Social workers say cuts to public services pose greatest challenge to profession

The British Association of Social Workers’ (BASW) Annual Survey of Social Workers and Social Work finds that “staffing levels, access to resources, workload, cuts to local services and the funding of social care remain areas of core concern for respondents”.

Of more than 1,215 social workers who responded, 67.5% said they considered cuts to public services “to be the biggest challenge for the social work profession now and in the immediate future”.

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Social workers were given the option to highlight three areas they felt were having the biggest negative impact.

Some 62% of respondents chose failure to adequately fund social care, while 41% highlighted recruitment and retention issues.

Earlier this month Birmingham Council made what are believed to be the biggest cuts in local authority history including a £100 million reduction budgets for children and families services.

In last year’s survey, the failure of government to adequately fund social care was seen as the biggest challenge for the profession, according to 68 per cent of respondents, recruitment and retention ranked second and was chosen by 54 per cent of respondents.

Meanwhile, in the most recent survey, more than two-thirds of social workers said they were unable to complete their work during contracted hours while almost a quarter said they worked an extra five to 10 hours per week to manage their caseloads.

More than two-thirds of respondents said they are not paid for working extra hours.

BASW chief executive Ruth Allen and chair Julie Ross raised concerns over high levels of bullying, harassment and discrimination experienced by respondents – with more than 41% saying they had either experience it themselves over the last 12 months or is aware of someone who has.

Allen and Ross said: “Disappointingly, this year’s findings also show that experiences of bullying, discrimination and harassment in the workplace are still being confronted by a substantial minority of participants, something we have in common with other professions including health.”

Other key issues raised in the survey include 45% of respondents saying that peer support has a positive impact on their workplace and 44% saying that an appropriate level of supervision has a positive impact on their work – an increase from 32.27% in 2022.

Some 60% of social workers agreed or strongly agreed that they were happy in the profession while 28% said they disagreed or strongly disagreed with statement. Others stated that the question was not applicable or did not answer.