Summary

The Personal Social Services staff of Social Services Departments return (SSDS001) was first collected in 1993 by the Department of Health (DH). Since 2004-05 the return has been the responsibility of The Information Centre for health and social care. The aim of the SSDS001 is to collect detailed information on all staff, whether full or part-time, directly employed by social services departments.

Key facts

• In September 2007, Councils with Social Services Responsibilities (CSSRs) in England employed 208,600 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) staff. This is a drop of 2 per cent from September 2006 and a drop of 7 per cent from September 1998
• the number of social work staff (45,200) was 25 per cent higher than in 1998 and 2 per cent higher than in 2006
• women accounted for 80 per cent of WTE staff, the same as in 2006
• 50 per cent of all staff work on a part-time basis, down 8 percentage points from 58 per cent in 1998
• 84 per cent of all WTE staff are known to be white. 12 per cent are from non-white ethnic groups with 7 per cent known to be of black ethnic origin and 3 per cent Asian
• over a third of councils (34%) recorded more than the national average of 11 per cent for black and minority ethnic staff based on actual numbers.