The shortage in children’s social workers in English local authorities is likely to increase over the coming decade, the Department for Education has said.
The DfE has raised the level of risk to its objectives posed by there being insufficient social workers from “moderate” to “critical”, according to its annual report for 2023-24, published last week.
It also said that the risk that the workforce would “[lack] capacity and stability to meet demand, in the context of recruitment and retention challenges” was “very likely” to come to pass during 2024-25.
The assessment is based on the DfE’s latest figures for the workforce, which revealed that, as of September 2023, 18.9% of full-time equivalent children’s social work posts in English councils lay vacant.
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Though this was a fall from a highpoint of 20% in September 2022, it is the second highest level recorded since the DfE started formally collecting the data in 2013.
It also came despite the number of permanently employed social workers reaching a record high.
There was also a rise in the proportion of agency staff in the workforce, from 17.6% to 17.8%, in the year to September 2023, illustrating the scale of the demands on services.
How DfE is addressing workforce gaps
In its annual report, the DfE set out various steps it was taking to address the shortages of children’s social workers, including:
- Training an average of 800 social workers a year through its fast-track programmes, Step Up to Social Work and the Frontline-run Approach Social Work.
- Providing funding last year for councils to support 461 social work apprentices.
- Developing rules to restrict councils’ use of agency social workers in children’s services, which are due to come into force later this year.
- Providing professional development to more than 3,000 children’s social workers each year.
However, though not mentioned in the annual report, the DfE made a significant cut to professional development provision earlier this year when it scrapped the Pathways leadership training programme.
Social worker shortages ‘expected to increase’
Recently, the president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Andy Smith said that there was evidence that the number of agency social workers was coming down, in anticipation of the introduction of the DfE rules.
But in its annual report, the DfE said that it anticipated the problem of social work shortages was going to get worse.
“We expect an increasing shortfall of child and family social workers compared to demand over the next decade,” it stated.
Children’s placements market failure also ‘critical risk’
As in 2022-23, the department also classified a failure in the market for children’s social care placements as a “critical risk” that was “very likely” to be realised.
By this, it meant that “local authorities are unable to access appropriate placements to meet the needs of children in their care and the prices they pay continue to increase”.
It added that there was also a “risk of disorderly exit of some providers from the market which would worsen the position”.
The department said this was driven by “poorly functioning market including poor quality commissioning practice from local authorities and difficulties engaging effectively with providers”.
Care placements driving council budget pressures
The DfE said that the rising costs of placements was a “significant contributor” to a separate critical risk – that of councils’ financial challenges’ “[impeding] delivery of essential support services and reform activity… worsening outcomes for the most vulnerable”.
Authorities are budgeting to increase children’s social care spending by £1.4bn in real-terms in 2024-25, with spending on looked-after children accounting for £933m of this, according to government figures.
They have seen an expansion of the residential sector, with a 44% rise in the number of children’s homes in England from 2020-24, amid a contraction in the number of mainstream foster carers available to look after children.
Concerns about private equity and profit
Annual council spending on private children’s home providers – who run the vast majority of children’s homes – grew by 105% from 2016-22, during which time the number of registered places increased by just 11% (source: Revolution Consulting).
These pressures have been linked to profit levels, particularly among private equity owned organisations, where companies are bought out by investment firms using funds backed by high levels of debt, which must then be serviced through the providers’ profits.
These debt levels are also seen as making it more likely that providers will fail, causing significant disruption to children’s lives. This risk is exacerbated by the fact that several of the largest providers are private equity-run.
How DfE is tackling placement shortages
The department said it was addressing the issue through aspects of the Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy for reforming children’s social care, which was published last year. This included:
- Investing in earlier family support to prevent children going into care. This is a reference to the families first for children pathfinders who are testing the establishment of family help services, merging children in need and targeted early help provision and designed to prevent families needing more intensive interventions.
- Supporting the majority of local authorities with recruiting and retaining foster carers, based on an approach tested in the North East over the past year.
- Funding the development of open and secure children’s homes.
- Testing the establishment of regional care co-operatives (RCCs), which would regionalise the commissioning of care placements, to give councils, collectively, greater ability to shape the market. The DfE had intended to set up two RCC pathfinders to test the approach, but this did not happen before the election.
Looking at how to move away from profit
The DfE also said it was “exploring a range of further options to realign the [children’s social care] market away from profit and towards better outcomes for children in care”.
This is a reference to the work of the market interventions advisory group, set up by the Conservatives to examine how to bring down the cost of placements for children with the most complex needs and tackle “profiteering” by providers (source: Children and Young People Now).
Though published last week, the DfE’s annual report was prepared during the pre-election period, so it is not clear how far the policy plans it set out reflect the views of the new Labour government.
Since coming to power, Labour has said little about its plans for children’s social care. However, it has pledged to legislate, through a Children’s Wellbeing Bill, to strengthen multi-agency child protection arrangements and deliver on the party’s manifesto commitment “to ensure that all children can thrive in safe, loving homes”.
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There are many people who want to become social workers who cannot afford the fees or to go without any pay for 2-3 years.
Make all social work uni courses free and funded with a wage and they will have no end of applicants.
No public worker should be paying to train. Nurses social workers or Dr’s. Police and fire service don’t have to take out student loans but they are male dominated!
They are also not expected to work until they are 67!
I wouldn’t advise anyone to come into the profession I have spent 40 years in it’s shameful we have no voice!
Totally agree Beth. I will be one of those Social Workers moving on and out of social work completely, after spending over 26 years in front-line statutory social work. I am tired, stressed, and over-worked, and it’s not worth it. We are essentially emergency workers, but there is no over-time system, and the excessive workload, means a 60-70 working week is required to meet the minimum needs of the clients on your caseload. The lack of satisfaction and work life balance is shameful and embarrassing, and no more! I need my life and mental health back.
