With the latest government statistics reporting an average caseload per child and family social worker of 17.8 nationally, Community Care wanted to see which local authorities were reporting higher or lower than ‘average’ caseloads down across their workforce.

Of the five local authorities with the highest reported average caseload per social worker, three were rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted in their most recent full inspection. Conversely, Darlington, with the fourth lowest average, was rated ‘inadequate’.

Kensington and Chelsea, one of only three councils with a current rating of ‘outstanding’, is second in the government table of lowest averages.

The national average cannot be compared with last year’s reported average of 16 as data this year was collected at individual social worker level, said the report. It advised care in interpreting the figures as “local authorities have reported difficulties with linking the number of cases and the social worker holding those cases”.

Across the national workforce, the statistics report that just over half (51%) of full-time equivalent workers are caseholders. However, the report goes on to say that while the proportion of these vary buy local authority, some had difficulty mapping their local roles to those identified in the collection of the data.

See below for the local authorities reporting the highest and lowest average caseholds per worker.

Lowest average caseloads by local authority

Highest average caseloads by local authority

Data Source: Children’s social work workforce 2018

Source: CommunityCare