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Practice tool: Effective strategies to improve workload management

Implement effective strategies to improve workload management.

Here are some suggestions you might consider when reviewing your workload management strategy.

Use small team structures and qualitative approaches

Business support staff handle administration tasks like taking minutes, sharing reports, and organising meetings, so social workers have less paperwork. Family support workers help families directly, so social workers can focus on more complex cases.

Early help services are important in managing social work demand by reducing referrals and easing pressure on statutory services.

Reducing or removing early help services is likely to increase demand for social care.

Early help teams can support partner agencies to complete assessments, reducing referrals and unnecessary statutory interventions

Multi-agency collaboration ensures families get support early, easing demand on social workers

Set caseload ranges and safe staffing limits

Local authorities have different approaches to caseload limits. Here are some examples:

  • avoid rigid targets and review work regularly: caseloads should reflect worker capacity, experience, and case complexity, which can change frequently.
  • extra workload support: family support workers, administration staff and social work support officers can take on administration and direct interventions
  • regular reflective supervision sessions: this helps social workers manage workloads, discuss challenges, and develop strategies to support wellbeing and professional growth
  • adjust caseloads as demands change: keep workloads flexible to protect worker wellbeing

Reduce delays

Local authorities have introduced strategies to prevent delays and ensure progress is made, including:

  • dedicated Child in Need teams: these teams provide intensive support, preventing cases from escalating and speeding up resolutions
  • collaborative case reviews: service managers from early help, front door, and long-term teams review cases together, identifying children who can move to early help services
  • Child in Need clinics: regularly review long-term cases (open for extended periods) to move them forward
  • stronger triage and oversight ensures urgent cases get prioritised first, keeping workflow steady and avoiding backlogs
  • specialist teams fast-track complex cases like early permanence, pre-birth assessments to the right team, preventing delays in support

By using early intervention, flexible caseloads, strong administration support, and targeted teams, local authorities can ease workloads, prevent burnout, and ensure families get timely support.

Next page: Practice tool: Reviewing your workload strategy

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These resources have been developed by Research in Practice in collaboration with DfE.
Published: 24 September 2025
Last updated: 24 September 2025