Safe Staffing and Workload Management in Social Work: A Scoping Review of Legislation, Policy and Practice

In Northern Ireland social work specific legislation is planned for safe staffing across the governmental sector. As part of a broader research project to inform this development, we conducted a scoping review seeking examples of safe staffing definitions, safe staffing-related legislation, policy and practice in social work and associated professions from the UK and internationally. We searched English language databases in 2023 web sites and reference lists as well as grey literature.

Finding no international examples of social work-specific safe staffing definitions, legislation or policy outside of Children’s Services, we offer a tentative definition to the current debate.
Our scoping review found examples of individual social workers and local teams developing caseload management practices to promote “safer” working, which may be useful for policymakers and regulators to consider. However these need greater conceptual clarity, consensus over definitions and outcomes, and evaluation for cost-effectiveness. Given the limited evidence in this area, recommendations include the need for further research to ascertain what “safe staffing” does, can and should mean in social work, and what can work in different contexts and at different levels of policy and practice to inform service user and social worker safety in social work.