Social work is the only emergency response profession where you need to pull all nighters at times (resulting in a 36 hour shift straight) and never get the pay or time back. 60-70 hour weeks is still an under estimate at times. You share you are on your knees and you get given more work.
I have sat down in the past and broken down the time needed to manage a case load of 53 children.. it does not fit into an 80 hour week!
I did not join the profession to cut corners and provide “just about good enough” standard of work! This is used against the social workers who refuse to give anything but their best and eventually forces good social workers to practice in an unsafe way as they become exhausted and down trodden keep fighting.
After over a decade of CP/Court, I have finally walked away from working in LAs. This has been a heartbreaking decision for me but one I needed to make for my own wellbeing and my family.
We wonder why there is a shortage… maybe walk a month in the shoes of a front line worker, get the managers to do the same, and stop focusing on social care as a business model
I hear you
I did my last social work placement in a child protection team – it was not unusual for a social worker to have 2 court reports to write up in a day – people would literally be crying at their desks- this is an utter disgrace. I have seen people made so Ill that they have had no choice but to leave. To be honest this system is a meat grinder- no one cares as long as there is a bum on the seat
Don’t understand part of the answer is to treat us better is there any other profession who expects the worker to work late in the night of up to 3am in the morning doing statements and the asked why have u not met the target there a total lack of respect although I.understand police nursing have heavy workload they have night shift
Profit over everything.
What a mess.
So much focus on recruitment, but they all burn out due to high caseloads. Why not focus equally on retention
Totally agree. Experienced staff bolster the newly qualified staff – whilst having newly qualified staff expected to support other newly qualified staff is just a recipe for disaster.
Making it harder for agency staff to work in children teams sounds like it’s only going to exacerbate the problems.
There’s no political will for a focus on retention, given what that would mean in terms of reshaping and funding not only social care, but our entire welfare offer. We’re at the end of history now, doing things differently is unthinkable and effectively impossible as far as anyone in authority thinks or cares, so the only option is more meat into the grinder and getting it there faster.
When there is a shortage of plumbers, fees for thier services increase not so with social work . Authorities behave like there is a never ending supply of social workers and take the ‘ if you don’t like it, off you go’ attitude. Now they know different. Unfortunately, social workers are an apolitical bunch these days and see collective bargaining as something for old lefties.
I agree with the idea of courses being fully funded. However, I trained quite a number of students who used the fact that there was a bursary to get a degree and did not intend to practice From students completing and stating they never had any intention as they needed it to go on to drama psychology, therapy and move straight to MA’s in unrelated areas including starting an Air Stewardship with an Airline as they did the course to be more relatable. Soul destroying at times to have put in all that time Developing Others, with no return to the profession in the end.
The outcome may very well continue to be the same.
There should be a policy where your employer pays back your tuition fees as long as you are working for them!
All I can say is UK social work messed up my pride for the profession and had me question the values of social work instilled in my 4 year training period! I will not say anymore but the system is flawed and makes it 10 times harder for the social worker to practice safely. Highly stressful and demanding with little to no satisfaction due to the seemingly ” tick box” nature of the job. The pressures for ” perfect data ” in children’s services is so alarming but the reality is top management is so detached from what social workers are really facing on the ground and what families think of the services.
Agree Dan. The system is broken. No wonder that social workers dot not stay in the profession. I certainly agree with managers ignorance of the front-line, with their emphasis on “tick box” and ensuring that the greedy electronic recording systems are well fed with data. Not what I came into the profession for.
Agree with many of the comments- Vicky, Abdul, Max, David.
I’d like to add that the entire focus of the work has shifted to ‘pleasing’ Ofsted (not fit for purpose) and avoiding complaints to the LA. Councillors have too much influence – quasi politicians interested in themselves; legal teams who argue against SW concerns and tell you how you can’t argue your case rather than supporting yo strengthen – they often suggest ways to work with the case, which is not their role. Increasingly we are expected to ‘work with ‘ families to keep children at home when we should be removing them, the children would have a better chance of a productive snd mentally and physically healthy life, and we wouldn’t be losing foster carers because we wouldn’t be forced to wait until the child is so damaged foster carers give up either on the child or fostering as a whole. As for IFAs – well really, who couldn’t see that coming …..
Govt and general population not interested in looked after children, want ‘something done’ but won’t support what really needs to be done.
Too many rights not enough responsibilities…..
Yes I’ve been a children’s social worker for a loooong time ….depressingly it’s gone down the pan ..
And what about adult social workers? We seem to have been missed off this article and play just as important a role as our colleagues in children’s services.
I don’t think there will be a decrease in the overall number of social workers. I think the role will still be there, but you’ll find us working independently. I think the difficulty is recruiting social workers to work in Local Authority for all the reasons highlighted above.
It would be good to see Community Care promoting independent social workers within their publications. I’ve been an independent social worker for 7 years, working with self funding families supporting ageing parents, and I’ve never seen the ISW role mentioned.
Independent social worker….. working with self funding families supporting ageing parents’ – genuinely don’t know what this means.
Also, it’s very different to LA employed Children’s Social Worker- which fewer and fewer people want to do – your role and ours are incomparable. There doesn’t have to be a declaration about which is more important- the roles are very different, with very different responsibilities and outcomes- that’s it!
I was a social worker for 15 years- 12 years a senior. I have tried to get back to work, only to be told ‘the competition is too great’ by Agencies- I just don’t want to bother anymore- if the social work profession doesn’t want people with experience, they can paddle their own canoe.