Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of social workers (a) nationally and (b) in York.

The government works closely with local authorities to recognise and understand their workforce pressures, and to ensure there are enough high-quality child and famil social workers in the system. The government is supporting the recruitment and retention of social workers through:

• Investment in fast-track programmes like Frontline and Step Up to Social Work.
• Supporting newly qualified social workers through the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment.
• Providing leadership training for practice supervisors, leaders and directors.
• Improving the quality of higher education institution based initial training and continuing professional development.

The number of child and family social workers is increasing every year, up over 10% from 28,500 in 2017 to 31,000 in 2020.

Local authorities are responsible for determining the appropriate social work practice model and staffing levels to ensure high quality assessment and support for all children who need them. Local authorities are also responsible for the training and development of their children’s social care workforce. Ofsted inspects local authorities to ensure that children’s services meet the needs of the local population.

The department collects information about the children’s social work workforce in English local authorities. This does not include social workers in adult social care, or child and family social workers not working for local authorities. The latest statistics cover 30 September 2020, and are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-s-social-work-workforce. The statistics for 2021 will be published on 24 February 2022. On 30 September 2020, there were 31,854 full time equivalent children’s social workers employed by local authorities in England. Of these, 98 were employed by York.

The government is committed to improving the social work workforce, including better leadership, training and development, recruitment and retention, and reduced agency use. The department is also seeking to increase the amount of time social workers have with families, all of which, including pay, are factors being looked into as part of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care that Josh MacAlister is leading on.