‘Have Your Say’ workforce survey 2024: Summary of responses from social workers

Demographics

We found that:

• the most common age group was 35 to 44 years old
• 74 per cent were female, and 23 per cent male
• 86 per cent were straight/heterosexual, four per cent gay or lesbian, and three per cent bisexual. Others preferred not to say
• 73 per cent were White, 14 per cent Black, and five per cent Asian
• 25 per cent said they had a long-term condition which lasted 12 months or more. Of those who had a long-term condition, 65 per cent said it affected their day-to-day functioning
• 33 per cent suggested they were a carer outside of work
• 11 per cent said they were neurodivergent
• 47 per cent said they could speak at least some Welsh
• 20 per cent said they were able to use Welsh at work either all or most of the time
• 85 per cent were employed by an organisation which provides social care, such as a local authority, third sector body or private company, and nine per cent were employed by an agency
• 50 per cent said they were members of trades unions, with most a member of Unison (33 per cent) or the Social Workers Union (10 per cent).

Recruitment and retention

We found that:

• 76 per cent started working in social care because they wanted a job that would make a difference to people’s lives. Meanwhile, 45 per cent felt they would enjoy it, and 42 per cent that it would suit their skills. Respondents could choose more than one reason
• 41 per cent found out about working in social care through friends and family working in the sector, 22 per cent found the job advertised online, and six per cent through recruitment fairs or companies
• 23 per cent are aiming to leave the sector. Among the people who suggested they were looking to leave the sector, the average amount of time they saw themselves staying was 17 months.

Leadership, training and development

We found that:

• 53 per cent want a leadership role in the future
• 67 per cent believe it’s possible for them to become a leader
• 43 per cent had sought progression in the past year
• 83 per cent believe they have sufficient training to do their jobs well, and 84 per cent that they have enough training to fulfil CPD requirements.
• 53 per cent need more training to progress their career
• 55 per cent said that they had no issues in accessing work-related training.

Bullying, discrimination and harassment

Here we present the percentage of social workers who said they’d experienced bullying, harassment and discrimination from different sources in the past 12 months.

• From managers: Bullying (11 per cent), discrimination (11 per cent), harassment (four per cent). Of those who said they’d experienced any of these from a manager, 54 per cent reported it, three per cent said a colleague reported it, and 28 per cent of those who said it was reported felt it was dealt with adequately.
• From colleagues: Bullying (six per cent), discrimination (four per cent), harassment (two per cent). Of those who said they'd experienced any of these from a colleague, 59 per cent reported it, five per cent said a colleague reported it, and 38 per cent of those who said it was reported felt it was dealt with adequately.
• From people they support or their families: Bullying (eight per cent), discrimination (six per cent), harassment (12 per cent). Of those who said they'd experienced any of these from someone they support or their family, 77 per cent reported it, three per cent said a colleague reported it, and 44 per cent of those who said it was reported felt it was dealt with adequately.
• We also found that 69 per cent felt their employer acted fairly in decisions about career progression and promotion, in relation to protected characteristics.

Pay, terms and conditions

We found that:

• 72 per cent were happy with their terms and conditions
• six per cent were employed on a zero-hours contract. Of those who were on such a contract, 71 per cent suggested they’d prefer to be on a fixed or regular hours contract
• 49 per cent suggested they were ‘living comfortably’ or ‘doing alright’ financially, 28 per cent ‘just about getting by’, and 23 per cent finding it ‘quite’ or ‘very’ difficult to get by
• 62 per cent were finding it either ‘a lot’ or ‘slightly’ more difficult to manage financially compared to last year, and 13 per cent either ‘slightly’ or ‘much’ easier
• 37 per cent were dissatisfied with their pay.

Health and well-being

We assessed the well-being of the workforce using the ONS4 – four measures used by the Office for National Statistics which use a scale of 0 to 10. We compared the average response from this survey with the UK average for each measure. Each of the findings below is worse than the UK average:

• Satisfaction with life: 6.75 (UK average: 7.45)
• Life is worthwhile: 7.40 (UK average: 7.73)
• Happiness yesterday: 6.53 (UK average: 7.39)
• Anxiety: 4.84 (UK average: 3.23)

We also asked other questions around well-being. We found that:

• 70 per cent said their morale was good
• 59 per cent said they struggled to switch off when they leave work
• 34 per cent suggested they had enough support to deal with stress
• the main causes of stress reported were workload (58 per cent), paperwork or admin load (52 per cent), and worrying about things outside of work (26 per cent)
• 54 per cent suggested they'd attended work at least twice in the past year despite being so ill they should have stayed at home.

Working conditions

We found that:

• 72 per cent said they had support from their manager
• 81 per cent felt they had support from their colleagues
• 48 per cent suggested they had the right staff to deliver services
• 55 per cent felt able to meet the needs of the people they care for and support.

We also asked how much people felt valued by different groups they interact with. We found that:

• 74 per cent felt valued by their manager
• 85 per cent felt valued by their colleagues
• 74 per cent felt valued by the people they support
• 55 per cent felt valued by partner agencies
• 35 per cent felt valued by the general public.