The shortage of men in social work has been a long-running issue for the sector.
As of November 2022, 83% of registered social workers in England were women, according to Social Work England’s last annual report. In local authority children’s services, the proportion is both higher and growing, increasing from 85.2% in 2017 to 87.4% in 2023.
But is this imbalance troubling practitioners?
A Community Care poll with almost 900 votes found that over two-thirds of readers believed that social work teams needed more men to “reflect the communities they support”.
The remaining 32% said that a social worker’s qualities were what counted.
Learn more with the Social Work Community podcast
Curious about the ongoing debate surrounding the lack of male social workers? In the premiere of the award-nominated Social Work Community Podcast’s second season, our careers editor, Sharmeen Ziauddin, sat down with two male social workers, Curtis Powell and Jason Barnes. They discussed their experiences in the field, why they chose social work and what they brought to the table as men in the profession.
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One practitioner, Ryan Webb, pondered the repercussions of making “very little effort whatsoever” to attract young men to the profession.
“It would be interesting to see more research addressing the impact of this dynamic in terms of the effectiveness of social work and the engagement of male service users, especially within children’s services,” he wrote under a related article.
“What is it about social work which continues to lead to so few young men choosing it as a career option?”
Have you noticed any consequences of the lack of male social workers in your area?
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Would you like to write about a day in your life as a social worker? Do you have any stories, reflections or experiences from working in social work that you’d like to share or write about?
If so, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com
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As the only male social work student on my team at placement. I found that the relational work that I did with the children and young people boys, girls and gender fluid alike. Were mostly achieved because I was a male. In my opinion it was a combination of relatable experiences and societal perception of what a man represents in addition to some of the CYP not having a positive relationship with a man in comparison to one who they can see is supporting and working with them. Practically and in theory being a male in the brought a different perspective and thought around what could of been perceived differently by female colleagues. A lot of the UASC felt more comfortable to open to me about their past trauma than to my female counterparts.
It is a general need across education, particularly primary, social work, nursing etc. It was not on my mind at all when I studied and graduated a decade ago – but then i worked with a boy, who had worked with my (female) practice educator for 6 months, and he disclosed 3 or 4 major safeguards within half and hour which he did not tell her!! I was almost embarrassed but ended up writing a dissertation on gender, but more specifically, social work teams being adaptable to meet the needs of young people – basically a diverse and highly skilled team would be an asset. The Lecturer who marked my dissertation marked me down as she said it went against the Equality Act 2010, which of course was not my intention. Anyway – every role I have had I hear “we need more men” and the best feedback is from service users – a poll is fine but the final say has to be with the important people!