Social workers in Wales will no longer have to show the regulator that they have completed 90 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) over three years in order to renew their registration.

Social Care Wales said the change, which takes effect today (1 April 2025), was designed to simplify the CPD process and underscore that “what’s most important is the quality and impact of [registrants’] learning”.

While practitioners will need to confirm that they have completed CPD and that their learning is up to date and in line with Social Care Wales’s code of professional practice for social care, they will no longer have to log their learning with the regulator or evidence that they have done a required amount.

Reforming system dating back to 2001

Previously, registered social workers and social care managers in Wales needed to show that they had done 90 hours of CPD over the previous three years at the point of renewal, and log what learning they had carried out, on the regulator’s SCWonline system. Registered social care workers needed to show evidence of having carried out 45 hours.

This system has, broadly speaking, been in place since the register opened in 2001, said Social Care Wales.

The regulator undertook a consultation on reforms in 2019 that found strong support for an outcomes-based approach to CPD, but implementation was delayed because of the Covid pandemic.

Social Care Wales learning requirements

Social Care Wales’s code of practice for social care, which all registrants must follow, states that they must must undertaking relevant learning and development to maintain and improve their knowledge and skills to ensure they are fit to practise, and contributing to the learning and development of others” (standard 6.9).

Practice guidance for social workers that builds on the code states that they must:

• routinely review and update knowledge of legal, practice, policy, regulatory and procedural frameworks;
• keep up-to-date with relevant literature and research;
• listen and learn from others, including people using the service, relatives, carers and other professionals;
• seek help with critical gaps in knowledge and skills;
• use learning to support improved outcomes for people.

It also says they should use a variety of methods to keep up to date, such as reading, attending courses, carrying out post-qualifying training, learning from visits and placements, contributing to professional forums and accessing or contributing to research.

Though registrants will no longer have to log their CPD, Social Care Wales said registrants “must keep records” of their learning and discuss it with their manager, and that it “may check a sample of records”.

Profit-making from children’s care in Wales is set to end by 2030, other than in exceptional circumstances, after a bill to implement the measure became law.

The passage of the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025 makes Wales the first UK nation to institute an effective ban on profit in the provision of fostering, children’s home or secure accommodation placements for looked-after children. In Scotland, independent fostering agencies are not permitted to make a profit, but private children’s homes are.

After the legislation received Royal Assent today, minister for children and social care Dawn Bowden said: “By removing profit from the care of looked after children, we’re ensuring that funding goes towards improving outcomes for young people and I’m proud that we’re the first UK nation to take this bold step.”

Three stages of profit ban

Under the government’s plans, the policy to eliminate profit will proceed in three phases:

1. From 1 April 2026, no new for-profit providers of children’s home, fostering or secure accommodation services will be allowed to register in Wales.
2. From 1 April 2027, existing for-profit providers will not be able to add additional beds or foster carers to their services.
3. From 1 April 2030, councils will not be able to make new placements in existing for-profit providers of children’s home, fostering or secure accommodation services without ministerial approval, in the case of Welsh authorities, or in exceptional circumstances specified in regulations, in the case of English authorities.

Following stage three, placements will generally only be permitted in council-run homes, or with local authority foster carers, or with placements provided by four other types of organisation: charitable companies limited by guarantee without share capital; charitable incorporated organisations; charitable registered societies or community interest companies.

Under all four models, there are no dividends paid to shareholders or members and surpluses must be reinvested in services. These organisations would also have to have as their primary purpose the welfare of children or another public good determined by the Welsh Government.

Council and provider concerns about legislation 

The Welsh Government has said that the legislation is a response to young people’s concerns about having profit made from their care and would ensure that surpluses were reinvested in improving services.

However, both councils and providers have voiced concerns about the impact of the act.

The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) has warned that it risks putting pressure on an already-stretched care system, while the Children’s Home Association has said that ministers have “significantly underestimated” the cost of replacing for-profit services and that children would increasingly be placed in unregulated care as a result of the act.

Legislation to eliminate profit from the provision of care to looked-after children in Wales has been approved by the Senedd and so will become law.

