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Guidance

Children’s social work workforce: guide

Guides for local authorities submitting children’s social work workforce returns for 2026 and 2027.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Education
Published:
26 August 2022
Last updated:
2 September 2026
Show all updates

  1. Added 'Children’s social work workforce census, year ending 30 September 2027: guide'.

  2. Updated for 2026 with 'Children’s social work workforce census, year ending 30 September 2026 guide’.

  3. We have updated section 3 of the guide, on social worker data items. The updates add details on base salary and the Frontline data item. We have described them fully in the version history.

  4. 'Children's social work workforce census, year ending 30 September 2024': updated link to service request form in section 1.5 (change also described in the version history).

  5. Updated 'Children's social work workforce census, year ending 30 September 2024'. In section 3 we corrected an error and replaced 'FTE as at 30 September 2023' with 'FTE as at 30 September 2024'.

  6. Added 'Children’s social work workforce census, year ending 30 September 2025: guide'.

  7. Updated for 2024.

  8. Updated guide for 2023.

  9. First published.

Applies to England

Documents

Children’s social work workforce census, year ending 30 September 2026: guide

PDF, 479 KB, 36 pages

Children’s social work and family help workforce census, year ending 30 September 2027: guide

PDF, 1.41 MB, 59 pages

Details

These guides are for local authorities preparing a children’s social work workforce return.

They includes information on:

  • submission deadlines
  • data modules

Children’s social work workforce census: guide to submitting data explains how local authorities should collect and submit data.

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