13k more children's social workers needed over next decade

The number of children’s social workers will have to grow by a third in England and Wales over the next ten years to cope with increasing need, councils have warned.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents authorities in the two countries, called for a workforce strategy for the sector. 

It said this should include a national recruitment drive with more government-funded training programmes, apprenticeships and bursaries.

It is also urging Westminster to reboot the Return to Social Work scheme set up during Covid to bring back social workers who have left the profession.

A recent study by the County Councils Network estimates an additional 10,000 children will become looked after by the end of this decade without action.

Against this backdrop, the LGA research estimates 13,000 more children’s social workers will be needed by 2034, raising the total by almost a third from 32,952 now to 45,989.

It says the increase is necessary to ensure every child who needs a social worker gets one and to facilitate a shift in focus onto preventative work to support families.

Cllr Arooj Shah, chair of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said: “It is vital we invest in early help and support so that fewer children and families see their needs escalating and requiring support from children’s social care.

"Without this investment, there will need to be thousands of additional children and family social workers hired over the next decade.
“To make sure we have the number of social workers needed to support children effectively, we are calling on the government to work with us on a workforce strategy that focuses on both recruitment and retention, including a national recruitment drive, training programmes and bursaries”

Cllr Shah said work was needed to promote children’s social work as a “positive, enriching and rewarding” career.

He added: “Sadly it is often a role that only gets attention when things go wrong.”

According to the LGA, 3,500 people will need to start training to become a children and families social worker every year “for the foreseeable future”.

The warning comes amid rising vacancy rates in children’s services as social workers quit citing stressful working conditions, including high caseloads and lack of resources.

In 2022, the vacancy rate among children’s social workers in England hit a record high of 20 per cent, dropping slightly to 18.9 per cent last year.

Local authorities have had to increasingly rely on agency workers to plug gaps. Last year 17.8 per cent of children’s social workers were employed via an agency.