Under the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill, new placements in for-profit children’s homes, secure accommodation or foster placements, by Welsh or English councils, will be banned – other than in exceptional circumstances – in April 2030.

This is three years later than Welsh ministers’ original target for eliminating profit, but they have lengthened their planned timetable in response to significant concerns about the potential disruption to children’s care from their original plan.

Currently, the private sector provides 87% of children’s home and 35% of fostering placements in Wales.

Young people ‘don’t want profit made from care’

Introducing its final debate in the Senedd last week, the Labour government’s minister for children and social care, Dawn Bowden, said the legislation was a response to young people saying that “they did not want to be the means of someone making a profit out of the challenges that they and their families faced”.

She said in delaying implementation, the government was “mindful of minimising the risk of disruption to children”.

However, she added: “But I want to be very, very clear that the 2030 date for the ending of new placements by Welsh local authorities in existing for-profit services is not a target date, it is the absolute end date.

“And I expect substantial progress to be made before then in ending placements of existing for-profit children’s homes and fostering services prior to 2030 in areas that have sufficiency for that not-for-profit provision, and I will be making sure that we get to that place as quickly as we possibly can.”

Councils’ concerns over impact on care system

However, the Welsh Local Government Association, while voicing support for the bill’s ambitions, raised concerns about its impact on the care system.

“Councils continue to fully support the ambition of removing profit from the care of children that the Health and Social Care Bill aims to deliver,” said Charlie McCoubrey, the WLGA’s spokesperson for health and social services.

“It’s an important step towards making sure vulnerable children and young people get the right support, with their needs prioritised over financial gain.

“That said, we’re still concerned about the potential impact on a system that’s already under pressure, with a need for appropriate levels of funding to make this work. Councils are already stretched, and without proper, long-term investment, there’s a real risk of putting even more pressure on the services children rely on.

“We’re keen to keep working closely with the Welsh Government to help deliver these changes in a way that supports local authorities, doesn’t destabilise existing placements, and makes a real difference to children’s lives.”

Welsh Government ‘has significantly underestimated costs’

From a provider perspective, the Children’s Home Association said there was “no evidence” that many children’s homes providers would be able to transition to a not-for-profit model, meaning councils would have to replace them.

However, it warned that the Welsh Government had “significantly underestimated the cost of replacing the providers who have provided specialist care to society’s most vulnerable for decades”.

The CHA cited figures produced by the Welsh Government itself showing that the average weekly cost of looking after a child in a standard four-bed independent home was £3,811, 38% below the equivalent for a local authority home (£5,625).

The association also accused the Welsh Government of rejecting efforts from the sector to devise a “viable solution”, for example, by permitting models of care that restrict profit. It said that children would increasingly be placed in unregulated settings due to a lack of placements.

‘The right thing to do, but concerns must be addressed’

Giving the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Cymru’s response to the bill, national director Sam Baron said: “This is a progressive and ambitious piece of legislation which, is simply the right thing to do.

“Whilst full implementation will take several years, this move will rightly return public money into the public care system, increasing available resources and, by implication, release public money to address the issues of quality variations and low salaries.

“However, frontline voices and concerns must be listened to and addressed, by ensuring an already stretched public system receives the desperate investment it already needs to avoid even greater pressures being felt further down the line.”

Profit ‘not inherently at odds with excellent care’

The bill, which will also introduce direct payments for people receiving NHS continuing healthcare, was passed comfortably, with only the Conservatives voting against.

The party’s shadow cabinet secretary for health and social care, James Evans, said private sector providers played “a critical role in ensuring that children have somewhere safe to live and receive the care and support they need” and that it was “wrong to assume that  making profit is inherently at odds with delivering excellent care”.

Under the government’s plans, the policy to eliminate profit will proceed in three phases:

1. From 1 April 2026, no new for-profit providers of children’s home, fostering or secure accommodation services will be allowed to register in Wales.
2. From 1 April 2027, existing for-profit providers will not be able to add additional beds or foster carers to their services.
3. From 1 April 2030, councils will not be able to make new placements in existing for-profit providers of children’s home, fostering or secure accommodation services without ministerial approval, in the case of Welsh authorities, or in exceptional circumstances specified in regulations, in the case of English authorities.

