Te Kāhui Whakamana Tauwhiro, the Social Workers Registration Board (SWRB) is the lead agency for workforce planning for all social workers in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We work to understand and report on the issues, opportunities and challenges faced by the social worker workforce. With an emphasis on building evidence and sector intelligence on workforce pressures and building relationships across the sector.
Through the evidence gathered from the sector, we have identified that there is a significant current and growing social worker shortage. Which calls into question the ongoing sustainability of the social worker workforce.
There is currently a significant mismatch between the demand for and the supply of social workers mainly from:
* Fewer social workers entering the workforce, including fewer ākonga/students completing social work programmes and becoming registered
* More social workers leaving the profession, or indicating their intention to leave
* An overall ageing profession.
We are now supplementing this data and evidence with our insights and understanding across the workforce system. These insights are available to employers, government and decision-makers to build their own understanding of challenges facing the social work profession and the wider labour market. With particular interest being shown in data covering burnout, high workload, entry pathways into the profession and intentions to leave.
Social workers are essential frontline professionals.
Social workers are essential frontline professionals who work with some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable individuals, families, whānau, and communities. They are employed across the full range of health, community and social services.
Social work is in a unique position as a regulated profession, within a largely unregulated sector.
There are approximately 600 Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and around 80 public sector agencies that employ social workers.
As at 30 June 2024 there were 9,135 practising social workers:
29% of social workers work for NGOs
22% work for Oranga Tamariki
21% work in Health, including mental health and addictions services and primary care
And approximately 3% of registered social workers are self-employed.
Read the reports based on the annual survey of the social work profession – publications page.
Collaborative effort to reduce social worker shortage
As the lead agency our function is to support the health and social care system to have the right social workers with the right skills, knowledge, and competencies in the right place, at the right time to support and enhance the wellbeing of New Zealanders.
Our focus is on growing the evidence base and tracking trends over time to understand more about social worker workforce pressures. We are using this data, insights and evidence to inform key stakeholders and support their decision making.
We work with employers, sector organisations, government agencies, funders, education and training providers, taking a collaborative approach to identify barriers and recommend focused actions to address the shortage of registered social workers in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
This above diagram illustrates the projected number of social workers estimated to be needed in the coming years to maintain the current level of demand for social work services.
There is growing impetus across the sector to address workforce pressures and increase the numbers entering the social work profession. We believe the issues are well understood. However, there is fragmentation across the system, and a diverse range of government and non-government employers who are not necessarily joined up and working together to tackle challenges for the workforce.
Sharing data and intelligence across the sector does have a positive effect. Our work with Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora is a good example of where we have engaged to raise the profile of social workers in the health workforce and created a focus on the profession in the draft Health Workforce Plan (2024-2027). Through our ongoing work providing insights and evidence their forward modelling of the health workforce now includes the social work profession. Read the reports based on the annual survey of the social work profession – Workforce Reports
