What Do Social Workers in the UK Do?

The role of social workers in the UK is to help protect vulnerable children and adults from harm or abuse, and to support vulnerable adults to live independently.   

Most social work jobs fall under either Children’s Services or Adult Social Care.  These are statutory services set up by law and funded by public funding.  

Most social work roles in the UK are not considered therapeutic or clinical. However, there are some specific social work roles within mental health.   

The youth justice system also requires for there to be specific social work roles within youth justice teams.

Before we get into the specific roles and teams of social workers, let’s look at some terms that are frequently used when we talk about social work in the UK.

What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding is a term used in the UK when speaking about keeping children, young people, and vulnerable adults safe.  Safeguarding means protecting an individual’s health, wellbeing, and human rights, and enabling them to live free from harm, abuse, and neglect.

For children, safeguarding mainly focuses on care and development.

For adults, safeguarding focuses on independence and choice.

What is a local authority/local council?

Local governments, sometimes called local authorities or local councils, are responsible for providing services to their local communities.  This includes social care, schools, housing, and waste collection. 

London is made up of 32 local authorities, also referred to as boroughs.  This means that if you are a social worker in London, there are 32 potential employers.  

There are laws and guidance that set out the role of Children’s Services.  However, they vary slightly in different parts of the country because each local government is responsible for their own service.   The overall service they provide should be consistent but the way they structure their service will vary.  In general, teams are usually broken down as follows:

Early Help

The aim of this service is to prevent an escalation to statutory services.  It can also provide step-down support where statutory services are no longer required.  It is consent-based, so families are not required to accept the support offered. 

MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub)

This is often referred to as the “front door”.  It is a multi-agency team including social workers, health professionals, police, education, housing, probation, and youth justice.  The purpose of the MASH is to improve information sharing between professionals to make timely and informed decisions about risk.  

Social workers take initial calls, emails, and referrals from professionals and members of the public.  They only hold cases for a short time while initial decisions are made.

Assessment

If there are risk concerns for a child and more information is required to better understand what is happening, a social worker is allocated to complete an assessment.  The timeframes and actions depend on the level of risk identified, however, these teams are short-term and fast paced.  

Child in Need/ Child Protection

If following an assessment, it is determined the family require a short period of intervention, and parents agree with it, the child will be placed on a child in need plan.   The plan will set out what support is needed and who is responsible for providing it.  There will be regular social work visits and meetings with professionals and parents to monitor the plan.  The aim is for the family to engage with support to no longer need social work involvement.     

If the child is considered to be at risk of “significant” harm, meetings will be held to determine whether they should be placed on a child protection plan.  Meetings will include the parent(s), social worker, police, health, any other professionals working with the family, and are chaired by an independent person (who also works for Children’s Services).   A child protection plan is a statutory level of intervention which means parents do not need to consent for social work involvement.  While a child protection plan is in place, there will be frequent social work visits, meetings held with parents and a core group of professionals to monitor the progress of the plan, and formal review meetings with an independent chair.   

Looked After Children

In the UK, social workers do not have the sole power to remove children from their families; only the Police or Courts can do this. However, social workers are the ones who execute these Orders.  Children can also come into the care of the local authority by voluntary agreement if parents and Children’s Services agree the child cannot remain at home.  

Social workers are responsible for finding a suitable place for the child to live and for providing ongoing support.  There will be regular meetings chaired by an independent person with professionals and parents to monitor the child’s progress and any support needs.  A child might remain in the care of the local authority until they are 18 years old and will then transition to a leaving care team. 

Leaving Care

The young person will be allocated a Personal Advisor who will support them into independence up to the age of 25.  The Personal Advisor is not legally required to have a social work qualification and each local authority will have different qualification requirements.  

Children With Disabilities

This is a specialist team who support families with children up to the age of 18 who have a severe, profound or complex disability that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on them. 

Fostering

Social workers support and assess foster carers.  They are allocated to the foster carer rather than the child, and would liaise with the child’s allocated social worker. 

Adoption

Social workers assess and support adopters, including after an adoption placement is made. 

Child Exploitation

Social workers work with children who are at risk of child sexual or criminal exploitation.  Sometimes there is a specific adolescent/exploitation team or sometimes this sits within another social work team.  

Contextual Safeguarding is an approach to understanding and responding to children’s experiences of significant harm beyond their family and homes. This approach is not embedded in legislation but informs much of the practice in relation to exploitation.

Out of Hours/Emergency Duty Team

This teams works outside of business hours including overnight, weekends, and public holidays.  They cover any emergencies that require a social worker’s oversight or action that cannot wait until the allocated social worker’s team are next working. 

What is the Key Legislation and Guidance in Children’s Services?

Children Act 1989 provides a framework for safeguarding and child protection systems and laws across England.  

Children Act 2004 reinforces that all people and organisations working with children have a responsibility to safeguard them and promote their welfare.  

Working Together to Safeguard Children is statutory guidance that sets out how individuals and organisations should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with legislation.  It is currently being reviewed. 

When a child dies or is seriously harmed as a result of abuse or neglect, a serious case review is conducted to identify ways professionals and organisations can improve the way they work together to safeguard children.   Legislation and guidance has been informed by high-profile and tragic deaths from which there was significant learning.

Adult social care support can include personal care, help to develop the skills needed to live independently, help with household tasks, organising physical, leisure or social activities, finding housing, and respite care. 

Support is usually provided in people’s homes, care homes or elsewhere in the community.  

Some social workers are based in hospitals and work alongside medical professionals to help patients discharge from hospital and to access support after discharge. Although support can include medical help, social care offers more practical support to help people to live independently.    

The local authority or local council is responsible for managing social care services in their area.  They might provide some services themselves or they may buy services from care providers to meet the needs of their community. 

In reality the threshold for adult social care is very high and support is only available for people with very high needs and low assets.  

What is the Key Legislation and Guidance in Adult Social Care?

Care Act 2014 sets out that local authorities have safeguarding duties to protect vulnerable adults.  

Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets out that everyone has capacity unless it is proved otherwise, individuals should be supported to make their own decisions, and anything done for them or on their behalf must be in their best interest. 

How Do I Become a Social Worker in the UK?

All social workers in the UK must have a social work qualification recognised by the registration body in their area. If you plan to live in England, you must be registered with Social Work England. For Scotland it is the Scottish Social Services Council. For Wales it is Social Care Wales. For Northern Ireland it is the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.

For social workers who qualified within the UK, registration is usually a straightforward and reasonably quick process.

If you qualified overseas, the registration process can be more complicated and lengthy. I have put together some helpful tips and advice about registering with Social Work England as an overseas qualified social worker.

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