Who can provide care to children?

The bill permits local authorities and four types of organisation to provide care to children: charitable companies limited by guarantee without share capital; charitable incorporated organisations; charitable registered societies or community interest companies.

Under all four models, there are no dividends paid to shareholders or members and surpluses must be reinvested in services. These organisations would also have to have as their primary purpose the welfare of children or another public good determined by the Welsh Government.

Almost a quarter of social workers in Wales are finding it difficult to manage financially, with most practitioners having seen their financial position worsen since 2023, a survey has found.

Just over a third of practitioners were dissatisfied by their pay, found the research commissioned by regulator Social Care Wales, answered by 5,024 members of the country’s social care workforce, including 838 social workers, in February this year.

However, compared with a similar survey carried out in March-April 2023, greater proportions of social workers reported higher morale, that their services were appropriately staffed and that they felt valued by managers, colleagues and those they supported.

The Have Your Say survey, whose results were published last week, was designed to capture what it was like to work in social care in Wales. It was carried out by researchers from Buckinghamshire New and Bath Spa universities, and from the British Association of Social Workers (BASW).

Quarter of social workers struggling financially

It found 23% of social workers were finding it very or quite difficult to manage financially, up from 20% in 2023, while 62% said they were finding it slightly or a lot more difficult to cope financially than a year earlier.

This is despite the annual rate of inflation having come down from 10.1% in the year to March 2023 to 3.4% in the 12 months to February 2024. In the meantime, social workers employed by Welsh councils received a pay increase of £1,925 for 2023-24, which was worth between 4% and 6% for most practitioners.

In relation to pay, 37% of social workers said were fairly or very dissatisfied with their pay, with a higher rate of dissatisfaction, 41%, among children’s practitioners.

Improved workplace satisfaction

However, this marked a fall from 47% being dissatisfied with their pay in 2023, one of a number of areas in which social workers demonstrated greater satisfaction with their roles in 2024.

Most significantly, 70% said they always or mostly had positive morale, up from 38% in 2023. In addition:

• 72% said they had good management support, up from 69% in 2023, while 74% felt valued by their managers, up from 68%.
• Though there was a fall, from 86% to 81%, in the share of social workers who reported always or mostly having good peer support, the proportion who felt valued by their colleagues rose from 78% to 85%.
• Just under three-quarters (74%) felt valued by individuals or families, up from 64% in 2023, and while only 35% felt valued by the public, this was up from 20% the year before.
• Under half (48%) of social worker respondents said they always or mostly had appropriate staffing, but this was an increase on the 34% who reported this in 2023.

In relation to retention, 23% of practitioners said they were considering leaving social work and anticipated spending a further 17 months in the sector. This compares with one in five (21%) social workers saying they were very or quite likely to leave the social care sector within the next year in 2023, when the equivalent question was phrased differently.

Rates of bullying and discrimination

Despite the positives, 11% of social workers said they had been bullied by their managers in the past year, with the same proportion reporting discrimination from managers. This was higher than the rates for all respondents to the survey, which was 8% in each case. Four per cent of social workers reported harassment from managers, in line with the rate for respondents in general.

Social workers were less likely to have been bullied (6%), discriminated against (4%) or harassed (2%) by colleagues than respondents in general, but were more likely to have faced these issues from individuals or families.

Notably, 12% of social workers said they had faced harassment from individuals or families, compared with 7% of all respondents, while 8% reported bullying and 6% discrimination.

The majority of social workers support banning profit-making companies from providing children’s care, a Community Care poll has found.

This follows the publication of a bill in Wales to end profit-making from the provision of children’s care placements.

Under the Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill, only not-for-profit organisations and councils would be able to provide fostering, children’s home or secure accommodation placements, following a transitional period.

Wales would be the first UK country to enact such a ban, though the Scottish Government is committed to doing the same and for-profit provision is scarce – though legal – in Northern Ireland.

