Social workers continue to be English local authorities' biggest recruitment and retention challenge, research has found.
Majorities of authorities reported challenges attracting or holding onto social workers across all of children's services, adults' services and mental health, found the Local Government Association (LGA) survey, carried out from October to December 2024.
The results, based on responses from 59 of the 153 councils with social services responsibilities, are similar to those recorded in previous LGA workforce surveys in 2023 and 2022 that all highlighted authorities' particular challenges finding and keeping hold of social workers.
They come despite reductions in vacancies in both children's and adults' services in the year to September 2024, though staff shortages remain significant, particularly in children's services, according to official figures.
Most councils report recruitment and retention difficulties
In relation to recruitment difficulties:
- 80% reported these in relation to children's social workers, the highest of any staffing group.
- 77% said the same in relation to adult social workers, making it the second biggest problem area.
- 63% cited challenges in attracting mental health social workers.
On retention, the three social work roles represented councils' biggest areas of challenge, with 80% citing difficulties in relation to children's practitioners, 61% in relation to adults' staff and 52% in respect of mental health workers.
Market supplements used to attract social workers
They were also the roles for which councils were most likely to offer recruits market supplements - generally time-limited payments in addition to basic salary - to attract staff.
Over two in five authorities (44%) offered these to children's social workers - just below the proportion who did so in 2022 (48%) - with 29% doing so in relation to mental health practitioners and 24% for adults' professionals.
Latest figures on the children's and adults' workforces showed improvements in councils' ability to attract and keep hold of staff without removing the significant challenges they face.
Record numbers of children's practitioners but vacancy rate remains high
Record numbers of full-time equivalent (FTE) children’s social workers were in post - 34,328.2 - in England in September 2024, following an increase of 1,200 posts in the previous 12 months, according to Department for Education figures.
In addition, there was a drop in the turnover rate, from 15.9% to 13.8%, between 2022-23 and 2023-24, while the vacancy rate, which hit a high of 20% in September 2022, fell for a second consecutive year.
However, the scale of staff shortages remained high, with 17.3% FTE posts laying vacant as of September 2024.
The number of social workers in adults' services also reached a record level - 19,200 - in September 2024, while there were also falls in the turnover rate, from 14.5% in 2022-23 to 12.8% in 2023-24, and in the vacancy rate, from 10.5% in September 2023 to 8.8% 12 months later.
