic origin data item collected in the census and are provided on both an FTE and headcount basis. Of the ethnic groupings: 

• White comprises white British, white Irish, or any other white background.
• Mixed comprises white and black Caribbean, white and black African, white and Asian, or any other mixed background.
• Asian or Asian British comprises Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, or any other Asian background. 
• Black or Black British comprises black Caribbean, black African, or any other black background.

Time in service at local authority

Time in service is derived from ‘Role Start Date’, which is collected in the census. Time in service is a measure of the total time in years that a social worker has been employed continuously in any child and family social worker role at their current local authority, rather than only the time they have spent in their current child and family social worker role.

Time in service breakdowns are provided for both FTE and headcount for:

• Social workers in post at 30 September.
• Leavers.

Calculations of headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE) measures

Number of child and family social workers in post at 30 September

A count of the number of child and family social workers in post at 30 September of the reporting year by headcount and FTE. This measure includes all child and family social workers with a role start date on or before 30 September of the reporting year and either no end date or an end date after 30 September of the reporting year. It does not include agency workers, who are reported separately within this publication.

Number of child and family social worker starters during the year ending 30 September

A count of the number of child and family social workers with a start date during the year ending 30 September, by headcount and FTE. The calculation for FTE starter figures is based on FTE at 30 September of the reporting year.

Refer to the ‘Definitions’ section for more information on the definition of a starter.

Number of child and family social worker leavers during the year ending 30 September

A count of the number of child and family social workers with a leaving date during the year ending 30 September, by headcount and FTE. The FTE calculation is based on FTE at 30 September of the previous reporting year. For example, the FTE of leavers during the year ending 30 September 2024 is derived from their FTE at 30 September 2023.

Refer to the ‘Definitions’ section for more information on the definition of a leaver.

Number of child and family social worker movers during the year ending 30 September

A count of the number of FTE child and family social workers with a leaving date during the year to 30 September, who moved to a child and family social work position in a different local authority in England and were identified as such on 30 September of the reporting year. The calculation is based on FTE at 30 September of the previous reporting year. For example, the FTE during the year ending 30 September 2024 is derived from their FTE at 30 September 2023.

Number of child and family social workers leaving due to agency attrition during the year ending 30 September

A count of the number of FTE child and family social workers with a leaving date during the year to 30 September who were also employed as agency child and family social workers on 30 September of the reporting year. The calculation is based on FTE at 30 September of the previous reporting year. For example, the FTE of leavers due to agency attrition during the year ending 30 September 2024 is derived from their FTE at 30 September 2023.

Number of child and family social workers leaving due to full attrition during the year ending 30 September

A count of the number of FTE child and family social workers with a leaving date during the year to 30 September who were not identified as a child and family social worker or agency child and family social worker on 30 September of the reporting year within any local authority in England. The calculation is based on FTE at 30 September of the previous reporting year. For example, the FTE of leavers due to full attrition during the year ending 30 September 2024 is derived from their FTE at 30 September 2023.

Mover rate

The mover rate is calculated as the number of FTE child and family social worker leavers who moved to a child and family social work position in a different local authority in England and were identified as such on 30 September of the reporting year, divided by the number of FTE child and family social workers in post at 30 September.

Agency attrition rate

The agency attrition rate is calculated as the number of FTE child and family social worker leavers who were identified on 30 September of the reporting year as now working as an agency child and family social worker, either in the same or a different local authority in England, divided by the number of FTE child and family social workers in post at 30 September. 

Full attrition rate

The full attrition rate is calculated as the number of FTE child and family social worker leavers who were not identified as a child and family social worker or agency child and family social worker within any local authority in England on 30 September of the reporting year divided by the number of FTE child and family social workers in post at 30 September.

Time in service at local authority (also see definitions section above)

For child and family social workers in post at 30 September, time is service is calculated as the time in years from when the worker started in a child and family social worker role at the local authority to 30 September of the reporting year.

For child and family social worker leavers, time in service is calculated as the time in years from when the worker started in a child and family social worker role at the local authority to the date they left a child and family social worker role at the local authority.

