Social work services are seeing increasing numbers of people in poverty but understaffing is putting those needing support at risk, as more practitioners struggle with their mental health.
Those were among the findings of a Social Workers Union (SWU) survey of 2,248 members carried out in October 2024 and commissioned by ITV News.
SWU found that 86% of social workers said that services were understaffed, with 80% saying this situation was putting the people they worked with at risk, while 67% said they were unable to refer people on to other services when they needed to.
More referrals of people in poverty
This was in the context of 88% of social workers having seen a rise in the number of people they worked with who were in poverty or seriously struggling financially over the previous three years.
Among children’s social workers, a third had seen their service remove a child or children from their family in the previous three years where financial hardship or poverty was a key contributing factor.
One practitioner said: “This is the case in almost all situations. Poverty leads to stress, leads to mental health difficulties, leads to maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as substance use, as mental health support is poor/untimely, [and] substance use impacts parenting capacity and ability to meet basic needs of a child.”
Similarly, one-fifth of children’s practitioners (21%) said unsafe or inappropriate housing conditions, such as cramped conditions, mould or maintenance issues, had been a key factor in decisions to remove children over the previous three years.
The survey also found a greater proportion of social workers (76%) said their mental health was suffering because of work, compared with 65% in response to a 2022 SWU survey.
Survey results ‘reveal national scandals’
The results came as the Local Government Association’s annual social work health check found practitioners reporting higher levels of need, along with workload pressures.
On the back of the SWU survey results, general secretary John McGowan said: “The findings in this research reveal a series of national scandals. Children suffering in cold damp homes, families torn apart by poverty, councils struggling to provide the services needed to support communities and social workers suffering unsustainable levels of stress and burnout.
“It is time that politicians woke up to the reality of life in the UK today.”
SWU has shared the results with the House of Commons’ energy security and net zero select committee, which is carrying out an inquiry into the cost of energy.
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What’s new? Social Workers have been saying the above for many years. They have not been listened to. Tragic
I completely agree. This same statement has been repeated many times, but it won’t change anything. It’s still going to be the same old social care system.
Many social workers who are fast-tracked without having much experience of social care often finds themselves struggling and under stress and heavy pressure. When they qualify and put straight into a full-time post. The Asy trend supposed to help them to settle, however, many don’t have a protective caseload t From managers positive staffing shortage
A self evident truth is that however many numbers of workers are employed there will still be ‘concerns’ from social workers about understaffing. I have a colleague who thinks a caseload above 6 is intolerable for example. Complexity apparently. Under staffing has a detrimental impact on our ability to do effective work of course it does. But so does incompetent management driven by never ever defined “budget constraints”. Sadly so does training more driven by fads than rigour which totally leaves newly qualified social workers unprepared for the actual oractical demands of our job.
Yes completely agree. Nothing has changed and wages have been depressed for years now.
Understaffing, incompetence and/or half hearted responses not only places people requiring support at risk but also the social workers.