Almost a third of social worker sick days caused by stress

Figures collected by the British Psychological Society (BPS) found that 30 per cent of a total of 500,021 sick days among social workers are due to emotional wellbeing issues.

In addition, the BPS found that stress and mental health problems are the most common reasons for social worker sickness among more than three in four councils.

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From April last year to the end of March a total of 1.6m days were lost to sickness among children’s and adult social care staff, across 114 councils.

This is “against a backdrop of a debilitating recruitment and retention crisis, unmanageable workloads and soaring local authority spending on agency social care staff”, warned the BPS.

“Health and social care leaders simply can’t afford not to invest in staff wellbeing if they wish to retain staff, recruit new talent, and provide the effective, safe services people deserve. 

“We urge them to commit to long-term ring-fenced funding for dedicated mental health and wellbeing support for health and care staff.”

The BPS says its findings highlight the need for further funding for NHS Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs, which provide mental health support to health and social care staff.

However, government funding ended in March this year and at least 15 of 42 hubs have already closed or are set to close.

Among those that have closed is the Keeping Well in South East London Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub, which supported social care and health staff across six boroughs in the capital, visiting 110 care organisations and providing mental health support to 448 care staff.

In March the British Association of Social Workers’ annual survey found that three quarters of social workers were reporting they were unable to complete all their work within their contracted hours.

This survey found that lack of funding as well as recruitment and retention issues were the biggest concerns among social workers.