More children at risk of extra-familial harm or dependent on food banks, social workers say

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According to child social workers, more children are at risk of harm outside their families or live in families that rely on food banks or benefits.

However, given this growing need, most professionals believe that core family support services, including those providing financial assistance or counseling, are “poor.”

These are among the findings of an online survey of 570 children’s social workers working for councils or child protection agencies in England, conducted by Frontline in June 2024.

The charity, which runs the accelerated Approach Social Work qualification, also found that professionals were struggling with high caseloads and a lack of resources, with most feeling they were not seeing the children on their caseloads often enough.

As in previous surveys of social workers, a large majority of respondents indicated that they felt the profession was viewed negatively by the public.

Rising levels of extra-familial harm

Nearly four in five social workers (79%) said they had seen a rise in the number of young people at risk of extra-familial harm. Of this group, 70% were experiencing rising levels of criminal exploitation, 60% sexual exploitation and 58% online harm.

This finding is consistent with an analysis of official data on factors identified following assessments of children in need in 2014-2021, which showed that the number of cases involving risks outside the family had increased disproportionately over this period.

On poverty, 85% of social workers reported an increase in the number of families they worked with using food banks, while 70% reported that more of these families were accessing benefits.

Official figures show that the percentage of children living in absolute poverty* in the UK – after taking into account housing costs – rose from 23% to 25% between 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Support services for ‘poor’ families

However, despite this increasing level of reported need, most social workers felt that the key services they could refer families to were ‘poor’.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) gave this rating to housing assistance programs, 66% to counseling and mental health services, 59% to financial assistance programs, and 57% to specialized educational resources.

Professionals were more positive about programs for substance abuse, parenting support and domestic violence, but in all cases the majority rated the services as poor or fair.

High caseloads and underfunding

Following previous surveys among social workers, respondents indicated that workload and underfunding undermine the practice.

When asked what the three biggest barriers are to doing their job well, 65% cited high workload, 57% a lack of resources and 54% financial constraints.

Three out of five respondents indicated that they felt they did not see the children they were responsible for often enough.

Shortage of social workers will ‘increase’

The finding comes against a backdrop of long-term pressure on local authority budgets and social work staff, both of which have been identified as ‘critical risks’ by the Department for Education (DfE).

The latest figures from the Department for Education show that 18.9% of statutory youth care workers in England have vacancies. In its 2023-24 annual report, the Department said the shortage of professionals will increase over the next decade.

The professionals surveyed by Frontline were relatively satisfied with their supervision. The majority reported that they received their supervisor often enough and over 85% reported that the supervision was useful for their work.

Social workers gloomy about public perception of profession

However, 91% felt that social workers were viewed negatively by the public and 94% said that public perception and media portrayals of the profession impact their ability to work with children and families.

This is consistent with the findings of a survey commissioned by Social Work England last year, which found that 11% of social workers felt the profession was viewed negatively by society.

An analysis by linguist Dr Maria Leedham found that over a three-month period in 2019, there were four times as many negative stories about social work than positive ones, although the majority were neutral.

Another study by Leedham found that social workers were rarely seen on TV programmes and, when they were, they almost always worked in child protection and were described as judgemental bureaucrats or child abductors.

However, a more positive picture can be seen in research commissioned by Social Work England, which found that 74% of adults in England believe that social workers want the best for the people they work with, with 62% believing that they make a big difference to improving people’s lives.

‘Not enough has changed’ in social work

Mary Jackson, CEO of Frontline (photo: Frontline)

Reflecting on Frontline’s findings, the charity’s chief executive Mary Jackson said: “Not nearly enough has changed when it comes to improving support for children, families and social workers. And now the challenges are compounded by rising poverty and increased extra-familial harm.”

Following the research, Frontline called on the government and municipalities to:

1. Take action to address child poverty and extra-familial suffering to improve child safety.
2. Improve support for families, including by enabling social workers to spend more time with them.
3. Launch a national campaign to change public perceptions of social work, make it more attractive as a career, make existing social workers feel valued, and combat the stigma that families sometimes face when hiring a social worker.

*According to the government definition, absolute poverty means living in a household whose income in 2010-2011 was less than 60% of the median income, adjusted for inflation and family size.