Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the reasons for which the number of full-time equivalent children and family social workers leaving between October 2021 and September 2022 was the highest since the collection of figures began in 2017; and what steps she plans to take to increase the recruitment and retention of children and family social workers.

Social workers play a valuable role in supporting the most vulnerable in society and the department is committed to ensuring there is an excellent child and family social worker for everyone who needs one. We recognise the ongoing challenge facing local authorities across the country in recruiting and retaining child and family social workers, with reasons for social workers leaving the profession being varied and complex. However, the current number of full time-equivalent social workers is still higher than it was in 2017.

The department currently invests more than £50 million every year on recruiting, training and developing child and family social workers to ensure the workforce has the capacity, skills and knowledge to support and protect vulnerable children.

Through the fast track and development programmes, the department trains an average of 800 new social workers and provides professional development for around 4,000 others. This includes leadership training, which we know plays an important role in improving recruitment and retention.

On 2 February 2023, the department published its care reform strategy, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which sets out proposals to help stabilise the workforce. This includes supporting the recruitment of up to 500 social worker apprenticeships, a new Early Career Framework that will set out the development plans for a social worker’s first five years, and proposals to reduce the sector’s overreliance on agency social workers, which will all play an important role in helping to improve recruitment and retention.