Children's Social Workforce

The CWDC have released a statistical analysis of the workforce of children's social workers in England. This includes children and family social work, residential care, foster care, education welfare, family court advisors, support workers and volunteers.

Key points:
- Although progress has been made in improving service delivery the latest annual OFSTED report states that there is still considerable room for improvement.
- The sector relies on a diverse range of organisations to deliver its services which increases the complexity of people management and means that there may be significant variation in organisational culture and working environments.
- The workforce is varied and this impacts on the ability to recruit and retain a suitably skilled workforce in some occupational groups; recruitment and retention issues also vary by occupation and region;
- The workforce has a higher than average proportion of part-time workers, and is predominantly female, although, at management level, the proportion of men is higher;
- During the last three years there have been major workforce development initiatives focused on the children’s social care workforce: the Options for Excellence review; the Children’s Workforce Strategy; Care Matters: Time for Change; the Children’s Plan; Building Brighter Futures: Next Steps for the Children’s Workforce; and related initiatives.