New report shows drop in adult social services jobs

A new report from Skills for Care in partnership with the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) reveals a 7% decrease in the number of adult social services jobs in councils in England.

The Personal Social Services: Staff of Social Services Departments, England report uses National Minimum Date Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC) returns from all 152 local authorities in England. This shows that as at September 2013, that there were 140,700 adult social services jobs, which is an overall decrease of 10,000 adult social services jobs between 2012 and 2013.

For around two-thirds of councils (101 out of 152) the number of adult social services jobs reduced between 2012 and 2013. The reasons for these reductions are not known for the majority of councils (77 councils). Of the 24 councils that did provide reasons, nine councils cited outsourcing as the reason for the fall, 14 councils reduced due to restructures and redundancies and one council reduced due to a combination of both.

The report also shows that there were 16,500 social worker jobs in councils, which was a decrease of less than one per cent from 2012, but the number of whole time equivalent (WTE) social worker jobs increased by two per cent from 14,500 in 2012 to 14,800 in 2013.

The research shows that the demographic profile of the councils’ social services workforce remains relatively stable with 82 per cent of jobs filled by female workers and 18 per cent by males, the average age of all workers was 47 years old, 87 per cent were carried out by white workers and 13 per cent were carried out by workers from Black and Minority Ethnic groups.

Skills for Care CEO Sharon Allen said: “This report shows the reasons for this fall in the number of adult social services jobs in councils in England is complex and varies from authority to authority. We are grateful to all 152 councils who submitted their NMDS-SC data that forms the backbone of this report that really adds to our knowledge of what is happening on the frontline and will help workforce commissioners in their work.”

The report is at http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB13477