Comment: DfE longitudinal study of social workers

ADCS President, John Pearce, said:

“The latest phase of this study includes important insights from child and family social workers for local authorities to take away, including reasons why they choose to stay in, or leave the profession and factors that influence their wellbeing. We certainly recognise many of the issues raised in these responses, and as employers we are working hard to create the conditions in which social work can flourish. For example, we are committed to ensuring social workers are well supported, have manageable workloads and that they receive regular, reflective supervision, amongst others, clearly there is more for us to do.

“Every social worker I have spoken to comes into the profession to make a difference and it is positive that this is reflected in this study and that most child and family social workers surveyed plan to remain in the profession in 12 months time. It is vital that we have a strong consistent and permanent workforce to support children and families, but we are seeing more of our workforce turn to agency. Social workers may choose to move into agency work for a variety of reasons including higher pay, as the survey suggests, during a cost of living crisis it is unsurprising that people might consider leaving their jobs for higher paid roles. Local authorities are looking at their own employment offer so that it better reflects what social workers want and need, but we need the government’s support to improve workforce sufficiency and eagerly await its response to the consultation on the agency social work workforce. We urge government to implement the proposed changes in full so that we can move away from the unaffordable costs, and profiteering, that’s associated with agency social work.

“There is a national shortage of social workers which only adds to the pressures facing our staff. High quality social work can change lives and we need more social workers to choose to work and stay in the profession to meet the growing levels of need evident in our communities. Local authorities are working hard to recruit and retain staff in their areas, and we urgently need the Department for Education to support us with this by funding a national recruitment and retention campaign which clearly explains the positive work that social workers do every single day.”

ENDS

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