Below inflation pay rise for social workers and social work England fees to rise to £120

Social work, teaching and nursing all have their challenges, without a doubt. Though with nursing, if you work late, you get paid for the extra hours. With teaching, you work long hours and take your work home, but you do get more holiday. With social work, it's typical to work 5-10 hours over routinely every week, and on a bad week, could be 20-30hrs. You work late and you log on when you get home, and all you get is TOIL that you can't take back as you never have the time.
I've been in social work for twenty years, and in child protection it's very rare for workers to stay in the role more than 3 years before changing to a different area of social work. There aren't many who come back to child protection. So the workers who are 2-3yrs in (which means after they've done the on the job training and gained their qualifications) are the more experienced frontline staff. That's been the case in every authority I've worked in. If you want to find a long qualified social worker, they'll usually either be a manager, or in adoption, or fostering, where the work is still tough but more predictable, and fits with family life (bearing in mind it's still a female majority workforce)

My partner is in a corporate job, his employer pension contributions are only marginally lower than mine, and he gets more holiday and similar sick leave. Public sector conditions arent anything special and haven't been for a long time, probably the only difference is that it's harder to sack people in the public sector!

I’m in a public sector role and I’ve only got 1.4% 😭😫

I agree it would be better to recruit these people but they'd need to start on at least £45

The average woman in the private sector has a pension pot of £19,000.

Not £19,000 per year - £19,000 in total!

Public sector pensions are amazing in comparison.

The level of responsibility for a child protection social worker is far greater than that of a school teacher.

This is so patronizing.
Op will have paid thousands to have done at least a three year degree or a two year masters where she'll have been working on placement for those years. And then three years in. So she's actually 5-6 years into social work. On what in most sectors would be an entry level salary. And she's working 50 hours a week doing extremely life and death critical work

@YourSnugGreyPanda I don't think any helping professional is asking for a huge disposable income, they just want at the very least for it to stay the same in real terms when inflation is considered. Public servants have had an effective pay reduction over the last 15 years , coupled with the cost of living it's criminal

You should be paid at least double what you are op. Thank you for your services to vulnerable children you will never be thanked enough by the families but you're so appreciated by me!

But you get bonus too? And a Xmas party? And your equipment works?

@YourSnugGreyPanda social workers bee for everyone even if you don't see it directly they will

• keep children with parents reducing the foster care bill on the tax payer
• reduce risk of children becoming criminals and robbing you / taxpayers funding their prisons

Etc etc

Before your last sentence I was going to say how similar to teachers!

They should definitely pay overtime or toil for those days

Similar with educational psychologists (other council employees) in England- and families are struggling not being able to get ehcps due to a shortage of them! (Interstingly Ed psychs in Scotland have great wages increased in line with inflation!)

It is for the risk and responsibility we hold. The untold extra unpaid hours we work, the very late nights where we are expected to drop everything to deal with a crisis. I don't see many professions having to do this. As a teacher, for example, you know you will be able to get home on time. Not the case for us. It takes over your life and we do not get support and understanding, never mind money.

I'm in Northern Ireland, qualified 6 years. Starting salary was £24k 🤯
I'm not on £44k even now, and I've done a post graduate degree and got a senior post!

Fab post. I always cringe a bit when teachers say they have to 'be social workers as well as teachers' .

I know this. I also didn’t train straight from school but worked as a journalist after uni before going in to teaching. I stand by what I said about starting salaries. That doesn’t mean I don’t value the work of social services and know exactly how hard and important it is. I’m sorry that has upset some people but it is how I feel (although my opinion may be more based on inexperienced teachers and projected on to social workers). I’m not one for an argument so I am sorry for those I’ve offended.

I'll have been a SW for 40 years when i retire and my pension forecast is not enough to live on without the state pension and even with that, its not a lot. I'm not sure why people think pub sector pensions are so high? I'd like to know how much a private sector pension is to compare

That's not what was annoying about your posts, but whatever. I'm not an inexperienced social worker or one with 3 years experience, I've been qualified since 2014 and before that I worked in social care for 10 years. I don't know if you realise this but most social workers don't train straight from school. Almost all newly qualified social workers have a good number of years working in related fields before they train.

You put that so well. Thanks. 👏

Not a thing, as it's so contrary to the OP's posts.

There isn’t a shortage of nurses now….but there is a staffing shortage. The hospitals just can’t afford to recruit due to budgets. At some point that’s going to have to be sorted and at that point there needs to be qualified staff able to apply.

Applications to most health care degrees have been on a downward slide for a few years. Some places may be filling some courses but the calibre of students may be dropping overall as universities employ a bums on seat approach. Other courses aren’t full. Lecturers are getting made redundant and courses closing. When the pendulum swings too far the other way it takes years to get back to a place where the workforce can be topped up.

the population of the uk is increasing quickly, these people will all need healthcare at some point. We will need more nurses not less.

What don’t you understand?

You climb up multiple stories of a tower block just to find the person you had an appointment with isn’t there, another multiple flights to be met with a violent partner who assaults you, get yourself to Court where you have to wait before being told your case isn’t going ahead so you have wasted 3-4 hours.

Go back to your office to write up reports and discover you have been allocated five more cases because another colleague has gone on long term sick or resigned. Repeat with variations.

It’s not a race to the bottom.

The state is skint. It can’t afford pay rises. When your employer has no money then you’re not going to get a big pay rise. Obviously part of the reason why the state is skint is the ridiculous rise given to junior doctors who are going on strike for another ludicrous, greedy increase. Don’t blame the state, blame junior doctor’s greed!