Social work workforce report

This report provides an overview of the social work workforce in Victoria in 2016-2017. It is based on survey responses from 1,294 individual social workers (approximately 25 per cent of the social worker workforce identified in the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census data or 15 per cent of Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) estimates of Victorian social worker numbers). It also draws on focus groups and interviews involving 28 social workers, and surveys from 273 organisational respondents that provide social work services across in Victoria. Public sector and older employees were over-represented in the survey sample.

According to the workforce survey and qualitative research findings, social work services are currently under pressure in the public system in Victoria with social workers citing long waiting lists, large workloads and limited capacity. Demand is predicted to continue to rise with the ageing population, and increasing policy focus on family violence, disability and mental health support. Future areas of high demand include family violence, aged care, disability, mental health, child protection, and Indigenous mental health. There are existing service gaps in these areas and also in rural areas. There is also an important and growing role for social workers in emergency departments.

Social workers were generally satisfied in their careers and value the diversity their profession offers; however they felt they lacked professional recognition and standing. While there was a sense that social workers' status is improving in the state's hospitals, many still felt undervalued and in the community sector, there was a particular concern about non-degree qualified social workers using the social worker title and sometimes getting paid at a similar level. Another key issue for social workers was that career structures currently do not reward clinical expertise or specialty and this contributes to dissatisfaction and attrition in the profession. Approximately one third of respondents (32 per cent) were working at the grade 2 level, with a high proportion of social workers not able to progress beyond this level due to lack of available positions, particularly in regional and rural areas, and in the community sector.

Workforce burnout (compassion fatigue) can have a significant effect on this workforce, but this is substantially mitigated with effective supervision. Clinical supervision is a valued and integral element of the profession. Many social workers want more access to supervision or better quality supervision, provided by an experienced social worker, not someone from a different profession. Social work is a naturally innovative profession and social workers use their understanding of systems to suggest creative approaches that may not necessarily emerge from others with a more 'medical mindset'. Social workers often use their advocacy skills internally to lobby for new ideas, but the profession is perceived to lack the necessary status within organisations, as well as the level of evidence or documentation needed, to effectively advocate for different approaches to practice. Building a stronger research culture within the profession would assist with this.

Key areas of consideration for the social work workforce going forward include: (1) Improving professional understanding and definition of the social worker role; (2) Increasing research culture across the profession, and evidence and knowledge base of models of care delivery, to improve referrals and develop business cases for optimal staffing levels to improve patient outcomes; (3) Review of pay across the public, community and not-for-profit (NFP) sectors; (4) Developing career structures that recognise and encourage clinical expertise and experience; (5) Improving access to high quality supervision across the workforce to reduce compassion fatigue and increase capacity; (6) Investigate the need for increased social work services in rural areas; and (7) Embedding social workers where there are opportunities for prevention and early intervention by addressing psycho-social needs, such as in emergency departments and with ambulance teams.

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