Social Work Survey – Administration and Support

• Almost 7 in 10 social workers said they spend 30% or less of their time with service users, meaning there is a greater focus on administrative duties.
• 55% of those surveyed said there had been cuts to administrative and support posts in their team recently.
• Of those respondents who said administrative posts had been cut, 9 out of 10 said this had had a negative effect on their ability to do their job effectively.

Cuts to support staff have led to increased pressure on many social workers, leaving them with more administrative tasks to complete and less time to spend with service users.

The level of time spent on bureaucratic and administrative tasks has already come under criticism in Professor Eileen Munro’s review of the child protection system, and these results support the idea that excessive paperwork is preventing social workers from fulfilling their statutory duties.

For more detail, click the link below:

Factsheet: Social Work Survey findings related to Administration and Support

Liquid Personnel’s view of the results:

“Frontline social workers need proper administrative support, leaving them free to spend more time with vulnerable children and adults. Cutting that support is clearly a false economy, as less time with service users will simply result in poorer standards of practice.”

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