Number of agency workers in post at 30 September

A count of the number of agency workers employed as child and family social workers at 30 September of the reporting year. Data is collected only on those agency workers in post at 30 September and does not include those who left during the year.

Number of agency workers covering vacancies at 30 September

This is an aggregate (local authority-level) number provided by the local authority, at both FTE and headcount level.

Average caseload per full-time equivalent

The average caseload per FTE child and family social worker is calculated as the total number of cases held by FTE child and family social workers, including agency workers, in post at 30 September, divided by the number of FTE child and family social workers, including agency workers, in post at 30 September who held one or more cases and had an FTE greater than zero.

Sickness absence rate

The sickness absence rate is calculated as the number of days child and family social workers missed due to sickness absence during the year to 30 September (of those in post at 30 September), divided by the number of FTE child and family social workers in post at 30 September multiplied by 253 days (the number of working days in a non-leap year, taking account of bank holidays). The rate for a leap year is based on 254 working days. Agency social workers are not included in the calculation of the sickness absence rate.

Agency worker rate

The agency worker rate is calculated as the number of agency child and family social workers in post at 30 September divided by the sum of the number of agency child and family social workers in post at 30 September and the number of child and family social workers in post at 30 September. This is calculated for both FTE and headcount.

Agency workers covering vacancies rate

The agency workers covering vacancies rate is calculated as the number of FTE child and family agency workers covering vacancies at 30 September divided by the number of FTE child and family agency workers at 30 September.

Turnover rate

The turnover rate is calculated as the number of child and family social worker leavers in the year to 30 September, divided by the number of child and family social workers in post at 30 September. This is calculated for both FTE and headcount.

The turnover rate is a measure of churn in the workforce (although it doesn’t capture the movement of social workers to different child and family social work positions within the same local authority).

Refer to the ‘Definitions’ section for more information on the definition of leavers.

Vacancy rate

The vacancy rate is calculated as the number of FTE child and family social worker vacancies at 30 September divided by the sum of the number of FTE child and family social worker vacancies at 30 September and the number of FTE child and family social workers in post at 30 September.

Vacancy agency cover rate

The vacancy agency cover rate is calculated as the number of FTE child and family agency workers in post at 30 September covering vacancies divided by the number of FTE child and family social worker vacancies at 30 September.

Data quality and uses

Data quality

The quality of the data has improved since the first collection of individual social worker data in 2017. This is mainly due to improved guidance and data validation, and the work undertaken by local authorities to provide accurate data in their census return.

Quality assurance checks have been carried out at each stage of the data collection and production cycle of the statistical publication. Anomalous data were highlighted and verified by contacting the local authority and late returns were pursued to ensure the overall response was as complete and accurate as possible.

The data collection included validation checks, as covered in the data collection and cleaning section. All local authorities were asked to provide comments on the return relating to any validation queries and, where applicable, asked to confirm that year on year changes were valid.

The majority of local authorities derive their child and family social work workforce data from their management information systems. This data requires checking and managerial sign off before it is submitted. However, the department does not collect information on the specific data checks carried out by local authorities.

Some known data quality issues are listed below:

