One in seven children's social worker posts unfilled
Neil Puffett
Friday, March 7, 2014
More than 3,800 children's social workers are needed to fill vacancies across local authorities in England, figures published by the government have shown.
Data collated by the Department for Education shows that, as of September last year, there were 24,890 children’s social workers across England, the equivalent of 22,910 full-time positions.
However, councils said they require around 3,850 more social workers to fill an estimated 3,610 full-time equivalent posts – a vacancy rate of 14 per cent – meaning around one in seven jobs is unfilled.
The DfE statistics represent the first release of information as part of the children’s social care workforce data collection, which is to be published on an annual basis.
They show that across the country authorities have turned to agency social workers to fill vacancies.
A total of 3,390 agency staff are currently employed – the equivalent of 3,250 full-time positions – representing 12 per cent of the entire workforce across England.
The figures also show that:
- Nearly one in seven children’s social workers left their job in the year ending 30 September 2013 – a turnover rate of 15 per cent
- A total of 240,000 days (four per cent of the total days) were lost in sickness absence
- And the average number of children in need for each children’s social worker in England was 17
But the average statistics mask huge variations between different local authorities.
The number of children in need per social worker varied from six in North Lincolnshire to 36 in Croydon.
In terms of vacancies, seven local authorities – City of London, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Isles of Scilly, Rutland, Sheffield and Tameside – had no vacancies, whereas the highest vacancy rate was in Bexley with 50 per cent.
Meanwhile, only the two smallest local authorities – the City of London and the Isles of Scilly – had no turnover. The highest turnover rate was in Croydon where 82 per cent of staff moved on during the 12-month period.
Children’s minister Edward Timpson said the figures will help councils make sure staffing and caseloads are managed properly, so that children’s services are both consistent and high quality.
“We’re reforming child protection so social workers have the skills and space to use their professional judgement, and have appointed a chief social worker to ensure the best practice prevails.
“We’re overhauling the training and education of social workers following Sir Martin Narey’s review – giving trainees the expertise they need, and giving employers more confidence in newly qualified recruits.
“We’ve also launched the new fast-track Frontline training programme to attract the brightest and best to social work, and spent more than £400m on the social work bursary and our Step Up to Social Work programme to make sure there are enough highly skilled staff to meet demand.”
Annie Hudson, chief executive of The College of Social Work said the statistics illustrate a complex national picture in terms of social worker turnover and use of agency staff in local authorities.
"They suggest that there are wide variations, with worryingly high staff turnover in some areas," she added.
“A range of factors can impact on a local authority’s ability to recruit and retain good social work staff; for example, poor Ofsted inspection reports, workload pressures or being a neighbour to a higher performing borough can all have an effect.
"Investment in high quality continuous professional development (CPD) is pivotal to retaining skilled social work professionals, as is the provision of high quality supervision and a supportive organisational culture.
"The College of Social Work works with practitioners and managers to help provide the right conditions for confident and effective social work practice”
“The data about differing numbers of children in need per social worker across local authorities needs further investigation.
"There are likely to be some variations due to differing levels of experience and the complexity of family needs.
"What is very important is that social workers have manageable workloads backed up with good management support and supervision."