In England, as of 2023, independent fostering agencies (IFAs) accounted for 47% of filled mainstream fostering places and private children’s homes accounted for 81% of residential placements.

But what would be the ideal way forward?

In a recent Community Care poll, 55% of practitioners backed a ban on profit-making companies providing care placements. A further 35% said they supported a ban in principle, but feared it would worsen placement shortages.

The remaining 9% disagreed with children’s care placements only being provided by not-for-profit organisations or councils.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
Legislation to end profit-making from the provision of children’s care placements in Wales has been published.

The Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill would permit only not-for-profit organisations and councils from providing fostering, children’s home or secure accommodation placements.

The reform would make Wales the first UK country to ban profit-making from both fostering and residential services.

However, following concerns during consultation that the reform would disrupt the supply of placements and children’s care, the Labour-run Welsh Government has dropped its original plan to require compliance from all providers by April 2027.

While new providers registering from April 2026 would have to be not for profit, existing services would be able to continue delivering for-profit care for an indefinite transitional period under conditions determined by regulations.

In the context of the private sector providing 87% of children’s home and 35% of fostering placements in Wales, the Welsh Government said this would “mitigate disruption” to the lives of children in existing placements.

However, despite this, both provider and local authority leaders raised concerns about the bill’s impact on the placements market.

Young people ‘have strong feelings’ about profit-based care

Introducing the bill in the Senedd this week, minister for social care Dawn Bowden said the reform was driven by what children and young people wanted as well as the Welsh Government’s belief in the inappropriateness of profiting from their care.

“In developing this bill, we have been guided by what young people have told us,” she said. “They have very strong feelings about being cared for by privately owned organisations that profit from their experience of being in care.”

Bowden added: “These are children who have been through the most traumatic of times who end up in the care system, and we have to offer them the best care that we can in whatever way we can. That means that any money coming into the system must be reinvested into the system.”

She told the Senedd that spending on residential care had tripled, from £65m to £200m, since 2017, which she said was “unsustainable”.

The reform is part of a wider plan to reduce the number of children in care – which has risen from 5,660 in 2017 to 7,210 in 2023 – deliver more care closer to children’s homes and reduce the number – and cost – of residential care placements.

This includes, potentially, rolling out family drug and alcohol courts across Wales, to keep more families together, and taking steps to boost foster carer recruitment and retention, including by making allowances more equitable between local authorities.

Chances of providers ditching profit model

Bowden said that, because of the transitional arrangements, there would be no “cliff edge” for profit-making providers, many of whom were in “active and encouraging conversations with us about how they can transfer their operation into a not-for-profit model”.

However, in a memorandum on the bill, the Welsh Government said that intelligence it had received indicated that, while high numbers of IFAs would convert, relatively few residential providers would, though it was not possible to be precise at this stage.

The memorandum sketched out three scenarios, under which 50% (scenario A), 25% (B) and no (C) private providers switched to not-for-profit provision.

Under scenario C, councils would have to secure an additional 653 residential care placements across 204 homes, whereas under scenario A, only 102 additional homes would need to be sourced.

Initial costs of reform falling on councils

According to a report by ADSS Cymru, a standard cost for developing a children’s home is £700,000, and the directors’ body assumed that councils would have to meet the start-up costs and bear the risks of homes running below capacity to encourage new not-for-profit providers to enter the market.

The Welsh Government is providing councils with £68m from 2023-26 to invest in new provision.

However, with all things being equal, councils would face additional costs of £88m in 2025-26, £67m in 2026-27 and £46.5m in 2027-28 under scenario C, compared with £45.5m (2025-26), £35m (2026-27) and £25m (2027-28) under scenario A, according to modelling by the Welsh Government.

In the long-term – from 2028-29 – the government projected that councils would save money under any of the three scenarios.

Also, it added that its intention was for the costs of reform to be lower than illustrated because of its plans to reduce the number of children in residential care.

Adequate funding ‘will be crucial’

In response to the bill, Welsh Local Government Association spokesperson for health and social care, Llinos Medi said removing profit from provision for children in care was “an important ambition in supporting us in achieving better outcomes for children and young people” that would lead to “a better and fairer system for all”.

