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Loading …The representation of Black social workers in the children’s services workforce in English councils halves between the front line and management, Department for Education (DfE) data has shown.
There is also a drop-off in the proportion of Asian practitioners and those from mixed or multiple ethnic groups at senior levels, compared with the front line, according to the figures, which date from September 2024.
By contrast, the proportion of white social workers increases with seniority, revealed the data, which has been published on the DfE’s children’s social care dashboard.
Chief social worker Isabelle Trowler said the figures showed action needed to be taken to ensure better representation of Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff at senior level, which remained “very very white”.
Fall in Black representation at senior levels
The proportion of Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff in the children’s social work workforce in English councils (26.2%) is higher than in the general population (19%).
This is driven by the particularly high representation of Black staff, who accounted for 15.2% of children’s social workers, as of September 2024, compared with 4.2% of the population.
However, while Black staff accounted for 20.5% of case holders – which encompasses those in frontline roles who are not senior practitioners – this fell to 13.1% among senior social workers and 10.2% among managers.
Asian and mixed-heritage staff’s representation
Among Asian and mixed-heritage staff, there was a similar, though smaller-scale, drop-off. Asian staff accounted for 6.5% of the whole workforce, 6.9% of case holders, 6.3% of senior practitioners and 5.3% of managers, while mixed-heritage social workers were 3.6% of the workforce, 4% of case holders, 3.7% of senior practitioners and 3% of managers.
White staff exhibited the opposite trend, accounting for 67.7% of case holders, 75.9% of senior practitioners and 80.7% of managers.
The figures do not include the director of children’s services (DCS) role, 90% of whose postholders were white as of 2024, according to data from the Association of Directors of Children’s Services.
Senior leadership is ‘very very white’
Trowler addressed the issue in the opening session of Social Work Week, Social Work England’s annual programme of online events, which , this year, runs from 17-21 March 2025.
Isabelle Trowler, the chief social worker for children and families
“We have a really diverse junior part of our workforce, but we know that the leadership, particularly senior leadership, is very very white. And we have to do something about this.”
Trowler also referenced the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s recent report on race in child protection. This found that the race and ethnicity of children was often not recognised, appropriately explored or understood by practitioners, resulting in them not having a full understanding of children’s lived experience and the vulnerabilities they faced.
Workforce diversity ‘not translating into addressing of inequality’
“Even though we have this representation at junior levels of the workforce, that isn’t translating into addressing inequality in practice,” she added.
“Good representation at junior levels is absolutely necessary, but is not sufficient in seeing systemic shifts in the way we are working alongside families and understanding their experience and what they need from the state.”
A key initiatives to tackle racial inequalities in the social work workforce is the social care workforce race equality standard (SC-WRES).
Workforce race equality standard reveals inequalities
Under this, councils collect data on nine metrics measuring the experiences of their Black, Asian and minority ethnic social care staff against those of white counterparts, and then submit this to Skills for Care. They are also expected to draw up action plans to address the findings.
Data from the 2023 SC-WRES revealed that, compared with white staff, Black, Asian and minority ethnic social care workers had, in the previous 12 months, been:
- half as likely to be appointed to a job from a shortlisting;
- 40% more likely to enter formal disciplinary processes;
- more than twice as likely, as a regulated professional, to enter fitness to practise processes;
- 20% more likely to experience harassment, bullying or abuse from people who use social care, relatives or the public;
- 30% more likely to experience harassment, bullying or abuse from a colleague and 90% more likely to have experienced this from a manager;
- 10% more likely to leave their organisation.
More than half of councils in England are now signed up to the SC-WRES. However, unlike its NHS counterpart, the scheme receives no government funding, meaning it is resourced by Skills for Care and participating authorities.
