Adult Social Worker and children’s social work health check findings published

The LGA have published report findings of the health check surveys 2018

Social work is an immensely rewarding career but as the Local Government Association’s health checks indicate, it remains an incredibly challenging profession too. 

View the full Adult social worker report 

View the Children’s social work health check survey 2018 - report of findings, November 2018 here.

Although there are positive messages from the health checks, familiar barriers to good practice remain such as high stress levels in the workplace, excessive caseloads, the challenges of hot-desking, covering for colleagues who are sick and onerous admin procedures.

These issues were highlighted in Dr Jermaine Ravalier’s recent study ‘UK Social Workers: Working conditions and wellbeing 2018’, which was commissioned by BASW/SWU in response to the growing number of social workers contacting us for help, guidance and support.

It is still a great concern that Dr Ravalier’s research showed most social workers work an extra 10 hours a week unpaid to meet their workload and protect vulnerable people. This, added to other challenges, are contributing to over half of the workforce considering leaving the profession.

“To say that social work is a challenging profession is of course something of an understatement. We all know the impact on social workers from funding cuts to services and staffing.  These are an on-going challenge and BASW and SWU will continue our battle to fight them,” said John McGowan, general secretary of Social Workers Union (SWU).

“We need to remember that early social work involvement in a vulnerable person's life can greatly improve their quality of life and life-opportunities. Without this support they may need increased intervention later in life from a range of agencies, which most likely will cost more to the taxpayer and may reduce the quality of life for vulnerable people.”