“However, while we endorse the bill’s aims, we do have some concerns regarding the resources and capacity of local authorities to implement these changes effectively and within the timescales set out,” she added.

“Adequate funding and support will be crucial to ensure that local authorities can meet the increased demands and continue to provide essential services without disrupting the lives of children and young people in existing residential and foster care placements. We look forward to working collaboratively with the Welsh Government to address these challenges and ensure the successful implementation of this important legislation.”

‘Lack of detail on transitional arrangements’

On behalf of providers, Care Forum Wales chair Mario Kleft said there appeared to be “more questions than answers2 in the bill.

“There are some truly excellent providers of children’s care placements in the independent, third sector and charity sectors in Wales,” he added. “Nobody accepts that it is right to profiteer from any service and from our perspective the driver needs to centre on quality and choice.

“Whoever provides child care services, they need to be economically viable to ensure their sustainability into the future. There is not any great detail yet about how any transition might be achieved and I am aware that a number of local authorities who commission services have voiced concerns around practical issues and the affordability of what’s being proposed.”

Wales had seen a drop in applications to social work courses in recent years but an increase in the value of bursaries may have helped reverse this trend.

A 2022 report for Social Care Wales found only about 200 of the 350 or so social workers needed each year were joining the profession.

The cost of training was key, especially for postgraduate courses, where the bursary had failed to keep pace with rising tuition fees.

Boost to bursaries

In response to the report, and a campaign led by social work students and supported by unions and professional bodies, the Welsh Government announced a significant increase to bursaries in July 2022.

The undergraduate bursary increased by 50%, from £2,500 to £3,750 a year, while the postgraduate equivalent, which had been £6,640 since 2010, almost doubled, to £12,715 per year.

This compares favourably to social work bursary levels in England – but lags behind funding for other professions, such as nursing.

There are a fixed number of bursaries available each year – currently 224. Students must have lived in Wales for at least a year and be doing an approved degree or master’s and cannot be getting financial support from an employer to train.

Key differences with England include the fact that undergraduates in Wales can get the bursary for all three years of study – albeit at a lower level – while in England it is only available for years two and three.

“Ours is slightly more generous, but not dramatically so,” explains Tom Slater, education quality assurance manager at Social Care Wales.

“The differences are primarily around some of the criteria, the way it is administered and in terms of additional allowances.”

The impact of more generous bursaries

There is evidence the increased bursary has encouraged applications. Social Care Wales says it currently has 320 new students registered for the academic year 2023-24 with up to 20 more in the process of being registered.

On 1 January 2024, there were 816 social work students on the register in total, compared with 710 on 1 January 2023.

David Wilkins, programme director for the MA in social work at Cardiff University, says numbers have more than doubled, with 52 students starting the course this academic year.

“You’d have to think the bursary has made a difference,” he says.

Making ends meet

But it is still tough for students.

“Almost all work a considerable number of hours and probably couldn’t make ends meet if they didn’t,” Wilkins says. “We definitely see the impact in terms of mental wellbeing and energy levels.”

Victoria Ngulube is in her first year of the MA at Cardiff and receives the postgraduate bursary.

“It makes a huge difference because I don’t have to worry about student finance to pay tuition fees,” she says. “But you certainly can’t live on it.”

She does an online call centre job two days a week and feels there should be more financial support to help all students cover everyday costs.

Grow your own

In recent years, local authorities in Wales have developed or expanded “grow your own” schemes, where existing staff are supported to do social work training.

Courses are funded by the local authority, and participants – who are not eligible to claim the bursary – carry on working while studying.

“Often they live locally, have family and are committed to staying, so we’ve got a very good retention rate,” says Gill Paul, workforce development manager at Cyngor Gwynedd Council.

About five years ago, the ratio of sponsored to direct entry students was roughly 1:5, but Social Care Wales says there are now 130 sponsored students compared with about 190 direct entry.

The regulator provides funding to local authorities for grow your own schemes and other initiatives, through an annual workforce development grant.

