Social work is a relationship-based profession and practitioners must be able to spend time with the people who use their services, building trust as they support them to overcome their challenges they face.
BASW NI has been campaigning to reduce unnecessary and duplicative bureaucracy in social work for more than a decade. We will continue in this work until meaningful change is delivered for our profession.
We aim to rejuvenate our campaign and will shortly establish a group to inform our work to reduce bureaucracy in social work. If you would like to become involved in this work, or to find out more about the campaign, please email BASW NI Public Affairs, Policy and Communications Lead, Andy McClenaghan at andy.mcclenaghan@basw.co.uk.
Work undertaken so far
Social Work not Paperwork: Cutting Bureaucracy in Childcare Social Work (2012)
In 2012, BASW NI published Social Work not Paperwork: Cutting Bureaucracy in Childcare Social Work. The report highlighted that over two thirds of children’s services social workers spent less than 30% of their working week in direct client contact.
Report writing, recording in client files and entering information into computer systems were identified by the vast majority of social workers as activities which limit the time they have to spend with service users.
Among BASW NI’s recommendations outlined in the report were calls for employers to examine the availability and role of administrative support for social workers and for the Health and Social Care Board to examine ways to reduce duplication in recording. The Association also recommended the social work strategy should lead on a review of recording requirements, explore practical ways to reduce bureaucracy and administration, and identify ways in which Information Technology could be used to reduce the administrative burden.
A Blueprint for Change for Adult Services Social Work in Northern Ireland (2014)
2014’s, A Blueprint for Change, outlined the findings of a survey of social workers working in adult services in both the statutory and voluntary sectors in Northern Ireland.
Practitioners were asked which issues prevented them from spending time in face-to-face work with people who use services. Two of the three most pressing issues identified concerned bureaucratic activities. Recording onto client notes was highlighted by three-quarters of social workers, and completing forms to access services was raised by two-thirds.
The report highlights a typical example of a social worker receiving a referral from a GP about a 78-year-old woman with a history of angina and limited mobility living alone and struggling to cope.
This single referral prompted 13 hours 15 minutes spent on documentation and bureaucracy, with just four and a half hours spent with the service user.
Solutions focused in its outlook, BASW NI urged a review of recording requirements, with a view to reducing unnecessary paperwork and duplication. The Association also called for social work teams to have adequate administration support, recognising too many social workers spend large amounts of time carrying out non-social work tasks.
BASW NI also recommended a review the Northern Ireland Single Assessment Tool (NISAT), and increased use of IT systems and technology solutions to enable social workers to spend significantly more time engaged in therapeutic face-to-face interventions with people who use services.
Above and Beyond: At What Cost? (2016)
In 2016, our report Above and Beyond: At What Cost? highlighted that four years on from Social Work not Paperwork, social workers continued to identify the burden of bureaucracy as an obstacle to spending time with the service users they work to help.
Nearly half of the social workers who participated in the research reported the burden of paperwork and lack of administrative support as the single or joint greatest challenge they faced in their role. In response to the findings, BASW NI reaffirmed its call for social work teams to have adequate dedicated administrative support to ensure social workers spend the majority of their time engaging directly with service users and carers. The Association also urged the Department of Health to establish a task force to take forward a whole systems approach to tackling unnecessary bureaucracy.
Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services—Core Social Work Roles Survey (2023)
A key aspect of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services was the question of which additional skills are required in social work teams to enable practitioners to spend more time in direct contact with service users. In early 2023 BASW NI and the NI Social Care Council surveyed social workers to gather their views. The results were outlined in the report, Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services—Core Social Work Roles Survey: Research Findings.
Three quarters of social workers highlighted administrative tasks as a factor which hinder the completion of key social work activities. Furthermore, while nearly two-thirds of social workers highlighted administration / bureaucracy as a task or one of a number of tasks they spend most of their time on, half consider it as something that could be undertaken by non-social workers.
In response, two-thirds of social workers explained the addition of administrative support staff to their team would lead to improvements for the children and families they work with.
The final report of the Independent Review notes that social work teams should have a wider skills mix, to include, among various additional roles, administrative assistants.