Association of Professors of Social Work: Submission to the Casey Commission 2026

This submission has been authored by the Association of Professors of Social Work about the role and contribution of social work to adult social care in England. We are a membership organisation operating in the UK and our members are researchers and educators in the areas of social work and related fields, from higher education institutions.

1. What’s working well – social workers’ contributions to adult social care

There are growing number of people seeking care and support (from the public sector) whose needs are very complex and often include a combination of co-morbid physical and mental health conditions (e.g. mental health issues/dementia, frailty), disabilities, and ‘social frailty’ (e.g. poor housing, few resources, poverty, precarious social capital, limited family support). These different sets of needs intersect and social workers bring a social – person in environment – perspective that recognises and works with these intersections.  By the time the person (& their family carer if there is one) comes to the attention of adult social care teams in local authorities their needs often tend to be serious, embedded and chronic and the person – and their family – are often scared, confused, anxious and/or in a state of crisis.  

1.1 Social workers are very skilled at:

• Supporting people through high levels of uncertainty and risk and enabling them to live the life that matters to them
• Promoting people’s rights and voice: what matters to them and decisions that affect their care and wellbeing
• Using knowledge to intervene effectively with people on the margins and/or facing a crisis. This includes legal knowledge – legal literacy situated on the nexus of the Care Act 2014, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, Mental Capacity Act 2005; also understanding about the context of ‘need’ (noted above).
• Using practice-informed expertise: a fusion of knowledge and skills. This includes the capacity to support people living with multiple issues and high levels of uncertainty, engaging with the older person and their carer effectively and ensuring their needs are addressed in a timely manner. Particular (additional) skills include: negotiation, advocacy, reassurance, development of a trust relationship, balancing rights and risks, appreciating the concerns of the older person & carer, leading challenging conversations, and helping them to navigate the ‘system’.   
• Engaging therapeutically – applying a range of interpersonal skills to support, guide, reassure and inform adults and their carers who are experiencing high levels of uncertainty, worry and strain. Acknowledging their fears and anxieties is especially important.
• Persistence & being creative – this often involves sticking with people to gain their trust and engage with their concerns and perspectives and requires thinking ‘outside the box’ and looking to creative ways forward.   
• Meeting the needs of family carers alongside the person receiving care and support. This includes carefully managing tensions between the two sets of perspectives/needs. Many carers are older people; some have their own care needs.  
• Planning care: this involves being aware of ‘what is out there’ (health, care, welfare and community-based services); what the person and their carer have a right to, including welfare entitlements; considering how to develop a care package that meets the needs of both (the dyad) in a sustainable way.
  • A part of this is facilitating access to community resources and connection. Social workers are embedded in communities through their extensive knowledge of local resources and assets.  
• Addressing issues arising from social frailty for example, helping the person to access unclaimed benefits, obtaining OT support to help them remain safely at home.
• Making a distinctive contribution to multi-disciplinary teams: this often involves reminding health professionals of the person’s legal rights (e.g. to be involved in decisions) and of ways forward that are not driven by NHS priorities. Social workers co-ordinate assessments and contribute essential knowledge on adults’ support systems.
• Taking on specialist professional roles including Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs: 95% are social workers): in this role they provide a holistic view of the person’s situation, circumstances and needs and balance mitigating risks against deprivation of liberty whilst ensuring the person is safe.
• Leading safeguarding enquiries and supporting people’s rights to live free from discrimination, abuse and neglect. This includes younger adults transitioning to adult services.

2. What’s not working well and what needs to change

There are a number of persistent barriers in the current social care system in England that prevent people with care and support needs obtaining good social work support and that hinder social workers from delivering the best support they can to the adults they are working with.

• Continuity of care and sufficient time spent with people who need care and support: Lack of continuity of social worker for people with care and support needs is a key concern. ‘The same social worker’ is not only what people want and is evidenced as promoting of their well-being, but it is also linked to enhanced retention of social workers (i.e. work is more rewarding). Increased amount of direct time with social workers is also what people want and what social workers think is valuable in terms of resolution of difficulties. For this to be achieved a reduction in administrative workload is required and lower caseloads. Continuity of social worker is also very important for family carers and other professionals working with the individuals   

2.2 Administrative burden: Unreasonable demands of ‘paperwork’ take social workers away from front line practice and other activities that focus directly on delivering care & support 

2.3 Earlier delivery of social work support: Too often social work support is received at a point of crisis. A key dimension of the Care Act is prevention of more serious needs developing. The local authority offer should be to deliver timely intervention ‘at the point when it is needed’ rather than at the point of crisis.

2.4 Specialist career pathways are currently lacking and are needed: Coherent career pathways with opportunities for specialist roles would help ensure that specialist skills and expertise are developed and deployed effectively but also that retention of social workers is enhanced. Particular groups that benefit from specialist social work roles include: people with brain injuries, palliative care, people with dementia, people with learning disabilities, and people with sensory impairments. Much more investment is needed to protect and extend these roles.

• Greater investment in social work training pathways and qualifications is needed: Universities are the main providers of social work education and ‘supply’ qualified social workers to the adult social care workforce. Social work programmes are increasingly under threat, and many have closed in recent years due to decreasing student numbers and decline in the value of student bursaries (not rising with the cost of living).  Increased investment in social work education and access to student bursary funding in England would help improve recruitment to social work programmes and promote diversity and equality amongst people entering the social work profession. Increased bursary funding would also help protect the future of social work education.

2.6 Strengthening the role and importance of research to practice:  Social workers can create and use research evidence in both social work and social care. However too often social workers have no, or little, protected time to engage with research evidence to inform and improve their daily practice. A key dimension of promoting greater research engagement could be support for career pathways that explicitly engage with the development of research capacity e.g. NIHR-specific awards.

2.7 Making social workers more accessible in communities: Locating social workers in the settings where they can be easily accessed by those with the highest levels of need for care and support, is an obvious route to delivering effective social work. For example: hospitals and GP practices (see integrated care below). In Northern Ireland social workers are embedded in GP services in many areas. The Primary Care Multi-disciplinary Team model is an integrated primary and community health and social care delivery model ensuring that more care is provided outside hospitals, encouraging working across organisational boundaries, as well as strengthening the primary care sector in order to effect a shift towards community-based localised care. The Primary Care MDT model provides a renewed focus on prevention and early intervention approaches by embedding physiotherapists, mental health practitioners, social workers, and social work assistants in a primary care setting.

2.8 Social workers need to be situated at the nexus of integrated care: Their purview is holistic and their expertise is ‘integrated’ by nature. In England social care is often marginalised in integrated care frameworks and yet it is pivotal to the promotion of user wellbeing and to extending community-based living. Adults with care and support needs rely equally on support from social care and health care. In Northern Ireland the commissioning, management and provision of health and social care services is fully integrated and structured within five geographically distinct Health and Social Care Trusts. Within this model, integrated teams delivering social care services are well established.

3. Closing statement:

We have been keenly following the development and implementation of National Care Services in Scotland and Wales and are broadly supportive of such a development in England where social workers are a key profession embedded in the delivery of social care at both national and local levels. Social workers are an integral part of the adult social care ecosystem in England as: providers of support, advocates for people with care and support needs and their families, coordinators of care across the whole care system and highly skilled practitioners who appreciate the nature of complexity, promote legal and human rights and place the adult with care & support needs at the centre of decision making. Any future social care system must not only include and support social workers but seek to enhance their recruitment, retention and deployment to the people who most need and benefit from social work support. Their contribution is vital to people’s wellbeing, rights and quality of life.