Duo joins forces to deliver workforce survey for Social Care Wales

Bath Spa University (BSU) and The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) have been successful in their bid to refine and deliver the 2023/24 workforce survey to social care workers in Wales.

Commissioned by Social Care Wales, the regulator of the social care workforce in Wales, the contract will see the partnership deliver the next annual workforce survey in January 2024 and follows a successful feasibility study carried out earlier this year. 

The survey findings will provide important insight into workforce views about the sector, including recruitment and retention, pay and conditions, and wellbeing.

Professor Jermaine M Ravalier, a professor of Organisational Psychology and Social Justice at Bath Spa University will be leading the research project, with project management support from BASW. 

On the partnership, Professor Ravalier commented: “We have been working with BASW since 2018 to develop a range of workforce surveys and qualitative research engagement and we’re really very excited about this new project. 

“This survey will gather intelligence from registered social care workers across Wales to help gain a deeper insight into their views about the sector, recruitment and retention, pay and conditions, health and wellbeing and their future training and development needs.

“Our unique partnership means that this insight will build on over six years of longitudinal data and allow us to work with Social Care Wales to make comparisons against workforce data collected across Wales, the UK and globally to identify key trends in experience.”

The findings from this survey and the pilot study will help inform policy and operational decisions for Social Care Wales, the Welsh Government and sponsored bodies, local authorities and other stakeholders in social care and social work.

Professor Samantha Baron, National Director for BASW Cymru, said: “Our approach is distinctive in that it integrates world-leading research with a deep understanding of the profession and its workforce. 

“By working together with Professor Ravalier and Social Care Wales we’re confident we’ll be able to maximise engagement and outreach to all social care roles and disseminate results to help inform the future policy and operational decisions in this critical sector.”

The survey will go live in January 2024 and be open for six weeks. The questions will be available online in both English and Welsh and take just 20 minutes to complete. 

If you’re a registered social care worker or employer and would like to find out more, please visit our survey hub.

More information about the pilot survey and findings can be found online here.