Launch of the BASW Annual Survey of Social Workers and Social Work 2023

The survey of more than 1,200 social workers, which provides important insight into the challenges of the profession as well as the positives,  found that peer support remains the bedrock of positive experiences in the workplace and the majority of respondents also report being happy working in the profession. 

However, 46% felt that excessive workload was their biggest pressure. Staffing levels, access to resources, cuts to local services and the funding of social care also remain areas of core concern. 

These issues also remain the same over the last three years, indicating that change isn’t happening, or isn’t happening quickly enough for the workforce. 

Disappointingly, this year’s findings also show unacceptable experiences of bullying, discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

BASW is holding a live webinar on Wednesday 20th March, 5pm till 6.15pm to examine the key findings from our latest Social Work Survey.  

Commenting on the survey, Ruth Allen, CEO BASW said: “In large numbers, social workers continue to tell us in our annual survey that their working lives are at least frequently frustrated by lack of resources and inadequate staffing and are too often downright hostile making it impossible to do what social workers know is right to serve their communities.

“UK wide statistics on poor retention and difficulties in recruiting show that our survey findings are not anomalies”.

Key findings

• 45.43% of respondents say peer support has a positive impact on their workplace; 44.2% say appropriate level of management/ supervision has a positive impact – an increase from 32.27% in 2022;
• 46.91% identified adequacy of staffing levels as one of the biggest challenges in their workplace;
• 67.49% identified cuts to local services as one of the biggest challenges facing the profession in the immediate future, the first time this has been selected more often than the funding of social care (62.22% in 2023)
• 65.19% reported that the people with whom they work are negatively impacted by issues related to the climate crisis and/or environmental degradation
• 76.63% say access to local green spaces has a positive impact on the people with whom they work;
• 64.61% of respondents report not being able to complete all their work during their contracted hours;
• 50.21% reported not feeling able to manage their current workload;
• 41.15% reported having experienced bullying, harassment and/or discrimination in the past 12 months, or were aware of someone that had;
• Respondents’ views on how the public perceive social work and social workers, already negative in 2021 and 2022, worsened further in 2023

BASW action: Lobbying for social work

• BASW will continue to use these results to push for better conditions for the workforce, both in the workplace and at the broader level of policy. 
• BASW is producing a manifesto of key calls for change ahead of the upcoming general election. 
• Campaign to improve public perception of an often misunderstood and misrepresented profession through the social work journalism awards, and joint campaigning with SWU. 
• Continue to influence UK parliamentarians in the interests of the social work profession.

Thank you to every social worker and social work student who took the time to complete the 2023 survey and share their views with us.