Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many social worker vacancies remained unfilled in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

The Department of Health has responsibility for adult social care policy which includes the activities of social workers in adult settings. The Department for Education has responsibility for the activities of social workers in children’s services.

The Health and Social Care Information Centre has recently published its report “Personal Social Services: Staff of Social Services Departments, England, as at September 2015”. This shows that the vacancy rates for adult social workers in local authorities are as follows:

2014 there were 1,100* vacancies (8%)

2015 there were 1,700** vacancies (12%)

*2014 based on 121 councils with vacancies data recorded.

**2015 based on 133 councils with vacancies data recorded.

Source: Skills for Care - NMDS-SC