Invest in mental health social work to meet key NHS objectives, government told

The government should invest in mental health social work to meet its key objectives for the NHS, Think Ahead has said.

Recruiting more social workers will help mental health services move from “hospital to the community” and “from sickness to prevention”, two of three overarching goals set by Labour for the NHS, the training provider claimed.

However, the profession is not being prioritised by the health service, with practitioners facing “unacceptably high caseloads”, it warned.

Profession not mentioned in workforce plan

And despite about 3,600 full-time equivalent mental health social workers working in the NHS as of 2022, the profession was not mentioned once in last year’s NHS long-term workforce plan, published under the Conservatives.

Think Ahead, which runs a fast-track course to train people as mental health social workers, made the claims in a submission to a government consultation designed to shape the forthcoming 10-year plan for the NHS.

It said supporting mental health recovery involved addressing the social challenges people faced – such as housing, poverty or relationship issues – alongside clinical care, with social workers being ideally placed to carry out this role.

Lack of investment in mental health social work

However, this was being stymied by a lack of investment in the workforce that left practitioners “overstretched” and carrying “unacceptably high caseloads”.

As a result, they were only able to respond to people in crisis and were unable to carry out the relationship-based practice needed to help them navigate complex challenges in their lives, build independence and overcome barriers to treatment.

Though the number of mental health social workers in the NHS grew by 20% from 2019-22, Think Ahead said some trusts saw the profession as a “nice to have”, rather than critical to service delivery.

Councils withdrawing social workers from joint teams

And over the past several years, several councils have withdrawn social workers from integrated NHS-based teams by dissolving partnership agreements under section 75 of the NHS Act 2006.

Think Ahead pointed to a recent report on out of area placements by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body, which cited this issue and said that placing social workers in integrated mental health teams could speed up hospital discharge.

“When leaving hospital, service users may have lost their homes, their jobs, relationships may have suffered, they may even be in a new area of the country,” said Think Ahead. “Embedding social work within post-hospital care means that these social issues can be improved, tackling isolation, and reducing chance of re-admission.”

The government is planning to refresh the NHS workforce plan next year, and Think Ahead said this should set targets to grow the number of mental health social workers, which should be adopted by integrated care boards.

The Change NHS consultation runs until spring 2025.