Increasing Social Services Caseloads

A recent survey, by Liquid Personnel has found that four in ten social workers feel their case load is unmanageable. The survey also found that 65% say it has increased in the past 12 months. This after the Social Work Task Force found that increasing caseloads were resulting in staff shortages, leading to higher case loads.

Most worryingly this is a major problem for those working in child protection, with over 75% saying they spend 70% of their time on administrative work, such as reports. This is concerning as it means that social workers may not have time to fully understand the family situation and to help families meet Working Agreements and Local Authority requirements.

There is also grave danger of further high risk cases being missed, such as the case of Khyra Ishaq who sadly died when her high risk situation was missed. It has recently being revealed that her social worker had an unmanageable caseload of 50 cases.