Overview

Find out how to meet the employer standards for social workers.

The employer standards for social workers

Contents on this page

About these resources
Who the resources are for?
Context of practice
Employer responsibilities to support social workers
Read more about the standards

About these resources

These resources are part of the Department for Education’s plan to support workforce reform in children’s social care. This also includes the National Framework and Working Together. The resources on these pages are not statutory guidance. They help organisations support the social worker workforce in children’s social care and adult social care. 

The development of these specific resources was funded by the Department for Education, specifically for the children’s social care workforce, but the Employer Standards are equally relevant to employers of social workers who work with adults.

The resources refer to some of the research evidence and policy priorities for working with adults and working with children and families. Much of the research evidence and many of the workforce development strategies and ideas in the resources can be equally applied to the adults and the children’s workforce.

These resources are designed to help you understand the Standards for employers of social workers in England and take action to meet them. 

This can help you:

improve social work services
boost recruitment and retention
encourage career progression

The resources were developed for the Department for Education by Research in Practice, Essex County Council and King’s College, London.

Principal Social Workers and senior staff with responsibility for workforce improvement in 22 local authorities provided feedback to help improve the resources and make them useful to the wider workforce.

Who the resources are for and how to use them

The Employer Standards are relevant to all employers of social workers in England.

The Standards set out what employers are expected to do to support their social workers. They specify the working conditions employers should provide to ensure safe and effective social work practice. They cover all employers of registered social workers in all settings, including managers and social work students.

Service regulators Ofsted and CQC were involved in the development of the Standards and take them into account in their work. The Standards were first published by the stakeholder group in 2012 and were refreshed in 2014 and 2020.

These resources are for senior leaders and managers with responsibility for meeting the standards in:

local authorities
Children’s Trusts
regional improvement and innovation alliances (RIIAs)
NHS Trusts
integrated arrangements in adult or children’s services
voluntary sector

These resources are also relevant to practise supervisors, social workers and anyone interested in applying best practice in the social care sector. These resources may also be useful in discussing social work practice and organisational responsibilities with elected members and strategic partners.

The resources for individual Employer Standards are not standalone. They are designed to provide a whole system approach and support different aspects of the same workforce issues. The standards and supporting resources are best used as a ‘set’ of resources to develop a holistic action plan to respond to the workforce problems in your local area.

They can help you implement change following the results of the Employer Standards survey, also known as the ‘health check’. The health check is an annual survey which gives a voice to registered social workers, occupational therapists, and non-registered social care professionals. The key purpose is to better understand the experiences of the social care workforce.

Employers are encouraged to work with workforce representatives in publicising the health check survey, encouraging social workers to participate and jointly following up survey findings.

Each standard has several sections describing the standard and how you can work to achieve it or improve. The content was developed using a range of research and evidence sources.  If you want to explore the evidence base, the references are listed in the drop down at the end of each section.

These resources can be used to support local authorities to implement statutory guidance in the Children’s Social Care National Framework and Working Together to Safeguard Children.

These resources are supported by the Employer Standards Working Group, which includes:

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS)
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS)
British Association of Social workers (BASW)
The Department for Education (DfE)
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
Health Education England
Joint Universities Social Work Association (JUSWA)
Local Government Association (LGA)
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Skills for Care (SfC)
Social Work England
UNISON the Public Service Union
Foundations, What Works Centre for Children and Families
The Adult Principal Social Worker Network
The Children’s Principal Social Worker Network

Changing context of social work practice

The context of social work practice has changed since the Employer Standards were written, and now:

working with others, such as in strategic partnerships, is a higher priority 
the importance of inclusion is better understood
the knowledge of the risk and impact of child exploitation has increased
the understanding of the impact of intersecting factors on people’s lives is greater
we know more about the impact of intersectionality on the social worker workforce

We have tried to reflect these changes to the practice context in the resources, but your context will be unique to your local area. Some local areas are successfully addressing the priorities set out in the standards. Other local areas have identified specific issues they need to address. Workforce needs will change over time and require constant attention and review. This includes being able to adapt your approach to meet emerging needs.

Employers of social workers work in different contexts across local authorities, Children’s Trusts, the private, voluntary and independent sector and NHS settings. Each employer has different strengths and skills and experience different challenges. Challenges can develop at any time. Being able to react and respond effectively is important. Organisations should develop the capacity to react adaptively. 

These resources respond to a range of practice contexts. They consider the current challenges facing social work organisations in supporting their workforce. The National Framework provides the direction of travel for child and family social work practice, highlighting new priorities and enablers. 

Employer responsibilities to support social workers

The Standards for employers of social workers in England set out what employers are expected to do to support their social workers.

The 8 standards are:

1. Strong and clear social work framework
2. Effective workforce planning systems
3. Safe workloads and case allocation
4. Wellbeing
5. Supervision
6. Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
7. Professional registration
8. Strategic partnerships

The standards are assessed through an annual ‘health check’ for local authorities and other social work organisations.

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