What would be the ideal work pattern for you?
- Part-time (76%, 447 Votes)
- Full-time (24%, 141 Votes)
Total Voters: 588
Loading ...The proportion of social work roles advertised as part-time or flexible hours has grown for the second consecutive year but remains at less than a quarter.
Almost a quarter of positions (23.1%) were advertised as either part-time, part-time or full-time or available on a flexible-hours basis, found a Social Workers Union (SWU) study of online job postings in April and May this year.
This is up from 18.7% in 2022 – when the SWU first conducted its now annual investigation into part-time working – and 22.6% last year.
In the vast majority of these cases, the role was advertised as purely part-time; such posts accounted for 22.8% of adverts in 2024, up from 16.1% in 2022 and 20.1% last year.
National trends
The figures are based on analysis of social work job postings on the Community Care, Guardian and Total Jobs websites, on 23 April and 20 May this year.
As in the two previous years, Scotland had the highest proportion of roles available on a part-time or flexible hours basis.
However, its rate has dropped year on year, falling from 30.5% in 2022 to 26.7% this year.
The opposite has happened in Wales, where the proportion of roles offered on a part-time or flexible hours basis has grown from 14.6% in 2022 to 20.4% in 2024.
The rate in England, which accounted for the vast majority of jobs, grew from 18.7% in 2022 to 22.6% this year. There were
Barriers to part-time work
The SWU is campaigning to increase the availability of part-time roles in the profession, in order to improve the recruitment and retention of practitioners who are unable or unwilling to work full-time.
Community Care’s annual survey of social workers’ job-seeking preferences has established that there is a consistent gap between the proportion of social workers who work part-time and the proportion who would like to.
While 12% of respondents to the 2023 jobseeker survey worked part-time, either on a permanent or an agency basis, 22% said that this was their preference, consistent with previous years’ results.
While some of these practitioners cited affordability as a barrier to part-time work, others referenced inadequate staffing or said that such opportunities were not offered or promoted within their organisation or were opposed by managers.
Union urges employers to go further on flexibility
Social Workers Union general secretary John McGovern welcomed the rise in the proportion of roles that were available part-time, but said there was more to do.
“Employers agreed with us that they need to do more to offer part-time working and it is good to see the green shoots of progress we saw in 2023 have continued to prosper,” he said.
“With recruitment for social workers still proving challenging for employers, we now need to see much more concerted action and more roles offered on part-time or flexible hours contracts.”
Councils ‘working hard to improve working conditions’
For the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, workforce policy committee chair Nicola Curley said local authorities were “working hard to create the ideal working conditions for our workforce so that they can provide the best possible support to children and families”.
“Some people in the workforce may prefer not to work full-time or are unable to but would like to remain in the profession and it is important that we accommodate this where we can,” she added.
“Good social work is about maintaining strong, consistent relationships with our children and families and so retaining a focus on this is critical.”
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I recall that when I chose to work part-time my then manager advised that she could not reduce my full-time caseload as she had no other Social Workers to allocate these cases to. The expectation was that I worked part-time with part-time pay but retaining a full-time caseload. No wonder Local Authorities cannot recruit and retain Social Workers. I despair
Yes its occurring now as theres a massive recruitment problem when social worker leave the remaining team members are allocated their cases . I am part time on 19 cases working 3.5 days weekly⁹
I suspect the push for part-time roles reflects the cuts by Central Government, and there will be soon more of these positions to come, with the hope more Social Workers will work part-time, but for a full-time caseload. We already do it now by working double our own hours, so this is the next logical step. I will be voting with my feet.
I have experienced the Social workers part time work. My so aged 57 years has had severe mental health issues for 25 years. I and his brother and sister in law have kept him as well as we can and enabled him to live a partially independent life. He had a major breakdown in May 2022. After the 3rd time in hospital he was assigned a Social worker. He works part-time and doesn’t understand mental health issues. It has been a nightmare getting the help my son needs. If my sons family had not been there for him I don’t know where he would have been. Probably homeless and mentally very unwell. It has put a great strain on my health over the years. I am disabled and not in good health and been so for most of his 25 years. Social services need more full time, properly trained staff. I feel very strongly about the situation not just for me and my son but for many many others who have no family support.
Part time case Holding seems to create more issues than it solves. Crises, emergencies, breakdowns and meetings don’t only fall on the 3 days per week the SW works. This leaves full time staff covering the part timers emergencies on all other days in addition to their full time caseloads.
The part timer also has to spend the first day of their week wading through the emails and emergencies from their days off.
My honest opinion is that case holding workers should be minimum 4 days a week.
I’m pleased to see this becoming more available, but there are still pros and cons for families and workers managing crisis intervention. Further solution-focused discussions are necessary to find a workable and sustainable solution.