International Social Workers in England: An unknown

workforce?Shereen Hussein

Jill Manthorpe

Martin Stevens

Social Care Workforce Research Unit

King’s College London

This study is funded by the Department of Health Adult Social Care Workforce Research Initiative

What’s going on?• Is there a demand for international social

care workers?• What are their experiences, motivations

and plans?• How do social workers compare who have

qualified outside and inside the UK?• Who are international workers?• What’s the potential contribution of

refugees & asylum seekers in social care?

Ways and means • Review of literature, interviews with

recruitment agencies (20) & key stakeholders (15)

• Analysis of statistics:– Related to social workers (GSCC)– Related to social care workers (NMDS)

• In-depth 6 case study sites interviewing international staff, their colleagues/managers and service users/carers

• Interviews with a national sample of asylums/refugees and people working with them

Figuring it out• Quantitative data analysis of UK and

non-UK social workers’ records in England - held by General Social Care Council – October 2008

• Comparison of characteristics of 7,200 non-UK social workers with approx. 74,000 social workers in England

Characteristics of non-UK social workers

• Main countries:– Australia and New Zealand (21%)– Canada and United States (18%)– South Africa (15%)– India (12%)

• 18% from EEA countries (with the right to work in the UK- 3% from new A8 countries)

Characteristics of non-UK social workers: ethnicity and gender

• Over half are ‘White’, 57%• Nearly the same proportion of ‘Black’ and

‘Asian’ (18% each)• Those identifying themselves with Black

ethnicity are significantly older (median age of 38 years)

• 55% of social workers trained in India are men followed by 48% from Eastern Africa while 10% of those trained in South Africa (24% of UK qualified social workers are men)

Characteristics of non-UK social workers: age

• Significantly younger than UK SWs (median 33.6 compared to 48.2 years)

• median age lowest (30.9 years) among those trained in:– A8 countries, – followed by Australia & New Zealand and other

Eastern European countries• Median age 40 years or higher among those

who qualified in Eastern Africa, the Caribbean, South Eastern Asia and South America

• Internationally qualified men are significantly older than women.

Characteristics of non-UK qualified social workers: trends• Median age of starting UK

employment is declining - from 33.2 years in 2004 to 31.6 in 2008

• Percentage of social workers identifying themselves as White & Asian increased slightly

• Sharp increase in numbers and proportion of social workers trained in India & decline in proportion trained in Southern Africa (see over)

Characteristics of non-UK social workers: trends in country of training

Summary• Numbers of non-UK social workers have

not seen a dramatic change since 2004• Composition is changing in terms of age

and country of training &, to a lesser extent, ethnicity

• Mobility of male social workers is higher from some countries than others

• Age is different among different non-UK ethnic groups

• Overall, they are significantly younger than UK social workers.

next steps

• What are the outcomes for people using services and carers?

• What do colleagues and managers think?

• Will international social workers stay or return?

• Will there be a decline in overseas recruitment of social workers?

Contact details

• Shereen Hussein: shereen.hussein@kcl.ac.uk

• Jill Manthorpe: jill.manthorpe@kcl.ac.uk

• Martin Stevens: martin.stevens@kcl.ac.uk