A quarter of children in care had at least three social workers in 2023-24, DfE reveals

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Just 38% had one practitioner assigned to them during the year, with 35% having two social workers, 18% three and 9% four or more, according to DfE data on the stability of looked-after children’s lives.

While there was little variation between males and females or across ethnic groups, the data showed that younger children faced greater practitioner instability than those who were older.

More instability for younger children

A third of children under one (34%) or aged one to four (32%) had at least three social workers during 2023-24, compared with 29% for those aged five to nine, 25% of those aged 10-15 and 24% of young people aged 16 and over. Under-ones make up a relatively small part of the care population (4%, as of March 2024), with the biggest group being 10- to 15-year-olds (38%).

There were also significant variations by a child’s legal status. Among those on a care order, who made up three-quarters of looked-after children as of March 2024, exactly a quarter (25%) had three or more social workers during 2023-24.

However, the proportion was greater (30%) among those accommodated voluntarily under section 20 of the Children Act 1989, who accounted for one in five looked-after children (19%) as of March 2024.

Reasons for social worker turnover

This is the first year for which the DfE has collected data on social worker turnover and it reported that a number of councils reported issues providing the reason why a looked-after child was assigned a new social worker.

As a result, 41% of changes were classified as for an ‘other reason’, which included cases when a council could not provide a reason.

The most common specific reason was the previous social worker leaving their post, but this accounted for only 17% of cases. In 16% of instances, the child was transferred to a new practitioner due to a standard process, for example, moving between services, while in 13% the reason was “managing caseloads”.

The DfE also provided data on the stability of children’s placement and schooling. This showed that:

• 10% had three or more placements during 2023-24, a similar rate to that in each of the previous four years.
• 11% had at least one mid-year school move, a similar proportion to that in each of the previous three years.