As Lead Agency for social worker workforce planning, the SWRB is developing its suite of resources for policy makers, employers, sector leaders and others with an interest in social worker workforce planning.
Today we are publishing three new ‘Spotlight reports’ which each focus on the social workers employed by different employers/employer groups: Oranga Tamariki, health and non-government organisation (NGOs).
The reports draw on the findings from our annual Social Workers Workforce Survey 2023 and complement the Social Workers Workforce Report 2023.
Some key findings
- Oranga Tamariki was the largest employer of practising social workers in 2023 (26%). Social workers in the NGO sector made up the largest subset of the workforce (28%). The health sector is the third largest employer category after NGOs and Oranga Tamariki.
- Making a positive difference to people’s lives remains the highlight ranked motivation for entering and remaining in the profession across all the employer groups.
- The Oranga Tamariki workforce trends slightly younger that the full practising workforce.
- Around 17% of social workers in health reported plans to leave the profession in the next five years, with around half of those specifying retirement as the reason for their planned departure.
- Social workers employed by NGOs report that the recruitment and retention of social workers is one of the biggest challenges facing the profession.
You can download the reports here:
Workforce Survey 2023 - Health Spotlight