Data quality	Issue
Comparisons between years	Since 2013 the CSWW census has collected data for each full year ending 30 September. Data has been collected on an individual social worker level basis since 2017, whereas from 2013 to 2016 it was collected at an aggregate (local authority) level. Prior to 2013, the primary source for information on the child and family social work workforce was the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC), which was a voluntary return. The changes to the data collection mean the statistics from the different sources are not directly comparable. Data quality has continued to improve since the introduction of the individual level collection, with local authorities becoming more familiar with the return and their data collection systems becoming better placed to provide the data. Furthermore, the department has improved the guidance and validation checks for the data collection. Year on year comparisons therefore may not represent true changes in the number of child and family social workers (and associated measures) and may in part be a result of improved reporting. There are known discrepancies between years: for example, we would expect, at local authority level, that the number of child and family social workers in post for a reporting year would equal the number of social workers in post for the preceding reporting year plus the number of starters for the reporting year minus the number of leavers for the reporting year. However, this is not the case for a number of local authorities and may be due to improved reporting over time, or differences in how the department’s guidance on starters and leavers has been interpreted across different years. As a result of the above issues any comparisons between years should be treated with a degree of caution.
Starters	The number of starters during the year is derived from the date a social worker started in a child and family social worker role at a local authority. Some local authorities have reported that they have recorded start dates when an employee has moved child and family social worker posts within the same local authority or started at the local authority in a non-child and family social worker role. However, a start date should only be recorded where the person is a new child and family social worker: this includes child and family social workers who joined a vacant child and family social worker post at a new local authority and social workers who have previously worked in the same local authority, but in a non-child and family social worker role. It should not include a move or promotion from one child and family social work position to another child and family social work position within the same local authority or starts at the local authority in a non-child and family social worker role. As a result, the number of starters reported in this publication may be higher than the actual number, as moves or promotions from one child and family social work position to another child and family social work position within the same local authority and starts in a non-child and family social worker role may be included in the figures in some instances.
Duplicate records	Duplicates have been removed at a headcount level to account for cases where individuals have split roles; this avoids double counting. At FTE level, duplicates have not been removed so that the FTE for each role is captured. There are some instances where the sum of the FTE for a social worker undertaking split roles is greater than 1. In this case the FTE for some local authorities may be greater than the headcount figure. In the attrition analysis, where two or more records in the same year had the same Social Work England registration number, these were combined into a single record, with FTE and cases held added together. This was to allow for a one-to-one matching process when identifying movers and attrition into agency. However, the approach taken ensures that the FTE totals at a National level were not affected.
FTE	An FTE of zero was recorded for some child and family social workers in the census. These workers are included in the headcount statistics. However they are not accounted for in the FTE count, since their FTE value is zero. In some instances, local authorities have reported that these child and family social workers were working on a zero hour contract or casual basis and therefore did not have an FTE. The number of FTE child and family social workers at 30 September reported in this publication is therefore likely to undercount the actual total. In 2024, 0.6% of records for child and family social workers in post at 30 September had an FTE value of zero, compared to 0.5% in 2023 and 1.0% in 2017.
FTE leavers	The FTE of leavers is based on their FTE at 30 September of the previous year. This was recorded as zero for some child and family social workers who left their post during the year. As a result these workers are included in the headcount of leavers, but are not accounted for in the FTE count of leavers, since their FTE leaver value is zero. The number of FTE leavers reported in this publication is therefore likely to undercount the actual total. In the year ending 30 September 2024, 6.1% of leavers had a value of zero recorded for their FTE at 30 September of the previous reporting year, compared to 5.8% in 2023 and 7.7% in 2017. Excluding leavers who also started during the same year (and so legitimately had an FTE of 0 at 30 September of the previous year), the proportion of leavers who had an FTE of zero at 30 September of the previous year was 1.0% in 2024, 1.1% in 2023 and 2.6% in 2017. The missing information also affects the turnover rate at an FTE level, as these leavers are not accounted for in the calculation.
Attrition and attrition rates	To determine attrition FTE and attrition rates, leavers were joined with the local authority employed workforce and the agency workforce at two separate stages.  Errors and missing information for Social Work England registration numbers in data collection may have caused a small degree of over-estimation of full attrition in the figures in last year’s release, because this would have prevented leavers from being identified as movers or agency attrition. For this publication, the effect that erroneous Social Work England registration numbers have had on the attrition analysis has been minimised through improved data collection and data cleaning methods regarding the registration numbers. This has resulted in more accurate identification of social workers and in turn more accurate estimates. This improved cleaning process has been applied to historic years of data, resulting in years prior to 2024 being revised slightly in this year’s release. Where local authorities have only submitted partial data for agency workers (see ‘Data quality for specific LAs’ below), the attrition methods will slightly underestimate agency attrition and slightly overestimate full attrition at a national level. The attrition methods used will also slightly overestimate full attrition because it relies on a fixed cut-off date of 30 September. Any leavers who start roles on or after 1 October would have been treated as full attrition, rather than movers or agency attrition. The impact of this is likely to have been small. This issue was explored in depth in the 2022 ad hoc publication, which found that over 70% of movers started their new role within a week of leaving their old role. Future methods development will continue to explore the impact of using a fixed cut-off date.
Gaps and inconsistencies	Local authorities may not be able to provide a complete and consistent set of data for all statutory data variables. In this case data is shown as not available (denoted by ‘x’) within the data files.

