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Social workers are a generalist allied workforce focused on providing holistic whānau care, focused on people who have complex social and health needs. They work across a whole range of settings (such as in mental health and addictions services), including outside the health sector in a range of settings that include Government agencies such as Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Social Development, Education, New Zealand Defence Force, Corrections and Police and other non-government organisations (NGOs), and iwi-based organisations delivering broader community based social care.

As of 2023, 7,520 actively practising social workers are registered to practice in New Zealand – 23% of these social workers are employed by health providers, though more still may provide a measure of health-related care through working for a non-government organisation (NGO).

Social work also has a unique regulatory structure. The Social Workers Registration Board is a Crown Entity under the Social Workers Registration Act 2003 responsible for regulating the profession, alongside acting as the government’s lead agency for workforce planning for social workers.

We have relatively poor but improving data about the gaps in our social work workforce in the health system – in part because most social work care occurs in the community. This is exacerbated by the spread of social work across the health and social sectors, making it hard to identify ‘health’ social workers.

However, we know that we are likely to see more of the cases where social workers have greatest impact in our health system over time: where whānau have complex, overlapping health and social needs. More people will need care focused on their whole family’s wellbeing, rather than just on a single condition. This aligns well to shifts in models of care focused on providing wrap-around support in the community to those whānau who need it most.

As a result, it is likely that demand for social workers in the health system will grow over decades to come.

 

 

Today
Our estimates of current FTE shortages across the health sector, based on current ways of working, are around:

By 2033
Based on current trends, models of care and technology, if we do not change how we work, we estimate that by 2033 we would need additional FTE across the health sector of around:

Social workers

 

+900

10.6% of our total need

+910

10.7% on top of current pipeline

The opportunity

If we can get our models of care right, social workers offer significant opportunities to improve holistic care in the community and at home for whānau with high needs. This will require material shifts in how we fund primary and community care; and growth over time in our hospital-based workforce.

What will it take?

Over the next three years, our focus for social work is ensuring that the workforce we have is able to thrive in the settings we use it in – and that we have sustainability for the future:

  • Supporting relative specialisation. All our social work programmes are generalist in nature, meaning that a transition to work in health contexts – caring for whānau grappling with serious conditions, including mental health and addictions issues – can be challenging. Health services offer relatively few social work placements compared to other settings. We want to work with tertiary education providers to improve the transition into health practice for new social workers.
  • Getting volumes right. By growing gradually the number of social work graduates with an interest in health settings, we can close the vacancies we know we have in our hospitals, and expand our future capacity in the community.
Action What we'll do
1.3 Match tertiary training capacity to future need Review all health system training volumes for which we have modelling against expected workforce demand by 2035; and outline required tertiary training growth to meet demand.
1.4 Streamline tertiary training programmes Re-design tertiary training pathways (working with the tertiary sector) to align training times to global norms, introduce more flexible pathways, and address student attraction and attrition.
3.3 Attract students to health careers Launch a national attraction campaign to get students interested in health careers.