Press Release

Decline in number of men entering social work, GSCC report finds

4 February 2009

The number of men pursuing a career in social work has fallen for the third consecutive year, new figures from the General Social Care Council (GSCC) reveal. Men make up just 13 per cent of the workforce, down three per cent on last year’s figures, leading to calls for further research into the shortage and strategies to reverse the trend.

The findings are published in Raising Standards: Social work education in England 2007-2008, the GSCC’s annual report looking at the overall picture of social work education and training in England. It finds that the degree is preparing students for the start of their career in social work but the support and ongoing training once they enter the workplace needs to be strengthened.

Covering the academic year 2007-2008 (and therefore prior to recent high profile child protection cases), it finds that overall student numbers have remained the same as the previous year. However, in some areas, degree courses are not running because there is not enough demand, yet in other areas employers are struggling to recruit enough graduates. The GSCC makes an urgent call for a model of workforce supply and demand to ensure that the right numbers of social workers are being trained in the right regions.

The GSCC also calls for further research into the shortage of men which considers marketing, the structure and nature of courses, whether there should be more male tutors and the impact of financial support such as employer sponsorship. The GSCC has recently published a report looking at ‘Grow Your Own’ schemes examining how local authorities train existing employees to be social workers. Early findings show that a greater proportion of men enter social work through this route rather than independently enrolling at a university.

The GSCC also announced today that it is reviewing its powers to inspect social work degree courses to examine whether they need to be extended.

Other recommendations from the report include:

- a system where all social workers receive a specialist post-qualifying award early in their career to ensure degree learning is consolidated in practice;

- the development of national standards for post-qualifying training in safeguarding;

- simplification of the funding arrangements to Higher Educational Institutions, and the linking of funding to quality standards;

- a review of the standards the GSCC uses to inspect social work degree courses;

- further research into poor progression rates amongst some black and minority ethnic students

Rosie Varley, Chair of the GSCC, said: “Tragedies such as the death of Baby P and other recent cases remind us how immensely challenging the role of a social worker is. We need to attract the best people into the profession, with a diverse workforce that reflects the society we live in. We are, therefore, concerned that so few men are entering the profession and believe this needs to be addressed, as it has been for other professions like teachers, through targeted marketing campaigns, funding and support systems.

As well as attracting the best people, our social workers need to have the very best training right throughout their careers. That is why we are reviewing whether we have the right powers to robustly inspect social work degree courses. We also believe there needs to be the creation of national standards for on the job safeguarding training and stronger requirements for employers to commit to good quality on-going training for social workers.”