Data quality for specific LAs

2024

Birmingham

After the 2024 collection had closed, Birmingham local authority informed the Department that there were data quality issues with the figures they reported in the collection. This affects their data on agency workers, caseload and sickness absence. To reflect these issues:

• For the national and regional figures, 2024 data for Birmingham has been:
  • included in the cases held and average caseload figures, agency worker counts, and agency workers covering vacancies counts.
  • excluded from the sickness absence figures, sickness absence rates, agency worker rates, agency workers covering vacancies rates and vacancy agency cover rates (Birmingham has also been excluded from the denominator of these rates).
• 2024 data for Birmingham has been provided as ‘u’ in the underlying data for these measures to indicate low reliability

2023

Cambridgeshire

During the 2024 collection, Cambridgeshire local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted for the number of working days lost due to sickness absence for 2023 was incorrect and a significant undercount of the true figure. To reflect this issue the reported 2023 working days lost figure for Cambridgeshire has been:

• Excluded from the 2023 national/regional figures and excluded from the calculation of the national/regional sickness absence rates.
• Presented as ‘u’ in the underlying data at local authority level to indicate low reliability; the rate has also been presented as ‘u’.

Sefton

After the 2023 collection had closed, Sefton local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted for the number of working days lost due to sickness absence for 2023 was incorrect and a significant overcount of the true figure. To reflect this issue the reported 2023 working days lost figure for Sefton has been:

• Excluded from the 2023 national/regional figures and excluded from the calculation of the national/regional sickness absence rate; the figure for social workers in post for Sefton has also been excluded from the calculation of the rates.
• Presented as ‘u’ in the underlying data at local authority level to indicate low reliability; the rate has also been presented as ‘u’.

Sutton

After the 2023 collection had closed, Sutton local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted for the number of FTE agency workers was incorrect and a significant undercount of the true figure. To reflect this issue, the reported FTE agency worker figure for Sutton for 2023 has been:

• Included in the 2023 national/regional figures for FTE agency workers.
• Excluded from the 2023 national/regional rates for FTE agency workers and agency workers covering vacancies; figures for Sutton on social workers in post and agency workers covering vacancies have also been excluded from these rates.
• Presented as ‘u’ in the underlying data at local authority level to indicate low reliability; the agency worker rate and agency worker covering vacancies rate has also been presented as ‘u’.

During the 2024 collection, Sutton local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted for 2023 on the number of vacancies and working days lost to sickness were incorrect and an overcount of the true figure. Caution should therefore be taken when interpreting these figures and the sickness absence rate.

Devon

During the 2024 collection, Devon local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted as part of the 2023 census for vacancies was incorrect and an undercount of the true number. Caution should therefore be taken when interpreting this figure.

Lancashire

During the 2024 collection, Lancashire local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted as part of the 2023 census for social workers in post was an undercount of the true number. Caution should therefore be taken when interpreting this figure.

2022

Gateshead

After the 2022 collection had closed, Gateshead local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted for leavers was incorrect and a significant undercount of the true number. To reflect this issue the reported 2022 leavers data for Gateshead has been:

• Included in the 2022 national/regional figures for leavers.
• Excluded from the 2022 national/regional rates for turnover and the attrition analyses; the figures for social workers in post have also been excluded.
• Presented as ‘u’ in the underlying data at local authority level to indicate low reliability; turnover has also been presented as ‘u’.

Bury

After the 2023 collection had closed, Bury local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted as part of the 2022 census for vacancies was incorrect and an overcount of the true number. Caution should therefore be taken when interpreting this figure.

