Most social workers’ ideal work pattern is part-time, a Community Care poll has found.
The finding follows a steady rise in the proportion of social work job advertisements offering part-time or flexible hours, from 19% in 2022 to 23% in 2024, according to Social Workers Union research.
Community Care’s annual survey of practitioners’ job-seeking preferences has found a persistent gap between the proportion of social workers working part-time and the share of practitioners who want to. In the 2023 survey, 12% worked part-time, while 22% would prefer to do so.
However, a recent Community Care poll, amassing 588 votes, found that the majority of respondents (76%) considered part-time work to be ideal, compared to 24% who chose full-time.
Working reduced hours with a full caseload
Comments on the related article shed light on the obstacles and issues arising from working part-time in social work.
Social workers David and Samo called attention to the expectation that practitioners retained full caseloads despite working reduced hours.
“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,” said David.
“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.”
Samo, who works three and a half days a week while managing 19 cases, attributed the situation to “a massive recruitment problem” that forces remaining team members to take on the caseloads of departing colleagues.
“I suspect the push for part-time roles reflects the cuts by the 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,” said Abdul.
“We already do it now by working double our own hours, so this is the next logical step.”
However, others felt there were negative consequences for services from a rising number of practitioners working part-time.
‘Crises don’t only fall on part-timers’ working days’
Social worker Anna B. said that part-time case-holding “creates more issues than it solves”.
“Crises, emergencies, breakdowns and meetings don’t only fall on the three days per week the social worker [will] work. This leaves full-time staff covering the part-timer’s emergencies on all other days, in addition to their full-time caseloads,” she added.
“The part-timer also has to spend the first day of their week wading through the emails and emergencies from their days off.”
Ann Towson, whose son was allocated a social worker in 2022 to support him through mental health issues, said being allocated a practitioner working part-time had been “a nightmare”.
“If my son’s family had not been there for him, I don’t know where he would have [ended up]. It has put a great strain on my health over the years,” she added.
“I am disabled and not in good health and have 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.”
Do you think a rise in the number of practitioners working part-time will cause more harm than good?
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If 447 out of 588 said they wanted full time, as per your chart – surely that’s the majority 76% result? Or am I missing something?
Apologies, the chart headings are the wrong way round! We’ll get that changed asap. Thanks for raising it.
As said Local Authorities do not respect the 37 hour nor the part-time working week. Again, this has been stated over many years so is nothing new. There has been a reliance on goodwill working by Social Workers without additional pay in the form of enhanced overtime pay. And Social Workers struggle to have even lieu time acknowledged. This is utter exploitation. Has such exploitation become a commonly accepted practice in social work? My understanding is that exploitation in any form should be challenged and that those responsible for promoting such exploitation should be held to account.
Why is there an expectation that there should be this one social worker to be there as and when the client wants them, 5 days a week!! We are not an emergency service! Asking social workers to work full time will likely see more workers leaving the profession because a lot of part time workers need flexibility for family life and to preserve their own mental wellbeing. Lets be realistic, most people do not want to do this job for the rest of their life because it is exhausting. Part time working is the way forward if you want to save the workers you do have in an already short staff and undervalued profession.