Better staff retention

Conwy County Borough Council is currently sponsoring six staff to do the Open University social work degree.

“It’s definitely a really good way to utilise resources. And actually, we get the benefits because the grow our own workers are still working for us and learning on the job,” says strategic director for social care and education Jenny Williams.

These staff have existing skills which feed into their social work training – and they can then put this new learning and knowledge into practice in their paid work.

Williams estimates it costs £10,000-15,000 to get someone qualified, not including the cost of supervision, practice education or releasing people for study days or placements elsewhere.

There are currently no plans to pilot social work apprenticeships in Wales, although Social Care Wales says it is open to working with partnerships that wish to develop a programme.

“Grow your own is filling that niche in a way,” says Slater. Instead, he says the focus has been on expanding routes into social care below degree level, such as the level four social services practitioner role.

This (and a newer apprenticeship version of the level four qualification) are designed to be equivalent to the first year of an undergraduate degree and can be used on some programmes in lieu of year one.

New training routes

Williams, who heads up the Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru’s workforce leadership group, believes it is time to explore new training routes.

Master’s students unable to complete the academic element of their course still graduate with a postgraduate social work diploma that allows them to register.

However, this applies to a very small number of students. And there is no route in Wales that allows you to gain a social work diploma (unlike the Step Up to Social Work programme in England).

“What we have now is too traditional,” says Williams. “Other professions have more pathways and routes into those professions.”

There are mixed feelings about the idea of introducing fast-track schemes, like those in England.

But Samantha Baron, director of the British Association of Social Workers Cymru, says this should not be ruled out.

“The greater the variety of routes into social work, the greater the breadth of candidates,” she says. “However, I’d want to ensure public money is kept within the public system.”

Joanne* recently completed the consolidation programme, a mandatory learning and development qualification for newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) in Wales.

“It was a good chance to consolidate and reflect on my practice and has been transformational in many respects,” she says. “But I am glad it is out of the way.”

All social workers who qualified in Wales on or after 1 April 2016 must complete the programme during their first three-year registration period.

They will do one of two courses approved by regulator Social Care Wales, both managed and delivered by partnerships of employers and universities.

The programme aims to develop skills and knowledge in applying analysis in assessments, collaborative working and applying professional judgment in complex situations.

It includes taught days at university, work-based training, observation of practice and self-directed study and reflection.

Juggling work and study

“I’m a bit of a research junkie and really like the theory element so that was enjoyable and the lecturer was great,” says Joanne, who works in adult services in South Wales.

But she says it was difficult to juggle work and study.

“You have a day at uni and then you’re back to your caseload,” she says. “You end up working nights and all through the weekend.

“My children have left home but other members of the team have teenagers and were very overwhelmed.”

Feedback on the consolidation programme

According to the latest data from Social Care Wales, there were 223 enrolments onto the rolling programme in 2022-23, with 183 achieving the qualification that year.

Feedback on consolidation is generally good, according to Tom Slater, education assurance manager at Social Care Wales.

The fact the programme can be completed within a three-year timeframe provides flexibility. “It recognises different people might be ready at different points in time,” he says.

But he acknowledges doing a qualification on top of the day job may be a struggle for some.

“That’s probably true of all social work qualifications when you’re doing it alongside a busy role,” he says.

NQSWs working for Cyngor Gwynedd Council, in the north west of Wales, generally embark on the programme after their first year in practice.

“It has been a very positive experience for us,” says workforce development manager Gill Paul.

“Those first three years are key to your development as a social worker and the consolidation process provides a structure that’s needed.”

The programme, which launched in 2012, has evolved over the years in response to concerns it was too academic, prescriptive and burdensome, with efforts made to ensure it was more flexible, work-based and relevant.

Sources of funding

The consolidation programme is normally paid for by employers. One of the sources of funding they can draw on is the Social Care Wales workforce development programme.

Social Care Wales does not restrict how local authorities use the funding, so it can be used to cover aspects like study release, workplace support and assessment and caseload protection.

Agency social workers may have to pay for and arrange the consolidation programme themselves, though this is dependent on the local authority where they work.