Lancashire

After the 2023 collection had closed, Lancashire local authority informed DfE that the data they had submitted as part of the 2022 census for social workers in post and for starters and leavers were incorrect and were undercounts of the true numbers. Caution should therefore be taken when interpreting this data.

Data items not included in the statistical publication 

Some data items collected in the children social work workforce census are not included in this statistical release. This may be due to concerns regarding the quality of the data or low response rates. These are listed as follows:

Mandatory data items:

• Reason for leaving
• Destination of leaver
• Origin when started
• Qualification level
• Frontline and step up graduates

Voluntary data items:

• Absent on 30 September
• Reason for absence
• Knowledge and skills statement
• Qualifying institution
• Length of current post/assignment (agency workers only)

Data uses

The main internal users of these statistics are officials within the department, who use the data for policy setting, policy monitoring and policy evaluation purposes. 

The main external users of these statistics are local authorities, who use the information to compare the statistics for their own local authority with other local authorities. Ofsted and the Children's Commissioner for England also use the data and statistics.

Symbology, rounding and revisions

Symbology

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

Symbol	Meaning
z	Data is not applicable
x	Data is unavailable for unknown or other reasons
c	Suppressed to protect confidential information
low	Rounds to 0, but is not 0
u	Low reliability

Rounding

In the statistical commentary, figures for FTEs and headcounts have been rounded to the nearest 100, whole number, or to one decimal place. Rates and percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number or to one decimal place.

In the underlying data files, figures for full-time equivalents (FTEs), rates, percentages, caseload and working days have been rounded to one decimal place. Therefore component parts may not sum to totals if applicable. Headcounts and cases held are reported to the nearest whole number.

Revisions

Minor improvements were made to the methodology in the 2023 statistics, including for earlier years, to ensure consistency throughout the series. These included:

• Social workers who both started and left their role during the reporting year were no longer included in the headcount figures for starters and leavers (previously they were included for 2017 to 2022). This ensured consistency with the approach taken for FTE.
• Social workers of Chinese ethnicity were included in the ‘Asian/Asian British’ grouping throughout all data files and throughout all years (previously they were included under ‘other ethnic group’ for some of the data files for 2017 to 2020). This ensured consistency with Office for National Statistics guidance.
• Social workers who left their role on 30 September of the reporting year were no longer included in the figures for social workers in post at 30 September for all years of data (previously they were included in the FTE figures for 2017 to 2020 and the headcount figures for 2017 to 2021). 
• Social workers with an FTE of 0 who held cases were excluded from the average caseload calculation for all years (previously they were included in the average caseload calculations for 2017 to 2021).

As a result of these changes, some of the figures for 2017 to 2022 included in this and the 2023 release differ very slightly to those initially published in earlier releases. However, the impact on the time-series and the interpretation of trends at a national level remain unaffected.

In this 2024 release:

• Attrition estimates for earlier years have been revised slightly due to more accurate identification of social workers and in turn more accurate analyses (see ‘Data quality and uses section’ for more information).
• The calculations applied at a national and regional level to earlier years data to account for significant data quality issues notified by particular LAs have been revised slightly in a small number of instances to ensure greater consistency; therefore, some of the figures at national and regional level have been revised slightly.
• At local authority level, for earlier years data, instances where the FTE agency workers covering vacancies rate and the FTE vacancy agency worker cover rate were greater than 100% have been set to ‘u’ to indicate low reliability.

Related statistics

Children in need: Statistics on children in need in England, including child protection plans and referrals to and assessments completed by children’s social care services.

Children looked after in England including adoptions: Children looked after, care leavers and children adopted in England. Annual statistics including characteristics, placement information and health outcomes.

Outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England: Children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England, national and local authority level outcomes including key stage 4 and absence.

School workforce in England: Annual statistics on teachers and support staff (TAs) in England. Age, gender, ethnicity, pupil teacher ratio (PTR), retention, pay, subject taught and absence.

Help and support

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:

Telephone: 037 0000 2288

Opening times:
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays)