Tell us what you look for in a social work job – to help shape what employers offer

Community Care has launched its annual jobseekers’ survey to find out what social workers look for in a job, in order to help employers provide this.

As in previous years, the research will explore preferences for agency or permanent roles, or part-time or full-time work, what might tempt you to move roles and how you feel application processes should operate.

This year, we are also focusing on retention, so will be asking what employers could do to make you stay in your role – and in the profession, more generally – for longer.

All entrants have the chance to win one of two £50 One4All vouchers.

The research comes amid significant pressures on the social work workforce across the UK:

• In England. vacancy rates rose to 20% in local authority children’s services, and 11.6% in adults’ services, in the year to September 2022.
• While vacancy rates fell in Wales from 2021-22, the country is not training enough social workers each year to meet demand.
• Concerns have been raised in Scotland about councils losing experienced social workers, leaving newly qualified staff without support.
• The recent report of the review into children’s social care in Northern Ireland “found major workforce issues with no continuity and frequent changes and absences of social workers and with increasingly less experienced social work practitioners”.

In this context, social workers are a scarce resource, so it is vital that employers listen to what you as practitioners need to thrive in your roles.

Take our survey to help make this happen.

The survey runs until the end of the summer.