Covid-19 exacerbated pressures on services and longstanding workforce issues. A 2022 report for Social Care Wales exploring the impact of the pandemic on NQSWs found staffing shortages were having a significant impact on teams’ ability to support them or offer protected caseloads.

One NQSW who took part in the research said this contributed to their decision to leave children’s services.

“I wasn’t getting the supervision I thought I should be getting and top of that knowing that I was going to have to do the [consolidation] qualification this year made me decide,” they told researchers.

Wider workforce issues

It will be hard to provide good post-qualifying support unless these wider issues are addressed, stresses Samantha Baron, national director of the British Association of Social Workers Cymru.

“We can review the consolidation programme, change the content and requirements but you have still got NQSWs walking into teams with low morale, frequent staff turnover, unprotected caseloads and high numbers of referrals coming through, and that’s the perfect storm,” she says.

She believes there are important lessons for local authorities and policymakers in England, where a new five-year early career framework for children’s social workers is set to be introduced.

Positives include the fact it is built into professional regulation. “There is a lot of variability in England so if you want an early career framework you have to make it mandatory,” Baron says. “Pegging it to registration means employers have to do it.”

Many also highlight the benefits of good communication and strong partnership working between employers, higher education institutions and the regulator in Wales, and a genuine commitment to providing good post-qualifying support.

Value of link to pay and progression

Jenny Williams, who heads up the Association of Directors of Social Services Cymru’s workforce leadership group, suggests schemes that work best are explicitly linked to pay and career progression. These tangible incentives provide an additional motivating factor, especially when people are required to do the course on top of an already pressured day job.

While Wales is facing retention challenges more generally, Williams believes the programme plays an important role in supporting and retaining newly-qualified staff.

“It’s not that we’re seeing newly qualified social workers leave early, which would be a really worrying sign,” she said. “I think ultimately it does promote retention. I have seen some really good, long-standing social workers here who have gone through that route into management and I think there is a correlation between good support in those first few years and those workers staying. So there are loads of benefits of getting it right.”

*Name changed

Social work figures have paid tribute to one of their own after Mark Drakeford announced he would be stepping down as first minister of Wales.

Drakeford was hailed for maintaining his social work values and commitment to social justice, after announcing he would be stepping down from the role in March 2024.

He trained as a social worker, then worked as a probation officer, a youth justice worker and as a social work academic before being elected to the Senedd (Welsh Assembly) in 2011.

This was followed by stints in several ministerial roles, including as health and social services minister from 2013-16, before he became first minister in 2018.

Social work academic career

As an academic, Drakeford was professor of social policy and applied social sciences at Cardiff University and published several books on the profession.

These covered subjects including the impact of the inquiry into the death of Maria Colwell that reported in 1974, social work ‘scandals’ and the effects of austerity on the profession.

Then, as health and social services minister, he presided over the passage of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) 2014.

Distinctive approach to social care

While similar to its English sibling, the Care Act 2014, both having originated from the Law Commission review of adult social care law, it also had distinctive features.

For example, while the Care Act obliged English councils to promote a diverse market in care provision, the Welsh act placed a duty on authorities to promote the development of co-operatives, social enterprises and other third sector services – but not the private sector.

Wales’s distinctive approach to social care, compared with England, has continued under Drakeford’s tenure as first minister.

His administration has committed to eliminating profit from services for looked-after children and is also exploring introducing a national care service to provide adults’ services free at the point of need, similar to the NHS.

At the same, the country has faced similar challenges to others UK nations with social work recruitment, retention and workloads.

‘He never let go of his social work values’

Paying tribute to Drakeford, social work academic Ray Jones, who lives in Wales, said: “As the first minister in Wales Mark has been, and is, impressive.”

Jones, emeritus professor of social work at Kingston University and St. George’s, University of London, added: “As a politician he has never let go of his social work values and skills. Humane, caring, engaging, and wise and not drawn into the current political swamp.”

The British Association of Social Workers Cymru also joined the tributes to Drakeford, saying: “As an ex-social worker, he led with compassion and integrity with social justice at the heart of his leadership and political beliefs.

“His contribution to politics and the profession of social work, through a values-led vision, bought about real change for the people and communities of Wales.”

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Almost half of social workers in Wales say they are likely to quit the profession over the next five years, a survey has found.

Over three-quarters said that they felt stressed due to workload, while almost a quarter did not feel safe at work, according to the research carried out for Social Care Wales by Opinion Research Services (ORS).

Overall, social workers expressed more dissatisfaction and lower morale than care staff and social care managers, who were also polled for the study, the first comprehensive survey of the registered workforce in Wales.

“This dissatisfaction is clearly a cause for concern, and further exploration is required to understand how far this is correlated with the likelihood of leaving the profession,” said the study report.

ORS polled 451 social workers – equivalent to 7.3% of the registered population (6,157) – in an online survey, which ran from March to May 2023.

Likelihood of leaving profession

One in five (21%) social workers said they were very or quite likely to leave the social care sector within the next year, with 46% saying they were likely to leave within the next five years.

While the intention to leave within five years was highest among practitioners aged 55 and over (73%), 41% of those aged 35-54 felt the same.

And though ORS said practitioners may be “over-claiming” in relation to their likelihood to leave, it added that there was “clear cause for concern regarding retention and a real challenge to recruit suitably experienced replacement staff”.

Stress caused by overwork

Overwork was, by far, the biggest contributory factor behind retention risk, with 64% of those who said they were likely to leave within the next five years citing it as a reason.

This was reflected in the finding that 77% of social workers said that having too much to do and not enough time to do it in was a cause of stress, well ahead of the equivalent rates for social care managers (62%) and care workers (39%).

And just a third (34%) of social workers said they believed the right staff were in place to deliver services always or most of the time, compared with 72% of social care managers and 57% of care workers.

Relatively low job satisfaction

Social workers were also less satisfied at work than the other two groups, with 38% saying they were completely, mostly or somewhat dissatisfied, compared with 32% of care workers and 23% of social care managers.

And while three-quarters of managers and two-thirds of care workers said their job always or mostly gave them a feeling of work well done, this was true of less than half (44%) of social workers.

Morale was also lower among social workers, with 52% saying it was good either all or most of the time, as against 65% for the whole sample.

Perceived lack of value

Social workers felt much less valued by the public, with just 20% reporting this, compared with 48% of care workers and social care managers.

“This perception, whether real or imagined, is likely to have a negative impact on those working in the sector,” said the report.

Though almost two-thirds of social workers (64%) felt valued by the people they supported, this was below the 78% recorded for care workers and 83% of social care managers.

Social workers were also more likely to report negative experiences than other groups, with 33% saying they had been bullied, compared with 28% of the whole sample.

Not feeling safe

Almost one in four (23%) said they did not feel safe at work, well above the rates for care workers (15%) and social care managers (9%).

More positively, 86% of social workers felt supported by their colleagues all or most of the time, while 69% felt the same about their manager.

However, just 48% would recommend their organisation as a place to work, just below the rate for care workers (52%) and well below that for social care managers (80%).

ORS said it found a “narrative throughout much of the data that the social worker profession is under particular stress”.

“Nearly half of social workers expect to leave the profession in the next five years,” it added. “This highlights some real challenges in maintaining an experienced and qualified workforce.”

Lower vacancy rate than in England

The findings come despite the social worker vacancy rate in Welsh local authorities and council-commissioned services having fallen, from 10.8% to 7.9%, in the year to summer 2022.

This is in contrast to the trend in England, where the rate rose from 16.7% to 20% in children’s services, and from 9.5% to 11.6% in adults’ services, over the same period.

However, Wales is currently struggling to train enough social workers to meet its needs, with Social Care Wales reporting that, of the 326 social workers the country needed to enter the workforce each year, only 202 were qualifying through Welsh courses annually.

And despite the workforce pressures revealed by the ORS report, the Welsh Government has rejected calls from Senedd members to legislate to limit children’s social worker caseloads, on the grounds that it may be counterproductive.