24% of children in care had three or more social workers in 2024-25, down from 27% the previous year, reports Department for Education.
Fewer children in care in England had multiple changes of social worker last year, Department for Education (DfE) figures have shown.
The proportion who had three or more social workers in the year to 31 March 2025 was 24%, down from 27% in 2023-24, the first year for which these figures were collected by the DfE.
The proportion who had one social worker during the year rose from 38% to 40% across the two years.
The reduction coincides with a drop in turnover across the children’s social work workforce in local authorities, with 11.9% leaving their role in the year to September 2025, down from 13.8%.
The latest data actually showed an increase in the proportion of changes of practitioner resulting from the previous social worker leaving their role (22% in 2024-25, up from 17%).
However, this is likely to reflect an increase in councils reporting a specific reason for children in care having a change of practitioner, with authorities attributing far fewer cases to an “other reason” (17%, down from 37%).
The most common reason for a change remained a new social worker being assigned because of a standard process – for example, a child moving between teams due to a change of status – which accounted for 24% of cases, up from 18%.
As in 2023-24, having three or more social workers in the year was more common among younger than older children, though rates fell across all age groups.
Among children aged under one, 31% had three or more social workers in 2024-25, while this was true of 29% of those aged 1-4, 26% of those aged 5-9, 23% of those aged 10-15 and 22% of those aged 16 and over.
Likewise, higher instability continued to be greater among children accommodated under section 20 of the Children Act 1989 – 27% of whom had three or more social workers in 2024-25 – than those on a care order (23%) though rates fell for both groups year on year.
