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

[forgodssakes]

How are they getting away with this? The sector is in a recruitment crisis and services are stretched as it is, how can they continue to expect people to work under these conditions? 3.2% is pathetic compared to what nurses and teachers have been awarded. I expect that more people will leave the sector and social workers will continue to be criticised when things go wrong despite working under unworkable conditions and unsustainable caseloads. What can we do about this?

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!

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.

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!)

They should definitely pay overtime or toil for those days

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

@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

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

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!

@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

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

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

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.

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

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

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’ve name changed for obvious reasons.

I’ve mixed feelings about this thread and quite sad that some responses have turned into a competition between professions that also face significant challenges.

For my part I qualified as a SW after 20 years in the private sector earning a six figure salary (plus bonus) and making the decision that I wanted to spend the rest of my working life before retirement “making a difference” (trite but true).

After self funding a Masters degree in Social Work I spent my probationary year (ASYE) earning circa £31k. This was increased to circa £34k, which is still my current salary.

I provide this for context given the figure of £37k has been bandied around this thread.

I’m very fortunate. This was never about money for me. The mortgage was paid off long ago and my pension pot is heathy enough that I could retire now and draw down twice what I earn now even if I live until I’m 90 years old.

To bust some myths. My public sector pension is not a patch on the one I had in the private sector.

My work to life balance (even though I worked in a very senior role previously) is certainly much more compromised than it was.

I work in the field of Learning Disabilities, which also covers autism and the transition of children with complex needs to adult social care. Many also have mental health comorbidities. We are responsible for some of the most complex cases in social care that sometimes require highly specialised provision that involves working closely with professionals in health and education.

Everyone is stretched beyond capacity and I have a huge amount of respect for professionals in those fields.

However what I don’t see in other professions is the same pressure that results in people being made to take responsibility for complex cases within a few years of qualification.

My own team is a case in point. We are down 5 staff (combination of long term sick/burnout, leaving to work in less complex fields or just leaving the profession full stop because they are done working well below minimum wage given the hours needed to do the role) and struggling to recruit.

I am the only full time member of staff on the team. I’m also the second most senior (excluding the senior practitioner and manager).

I regularly work a 50 hour week.

Due to the vacancies in the team those of us left spend 30% of our time covering duty (should be 10%) - yet still have standard caseloads.

I can’t push my “to do list” down the road. I have statements to file for the Court of Protection. I need to respond to S42 safeguarding enquiries within a proscribed timeframe. I need to ensure children who are 17 will still have their needs met under adult social care and a have a functioning support provision before they turn 18.

I have to conduct mental capacity assessments that have the potential to curtail someone’s freedoms and be able to evidence (quite rightly) that every effort has been made ensure they have been afforded every opportunity to demonstrate their capacity for self agency (and be willing to know that I might be called before a court to justify my findings).

I have to go to visit people with significant behavioural challenges armed with nothing but my (crappy) lone worker pendant that needs charging every night and yes I sometimes forget and spend time in home environments that are contaminated with faecal matter on pretty much any surface you can touch/sit on and hold a conversation with someone pretending you can’t smell/see anything.

Yet the most challenging part of my job is being on the phone (usually on duty) to carer after carer (usually a parent) whose sobbing or screaming in sheer frustration because after 6 months of being on the priory waiting list I can’t give them a timescale when their loved one will get allocated a dedicated social worker. Families that are absolutely at breaking point.

Please don’t misunderstand. I love my job and I’ve no regrets. But financially I’m in a very different position to most of my colleagues and the situation is not sustainable. The more staff we lose the more pressure it puts on those who remain, who in turn are burning out, not to mention the huge experience drain from staff post 5/6 years in job (that’s turning into the max tolerance period) that cannot be replaced.

Money isn’t the answer to everything and I appreciate public funds are not infinite, but you may want to think back on this thread when/if you need to contact social services in need and (eventually) get put through to the duty worker and told that your family is on an waiting list and there is no timescale as to when we can allocate someone to help you unless you are in crisis (and then you are “just” in the super priority waiting list).

It's intriguing to think about what society in 2035 might be like without teachers, nurses, social workers, and other crucial workers, all forced out by inadequate wages.

How is that in any way different to a secondary school teacher working in a special measures school in a deprived inner city borough?

Exact this. The OP is clearly feels/is(?) entitled for some reason. I’m not excusing the obvious issues with the funding of the public sector but to be complaining about a starting salary (3 years is nothing) of 37k shows they are somewhat out of touch with reality.

If you're a crap teacher some kids might have to resit their GCSEs and the parents will bitch about you on whatsapp. If you're a crap social worker children could be murdered and you'll be dragged through the tabloids as personally responsible.
It's not really comparable is it?

It's not? You're the one trying to create a weird hierarchy of challenges between social work and teaching. The rest of us acknowledge they are both challenging professions and should both be compensated properly!

If you’re that crap you shouldn’t be complaining about earning 37k a year.

You also don’t understand in any way the safeguarding responsibilities of teachers. In teaching if you are on 37k+ (which is the salary the ‘very experienced’ social worker of 3 years is talking about) then you are normally trying to move in to a tlr position with direct accountability for a cohert or department. If you don’t perform the school goes in to special measures and you lose your job or- in all likelihood your career. It is no different in social work. I say this from the point of view of a lead practitioner who grew up with a family of social workers and who has worked at some of the worst and best schools in inner city London. I have been a witness in a murder case on county lines for a boy I met when he was 11. I am not trying to undermine social workers or social services- I have immense amounts of respect for them. But I don’t feel the same about people who come in to the public sector expecting more and more money. Everyone deserves a living wage, everyone deserves to be comfortable- but if money is your driving force please don’t go into social services, teaching or the NHs. There are much easier ways to make a living.

Think social workers deserve same rises as teachers.

I think the posts above referenced something earlier where some posters were comparing length of experience in the post and assuming that a SW 3 with 3 years experience would only be recently qualified.
In teaching, as it's so much on the job training, people tend to count their experience as when they start teacher training, given that's when they start teaching.
In social work, years are referenced specifically to post qualification. So a social worker with 3 years experience means 3 years after qualification, so 3 years + 2 or 3 years training and placements.

I'm actually in agreement with the OP. £37k is not an appropriate salary given the level of risk managed and the level of responsibility held by a qualified social worker.
Its just a lot worse in NI