Recruitment Analysis – England

There were 213,300 (wte) staff employed in social services
departments in England, which was up by 1 per cent on the previous
year.

Four-fifths of all staff were women and a half of all staff were
employed part time.

Just over half of all staff (113,500 wte) worked in headquarters
or were field staff – an increase of 3 per cent over the
year.

Staff in children’s services accounted for about 45 per
cent of this figure, and 28 per cent were employed in specialist
and health settings and the rest with adults and older people.

There were 37,900 social workers – up by 2 per cent on the
previous year.

Children’s services have been the big growth area over the
past decade with numbers of staff rising from 17,000 in 1994 to
27,200 last year of which just over 10,000 are social workers.

Ethnic minority staff accounted for 14 per cent of all social
workers; 7 per cent of staff were of unknown origin.