BASW General Election Blog: Develop a Social Work Workforce Strategy

Social work can be the most inspiring, fulfilling, and stimulating career. However, as a profession, we know that we are experiencing a recruitment and retention crisis. 

The Children’s Social Care Workforce report, released in February 2024, tells us that in child and family social work alone, there are 7700 vacancies across England.  In 2023, Skills for Care told us that across England, adult social work was operating with a 10.5% vacancy rate, down just over 1% from the previous year. 

Social work is devolved in the UK, so for the purposes of this election BASW’s manifesto is focused on what Westminster can do to address staffing challenges in England, while campaigning is ongoing in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to make the case to the devolved administrations responsible for social work in those nations.

A substantial body of evidence, that could be used to inform change, already exists in England. A five-year Department for Education funded study specifically exploring recruitment, retention and career progression (DfE 2019 – 2023), briefings by key stakeholders (Research in Practice 2024) and a vast peer reviewed research evidence base. 

What are the challenges?

We know that hybrid working, despite its benefits, is having an impact on practice models, meaning more unsustainable long-distance management and less face-to-face supervision and support.  It is therefore disappointing that, considering this evidence, the Department for Education has ended the Pathways Programme, which supported practitioners into leadership positions and encouraging progression – a key pull factor for retention. 

The cost of living is enticing practitioners away from permanent roles and into agency posts, with a record 17.6% of child and family social work positions in England being filled by agency workers in September 2022.  Whilst acknowledging the rich and diverse knowledge of agency practitioners, instability in the workforce has been consistently recognised as damaging for both workplace culture and the families that social workers support. More needs to be done to reconcile practitioner’s needs for flexibility and better pay and conditions, with the stability of permanent work.

Overseas recruitment has been piloted by many authorities in a bid to fill vacancies but, with ever-changing restrictive visa requirements and research consistently showing entrenched structural racism within the practice environment, this approach needs further attention.  BASW recently launched their Overseas Qualified Social Worker Programme and developed International Recruitment and Induction Standards. These important schemes need publicly supported and promoting by both the regulator and central government.

Within social work education, student social worker numbers on traditional routes are falling, and many programmes across England are at risk of closing due to low enrolment numbers.  The limited and outdated student bursary system, which has seen its funding frozen since 2015, is certainly not helping to widen access to becoming a social worker. So BASW and SWU are campaigning for the government to replace it with a fairer model that delivers better funding support for students.

The success of work-based routes to qualification, such as the Step up to Social Work programme, and the new apprenticeship route are welcome additions. The implications of these, particularly the apprenticeship, on the HEI sector, and on opportunities for overseas-qualified workers to gain the experience required to register with SWE, need further consideration and long-term planning. 

What are the Solutions?

It is essential for the future of the profession that our regulator and central government stop commissioning more expensive research and delaying action. No more research is needed. From the wealth of existing evidence, we know that pay and conditions, workload pressures, workplace culture, well-being, and the lack of career progression all need urgent attention. 

Now, central government, in partnership with Social Work England, needs to act. They must unite with key stakeholders to utilise the existing research to develop a national, evidence-based strategy to support recruitment, retention, and growth.

This is why BASW has put forward a clear ask to the next UK Government to work with them to develop a nationwide recruitment strategy in England, focused on promoting the social work profession, increasing public awareness and understanding of its role, and encouraging more people to choose it as a career. 

Alongside this, BASW will also be calling in the next parliament for a comprehensive review of social work pay, terms, career pathways and working conditions in England; with a view to ensuring that the existing workforce is better resourced, supported and respected. A campaign for nationally agreed terms and conditions is already underway in Scotland, pioneered by SASW.

Only by tackling both the recruitment and retention challenges in tandem can we safeguard and promote our profession’s future and influence, helping it to thrive for our workforce, our communities, and the people we serve. 

Dr Sarah Pollock is a registered social worker currently working as a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University.