Help shine a light on social workers’ experience of learning

Continuous learning is critical to high-quality social work practice, but the demands of the job can mean time to carry out skills and knowledge development is squeezed out.

Community Care Inform has just launched the latest wave of its Learning Landscapes research, to shine a light on social workers and other social care practitioners’ experiences of learning.

We want to find out how much time you have for learning, how sufficient this is and what the barriers are to you receiving the development time you need.

We also want to understand how well supported you are to learn by your employer, what your learning preferences are and how far these are met in your workplace.

Our last survey, carried out in 2024, found that most social workers had less time for learning than they did 12 months previously, including because of high caseloads and vacancy levels, affecting their career development, confident and resilience.

We shared these results with sector leaders and employers to help them understand the realities of learning and development for their practitioners, in order to support positive change.

Community Care Inform is calling on practitioners to take part in this year’s research so that we can showcase – to employers and more widely – how things have changed since 2024 and promote improvements in learning and practice.

By taking part, you can also be entered into a draw to receive a £50 gift voucher from One4All.

Take part in the research now.