Today, on World Social Work Day, we are publishing our first Social Worker Employers Report. This report helps build our understanding of the social worker workforce from the employers’ perspective.
Based on survey responses from social worker employers, the report highlights themes impacting employers, including:
- challenges in the supply of social workers, particularly for the larger government employers
- recruitment and retention challenges in rural settings, older peoples’ services, and services meeting the needs of Māori and Pacific peoples
- challenges and benefits for employers offering work-based learning opportunities (field education) for ākonga pursuing social work qualifications
- employers’ high levels of awareness of their responsibilities when they employ social workers, but awareness is not always matched by confidence in meeting those obligations.
The SWRB’s Social Worker Employers Report complements other work we are doing to build on-going evidence and insights into the social worker workforce.
This year’s theme for World Social Work Day – ‘Strengthening Intergenerational Solidarity for Enduring Wellbeing’ - emphasises the importance of caring and respecting across generations to build strong societies, sustain the environment, and share wisdom for a better future.
Building strong societies requires us to have sufficient social workers in the right place with the right skills and experience. By incorporating the experience of employers into our knowledge and insights into the social worker workforce, we can work collectively on workforce sustainability. Working with social worker employers, policy makers and others across the health and social sector, we can identify workforce planning priorities and strategies for a stable workforce for the future.
You can download a copy of the report: