Now there are more social workers than GPs

SOCIAL workers now outnumber GPs in england, official figures show.

There were more than 36,000 children’s social workers employed by local councils and agencies last year, up by more than 2,000 in two years.

Only 51 per cent were actually handling the cases of individual troubled families and children, the breakdown compiled by the Department for education said.

The other 49 per cent were managers, senior practitioners and ‘qualified without cases’ social workers who did not deal with individual children.

In contrast the number of GPs in england is falling and dropped below 34,000 in the last three months of last year, according to NHS Digital.

The increase in social workers has come while councils and children’s services chiefs have been complaining about the impact of austerity and limited government funding.

richard Watts, of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: ‘Services caring for and protecting vulnerable children are, in many areas, being pushed to breaking point.

‘Councils are having to work around the clock to recruit additional social workers to ensure that vulnerable children and young people get the support they need.’

But critics queried how the army of social workers measures success in helping troubled children. Academic and researcher Patricia morgan said: ‘There appears to be a major increase in bureaucracy. It may be that we have a lot of social workers just getting in the way of each other.’

The Dfe figures were the first headcount of individual social workers to be carried out in england. Including part-time social workers, there were 30,670 employed by councils at the end of September last year. A further 5,340, counted as full-time equivalents, were working for independent agencies. Numbers of agency workers are unchanged, but social workers employed by councils were up from 28,570 in 2015.

Local authorities had the equivalent of 28,500 full-time social workers in September last year, up from 26,500 in 2015.

Including agency workers, there were 17,840 social workers handling 317,690 cases, an average of 17.8 families each.

While social worker numbers were on the increase, the NHS has been reporting a decline in numbers of GPs. In September 2015, according to NHS Digital, there were 34,592 GPs in england, more than the number of social workers. By last December their ranks had thinned to 33,872.