Jobs Live Inform

Guidance on admin support for social workers being developed by workload action group

Group set up to tackle 'unnecessary workload pressures' on children's social workers also working on resources on caseload management and to help practitioners with case recording

By on January 22, 2025 in Children, Workforce
Post-it notes on a wall with the word 'workload' in the foreground
Photo: iconimage/Adobe Stock

To what extent does the stigma surrounding care-experienced people originate within the care system itself?

  • To a large extent (56%, 297 Votes)
  • Somewhat (28%, 147 Votes)
  • Not very much (11%, 58 Votes)
  • Not at all (5%, 28 Votes)

Total Voters: 530

Loading ... Loading ...

Guidance on improving caseload management and administrative support for social workers is being developed by a group set up by the government to identify solutions to high workloads in children’s services.

The national workload action group (NWAG) is also working on resources to help practitioners with caseload recording and digital practice, while examining the case for supervision standards.

The Department for Education (DfE) set up the NWAG in 2023 to “consider drivers of unnecessary workload and to develop solutions so that social workers have enough time to spend working directly with children and families”.

It includes representatives from the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), British Association of Social Workers (BASW), the Principal Children and Families Social Worker Network, Social Work England and UNISON.

It is being supported by consortium comprising Research in Practice, Essex County Council and King’s College London, and is also working with a group of local authorities who are helping test the resources it is developing.

Priority areas for tackling workloads

Last year, it identified five priority areas and recently released minutes from its meeting on 18 November 2024 highlighted the work it was doing in relation to each:

  1. Caseload management – a framework to support councils with workforce planning, including promising approaches, is being developed.
  2. Managerialism and administration – the group is working on a resource setting out the value of dedicated administrative support in helping social workers manage their workloads, to support children’s services in making a business case for such support.
  3. Case recording – the NWAG is developing a resource to help professionals navigate the range of available case recording tools and support ethical implementation. Based on minutes from a previous meeting, such tools include those based on artificial intelligence.
  4. Supervision – the group will set out the case for and against the introduction of supervision standards to the DfE.
  5. Hybrid working and digital practice – this includes developing tools to support social workers with digital practice and help them understand the digital lives of children and young people, along with case studies of implementing hybrid working.

Though initiated by the former Conservative government, as part of its children’s social care reforms, the NWAG has continued under the Labour administration.

The NWAG held its final meeting on 20 January 2025, and will then submit a report, containing its suite of resources, to the DfE for approval.

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

Photo by Daniel Laflor/peopleimages.com/ AdobeStock

Do you have a colleague, mentor, or social work figure you can’t help but gush about?

Our My Brilliant Colleague series invites you to celebrate anyone within social work who has inspired you – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by filling in our nominations form with a few short  paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.

*Please note that, despite the need to provide your name and role, you or the nominee can be anonymous in the published entry*

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

, ,

4 Responses to Guidance on admin support for social workers being developed by workload action group

  1. Peter Gill January 23, 2025 at 12:43 pm #

    What a shambles.

  2. Anonymous January 23, 2025 at 6:02 pm #

    What about adult social worker. We always seem to be left behind or left at the bottom of the pile.
    Being an adult social worker is just as challenging as being a children’s social worker. The challenges for each when working with people and families are very different but they are there for both sides. It saddens me that the focus is always on children’s social workers

    • Dawn Holness January 24, 2025 at 4:23 pm #

      So true makes me very 😠 angry

  3. David January 27, 2025 at 3:20 pm #

    Work to rule. Give up good-will working. Good-will working equates to exploitation. Exploitation is contrary to Social Work values.