The NSPCC’s report on twenty indicators of child safety (“How
safe are our children?) has just been published.
The indicators seem to confirm the picture I outlined in
December 2013 of a sustained increase in work for social workers engaged in
child protection.
The figures show an unrelenting increase in the numbers of
assessments undertaken, the number of children subject to a child protection
plan and the number of children looked after due to abuse or neglect.
However, the NSPCC points out that the rate and number of
children referred to children’s social care have decreased year on year since
2010/11, suggesting that thresholds have risen.
Last month the government published some statistics on the
children’s social care workforce. Although these do not provide much
interesting information about trends (e.g. in numbers over the last ten years)
there is enough in them to see that the workforce is under strain.
There were just over 3,600 full time equivalent vacancies of
children’s social worker posts in England, a vacancy rate 14%. The turnover
rate was 15%. And children’s social workers took on average just under one day
per month in sickness absence. There was substantial reliance on agency
workers, equivalent to 3,250 full-time equivalent posts.
None of this can be easy reading for government ministers.
There are all the signs of increased pressure of work and no real increase in
resources. People who are over-worked and stressed often fail to make good
decisions and they are more likely to make mistakes.
