Social workers continuing to struggle with workload, admin and increasing need, finds 'health check'

Social workers are continuing to struggle with workload, administrative burdens and increasing need, according to an annual survey of professionals in England.

The Local Government Association's (LGA) 2025 health check, answered by almost 7,000 social workers, mostly from English councils, showed no improvement in practitioners' experiences of, and wellbeing in, the workplace compared with last year.

As with the 2024 check, the key challenges flagged up by practitioners were around being asked to do "more with less" and tasks that had little or no impact on outcomes, along with rising severity of need.

However, there were slightly improvements in average practitioner satisfaction in relation to half of The standards for employers of social workers in England, which set voluntary expectations of how organisations support staff to work safely and effectively.

Assessing social workers' views on the implementation of the standards is the prime purpose of the health check, though it also asks a series of other questions on practitioners' workplace wellbeing and experiences.

Social workers satisfied with remote working support

Overall, the average score across these questions was 66 out of 100, similar to last year's 67.

The most positive results came in relation to two questions about support with remote and online working.

On whether respondents had access to the practice guidance and technology they needed to work online or remotely with people using services and colleagues, adults' practitioners' average score was 86, children's staff's was 84 and mental health social workers' 81.

Likewise, there were average scores of 83 for adults' staff, 81 for children's social workers and 79 for mental health practitioners in relation to whether their organisation equipped them with the digital literacy required to use technology effectively for remote working.

Practitioners 'doing more with less' and facing rising need

However, scores were significantly lower in relation to questions relating to the pressures on practitioners and their workloads:

• On whether they were not often required to do more with less resources, adults' practitioners averaged 52, children's staff 49 and mental health social workers 51.
• In relation to whether their role did not involve administrative duties that had no or limited impact on outcomes for those who used their service, adults' workers averaged a score of 47, children's staff 42 and mental health practitioners 43.
• On whether, in the previous 12 months, they or their team had not experienced an increase in the severity of need of people referred to them, adults' staff averaged 49, children's staff 45 and mental health social workers 41.

Employer standards scores

To assess satisfaction against the eight employer standards, the survey asked a range of questions relevant to each. However, the LGA has only published the overall average score for each standard, rather than those for each constituent question.

Despite the challenges reported by social workers in relation to workplace pressures, there was a slight improvement in the average score for the standard on wellbeing, which rose from 77 in 2024 to 78 in 2025. This relates to promoting a positive culture and supporting social workers to have the tools, resources and the organisational environment they need to practise effectively and safely.

Three other standards showed improvements year on year:

• Continuing professional development, which involves providing social workers with the time and opportunity to learn, keep their knowledge and skills up to date and critically reflect on the impact on their practice. The average score increased from 72 to 73, though it remained the lowest rated of the eight standards.
• Professional registration, which involves supporting social workers to maintain their registration, for which the average score rose from 78 to 80.
• Strategic partnership, which relates to creating strong collaboration between employers, higher education institutions and other training providers, where the average rose from 76 to 78.

No change in relation to satisfaction with supervision and caseloads

Three other standards showed no change year on year:

• Effective workforce planning systems, which involves having effective systems to make sure the right number of social workers, with the right level of skills and experience, are available to meet current and future service demands (74).
• Safe workload and case allocation, which involves ensuring social workers do not experience excessive workloads, resulting in unallocated cases and long waiting times for individuals (75).
• Supervision, which means ensuring students and practitioners can reflect critically on their practice through high quality, regular supervision (76).

However, there was a decline, from 80 to 78, in the average score for the strong and clear social work framework standard, which involves promoting a clear statement about the principles that constitute good social work practice, and how those principles function across settings.

Satisfaction lowest among children's practitioners

Across all eight standards, satisfaction was lower among children's than adults' practitioners, with children's social workers also rating their employer less favourably than mental health staff on all but one standard (strategic partnership).

The gaps between adults' and children's staff were biggest in relation to the standards on safe workloads, wellbeing, supervision and CPD. In each case, the average scores for children's social workers were five points lower than for their adults' counterparts.