Our profession is facing a workforce crisis: Social Work England

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 21 March, 2023

The “workforce crisis” in social work is undeniable, has been decades in the making and needs a national strategy to resolve, a senior leader at England's regulator of the profession has said.

Sarah Blackmore, an executive director at Social Work England, called for a “whole system change”. But she urged against “simple” solutions, such as banning all agency workers or giving more social work tasks to social care workers.

Blackmore was speaking during a webinar to mark its Social Work Week celebrations.

She said: “I don't think many people would disagree that there is currently a workforce crisis across the social work profession.   

“This has not happened overnight and has been building for many years now. We now have what seems like a perfect storm due, among other reasons, to the cost of living crisis and societal issues affecting our most vulnerable families and communities."

Blackmore said high caseloads, inflexible working practices, a perceived low status and credibility of the profession, and negative perceptions and media representation of the profession were adding to the crisis.

A collective response to recruitment and retention is needed, she said, but claimed there was a “sense of naivety” in the solutions put forward by some commentators.

“So for example, if we just ban all agency work, that'll solve the problem. Well, of course it won't. If we just bring in lots of international social workers that'll solve the problem. Well, of course it won't.

“Or if we just give social work tasks to social care workers, that'll solve the problem. Of course it won't.

“This complex situation that has arisen over decades will take all of us involved in the system - be it the regulator, local authority, employer, agency, education provider, government departments - to take a good hard look at ourselves and ask difficult questions about how we may have contributed to where we are now, and what we could do differently to bring about change, however difficult that change may be.

"Nothing should be off the table. It's time to have those difficult conversations, constructively challenge one another and be positively disruptive.”

Simply banning agency workers was a “red herring”, said Blackmore.

“There will never be a time when social work will not need some element of agency workers. Issues arise [within] the practices of some agencies and it is only some who are unacceptable.

“For example, the ones who will only sell a very expensive team of workers, or who encourage social workers to breach their professional standards by telling them they won't have to do face-to-face visits.”

Recruitment from other countries has too often shown a “knee-jerk” approach where workers from overseas lacked cultural and pastoral support, said Blackmore.

She added: “There are also important ethical considerations of moving social workers from countries where there is already great need for them to deal with a problem that we have not addressed.”

Blackmore warned social work had to be wary of its duties being delegated to the wider non-qualified social care workforce.

“There is a real risk here in the gradual erosion of the integrity of the social work profession if we continue to say that work previously only qualified registered social workers could carry out can be done by unqualified workers.

“What are the longer term implications for our profession? Who manages the risks associated with this? And what does this mean for social care provision, which is badly needed where it is?”

Blackmore added: "It's time for a national workforce strategy for social work in the same way that the NHS has the five-year forward view."

Social Work England is commissioning research to provide an evidence base for reform and is holding roundtable discussions with other stakeholders on the way forward.

Blackmore said it was easy to feel “utterly depressed” by the “seismic and complex issues” facing the workforce, but stressed: “There is hope and opportunity, and perhaps for the first time a universal recognition of the fact that change is needed and must come and [there is] a willingness to step up from those who are in a position to bring that about.”

The crisis facing the workforce was also highlighted by Skills for Care which has strategic responsibility for the development of adult social care workers in England.

Its director of operations, Tricia Pereira, said: "What Covid did was put the spotlight on the long standing workforce challenges. There is a record demand [for services] against a backdrop of record numbers of social workrs leaving. As of last September there were around 2,000 vacant [adult] social worker roles in [English] local authorities. 

'"We've seen high increases  of reports around burnout, stress, trauma and moral injury following the pandemic and as a result there's an average of around 12 days of sickness [a year] which equates to around 187,000 lost working days."

She said things like good reflective supervision and having time to explore good practice and opportunitites to "stop for a moment and actually breathe" rather than being on the "never-ending treadmill" helped with staff retention.