Proposals to set national safe working limits, calculated by an algorithm, to help retain social workers have been met with skepticism by practitioners.
While most respondents to a Community Care poll thought the idea had potential, they said it was dependent on how it was implemented.
The proposals for safe working limits came from the national workload action group (NWAG), which was commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2023 to examine how unnecessary drivers of children's social worker workloads could be tackled.
The NWAG project report, published in September 2025, warned that the absence of national guidance on workloads had left children’s practitioners working extra unpaid hours and feeling unsafe in their practice.
The proposed limits would be calculated using a “complex” algorithm, underpinned by improvements in data collection and high-quality workforce statistics to accurately monitor and measure workloads.
Workload limits 'a potential solution to retention issues'
A Community Care poll with 1554 respondents revealed that 14% backed the NWAG's argument that national workload limits would help retain social workers and that local policies had been ineffective.
The majority - 56% - felt the idea had potential, but would only work if the algorithm effectively captured case complexity and practitioners were consulted on it.
The remaining 30% believed employers would never enforce national limits due to ongoing service pressures.
DfE sidesteps call for national workload limits
In its response to the NWAG report, the DfE acknowledged workloads as an “urgent challenge”, but did not address the call for safe working limits.
Instead, it pledged to work with the sector “to explore how to better support social work leaders in managing caseloads effectively” and share good practice.
The department also posted resources on managing workloads, developed by Research in Practice for the NWAG project, on the DfE’s support for social workers platform.
Social workers report cases far higher than DfE average
In the comments of the related article, Steve Buckley was one of many children’s practitioners criticising the high caseloads they were carrying, which often far exceeded the average of 15.4 calculated by the DfE for 2024.
“At any given time, working as a social worker in a children’s service, I along with my colleagues managed a caseload of between 25 and 30 families,” he said. "I don't know where the DfE get their figures from."
Louise also expressed disbelief at the DfE figure, saying she had managed 18–22 cases while working part-time, and “over 50” at one point when full-time.
Meanwhile, adult mental health social worker Tony Cumbrian admitted to feeling “hammered” by the workload and expectations of his role.
“The entire social care system, the laws, and the societal expectation of what services should or can do is outmoded and unrealistic for the resources there is,” he added.
“In a society of ever increasing need and ever-restricted resources, the outcomes are only ever going to get worse.”
Social workers leaving the sector over workloads
A number of practitioners said high workloads and burnout had ultimately driven them out of social work altogether.
M Wilson left social work after 15 years, citing excessive caseloads and long hours with “no support” that took away time from family and personal life.
“[I] often [had] to step in when [there was] no transport to take looked-after children home, supervise contacts [and] undertake visits for sick colleagues,” they said.
“Hours and absolute hours of unpaid time.”
Abdul, who qualified in 1998, left children’s social care earlier this year after finding himself working “70 hours a week” and unable to keep up with the workload.
“It got to the stage that I was working seven days a week, and working each day until midnight at home on the laptop,” he said.
“I realised my health and safety were more important, the working practice was unsafe and there was zero support from managers (who knew how long and how hard I was working, and not one ‘thank you’).”
He described the period as “lonely and depressing”, with little opportunity to maintain relationships outside work.
“It’s a job you give your all and you get very little back in return.”
‘More paperwork than ever’
He was echoed by Mohammed, who said practitioners often ended up playing catch up with work to the detriment of their personal life.
“There is less contact with clients and more paperwork than ever,” he said.
“This needs a serious look at immediately for the welfare of the social workers [working] now and [those] who are qualifying.”
Gill Berry noted that while excessive workloads and turnover have long characterised the profession, government initiatives tend to be short-lived and fail to tackle the root cause.
“The DfE seems to be reinventing the wheel rather than tackling the core problem - sustained underinvestment in social work and the wider system that supports it.”
Work to rule
Leslie M, who has worked in the sector for 35 years, said that “nothing has changed” in that period, citing “ever-increasing and complex caseloads, outdated and defunct IT, and a top-heavy, ineffective management system”
She argued that social workers should work to rule - working no more hours than are set out in their contracts - as the only route to “meaningful and progressive” change.
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