Moira Gibb, flanked by two secretaries of state and a rock star, launched the Social Work Task Force report Building a Safe, Confident Future at a meeting in London on 1 December.
She described it as a report that aims to provide the recognition for social work that has been missing for too long. In the launch she challenged all of us – social workers, managers, employers, training providers and regulators – to play our part in translating the recommendations in the report into action. A Social Work Reform Board will be established and Moira Gibb will chair it. Government will, with the support of the board, publish an implementation plan “early in 2010”. Ministers promised that the interests of people who use services will be at the heart of the plan.
The report focuses on six areas and contains 15 recommendations.
1) Better initial training with proposals to improve the calibre of entrants, to reform the content of degree courses, to provide better practice placements, to establish a formal probationary year for newly qualified social workers and to regulate education more effectively
2) Time, resources and support to ensure better working conditions. Proposals relate to setting new standards that employers must meet, the provision of high quality supervision and a training programme for front line managers
3) A new system linking professional development and career progression to include setting a new framework for continuous professional development and a single nationally recognized career structure with “fair pay”, particularly for those experienced and skilled workers who want to stay in front line practice
4) Better leadership and a national voice for the profession focusing on the establishment of a national college of social work
5) A concerted programme to improve the public image of social work and to ensure that the public understands what social workers do
6) The creation of a cohesive and purposeful system to include a shift of emphasis to a “licence to practice” approach to regulation and a new model for forecasting supply and demand.
The GSCC will be contributing to the work needed to develop the implementation plan – we are determined to play our part as the statutory workforce regulator in shaping the detail of the reform agenda. We will keep you informed of progress in future editions.
Read the full Social Task Force Report in full.
I have worked ina CMHT for many years and I have never been more aware than that it is very much a case of their life in my hands. I do not have time for therapeautic interventions, or for complex social interventions. The 'social worker' role is becoming very blurred with that of CPN's in the CMHT's. We need recognition of the responsibilities we face on a daily basis. not just in mental health but in all other areas too.
Val
18 Jan 2010
if follow above thnings we achieve the goal
F.ABUBECKER
25 Dec 2009
Social workers have been used as scape goats for a long time, I hope that this new proposals help to support social workers in the good work they are doing in safe gaurding vulnerble children and adults all over the country.
Ufuoma
21 Dec 2009
I came into mental health social work because of an interest in psychiatry and a desire to improve the lives of this vulnerable section of society. I have been qalified for ten years now and at no point over the last decade have I felt this despondednt about my job and a profession that I am intensely passionate about. Our caseloads are mounting, we are being asked to perform increasing amounts of audit related admin tasks that eat into our clinical time to such a degree that I am no longer able to spend quality therapeutic time with my patients...and the responses from our managers when we tell them that we are struggling and that we have no time? "let's look at your time management"... when infact there is NO MORE time to manage! When will the deteriorating quality of our professional working practices be ADDRESSED because over the coming years there will be a crisis in recruitment if the pay and conditions are not reviewed.
Andrew Clayton
18 Dec 2009
The subject of CAMHS recieved little or no coverage on any of the courses I take students from (four in total). Unless this is sorted it will continue to leave a significant gap in the knowledge base of the NQSW.
Bill Dixon
14 Dec 2009
The issues of too-high caseloads have not been addressed; that lies at the root of many of our problems. Until that becomes a national standard, not just lip service, nothing will change. Training cannot ease over heavy work loads or create more time where there is none. There are equipment problems as well, work enviornments are critical but are given short shrift by councils, who prefer to equip the higher paid managers rather than front line staff.
Lesley Hill
11 Dec 2009
I am a little dissapointed that the taskforce is simply reiterating what Social Workers have been saying for years. For years they have been underpaid for the services that they have provided. I think the task force is a mockery as it has still failed to implement adequate pay and conditions of social worker across the board including Guardians and ISW's.
Central government has failed to ensure that recruitment and retention allowances are distributed and that flexible working and safer allocation of cases implemented. It is still the norm in many boroughs for social workers to be overloaded and carrying dangerously high case loads.
I would like to know when the GSCC will basically grow a spine and protect social workers from exploitation and ensure decent wages and work conditions as opposed to disciplining them when they 'fall short'.
Many of my collegues are exiting the profession as they have lost faith in the system. I think the Social Work Task force should be made up of front line professionals who actually work in the trenches and can provide a more accurate refelction of what does occur.
Margaret Henry
10 Dec 2009
I am delighted to think that Social Work Practitioners of the future will have a career grade structure rewarding effective and 'advanced' practice. As I get towards retirement, I am very aware I earn three or four thousand pounds less than friends in comparative professions such as teaching, nursing, and the Police. Clearly this has an effect on well being in retirement but more significantly may have an influence on the choices young people, motivated towards a career in the helping professions, make.
Sally A
10 Dec 2009
