At the end of 2008 the Government took two important initiatives to boost social work in England. It asked Lord Laming to look at the state of child protection work and it set up a taskforce to look at social work in general, across services for adults, children and families. Both were tasked with making recommendations to transform practice.

Lord Laming’s report and the Government’s response to it have now been published. The GSCC welcomed the Government’s response and gave a commitment to work with it and with other partners to see that the key recommendations are implemented.

Amongst the proposals backed by ministers are:

• the development of a new practice based masters course;
• the extension of the NQSW pilot programme to all new social workers from next September;
• the development of a new advanced social work professional role so that skilled social workers can stay in practice rather than move into management;
• a recruitment campaign to attract back social workers who may have left the profession.

Lord Laming backed the idea of making the GSCC code of practice for employers mandatory and we will be discussing with the Department for Children Schools and Families and the Department of Health how this can be done.

Moira Gibb, the taskforce Chair, published her first interim report alongside the Government’s response to Lord Laming. She commented on the Laming recommendations and announced the first conclusions of her taskforce on some preliminary issues, particularly on the future of the Integrated Children’s System (ICS). The report suggests some immediate actions that need to be taken on ICS including simplifying the requirements, ensuring local accountability, and providing procurement support.

The report also identifies six themes for future work and calls for evidence from anyone who wishes to contribute to the debate. These themes are outlined in the taskforce’s letter to the Government:

1. Social workers feel they do not have enough time to devote directly to the people they want to help. They feel overstretched by staff shortages and tied up in bureaucracy.
2. Social workers feel very frustrated by some of the tools and support they are given to do their jobs.
3. New social workers are often not properly prepared for the demands of the job and the education system does not effectively support ongoing development and specialisation.
4. Social workers do not feel that their profession speaks with a strong national voice or is well supported at national level.
5. Systems for managing the performance of social workers are not driving quality first and foremost.
6. Social workers feel that their profession is under-valued, poorly understood and under continuous media attack. This is making it hard for them to do their jobs and hard to attract people into the profession.

Theme three is all about the training of social workers. The GSCC believes that attention must be given to both initial training and ongoing training. In response to our poll about post-qualifying training in the last edition of this e-newsletter, 250 of the 370 of you who replied said that you have done adequate post-qualifying training and most of you think that your employers support you well in undertaking the training you need to do your job well. Almost half of the respondents had done a PQ award. However, we don’t know how representative you are of social workers as a whole.

More information on the themes can be found at www.dcsf.gov.uk/swtf/

We believe that the initial training of social workers has improved markedly over the last five years since the degree was introduced, but we agree that it needs further development. We have a range of ideas about how we can improve the quality of social work education both at undergraduate and postgraduate level and we will be sharing these ideas with the taskforce and with our stakeholders more widely. We will publish our submission to the taskforce on our website when it is complete.

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I totally agree on the subject of caseloads and training. My initial support and training was virtually nil.The expectation was that I would know what to do irrespective of my newly qualified status and lack of prvious SW experience. Snarling,power laden IRO,S with sarcastic comments and their unrealistic expectations belittling whenever possible within their domain.. I recently offered to asist with Stat vists whilst a colleague was off sick and lo and behold I have acquired another case! Its totally disgusting and can only be addressed by refusing to work the additional hours required simply to do the basics.What does that really achive? They can discipline me if they dare. I am entering year 3 but will not be around much longer unless things chage. We all know they wont!!

john
31 Jan 2010

I do not see how training at Masters level will fully make a difference. A higher qualification has it's advantages, but it's the content of the course that matters. I did a Masters and the course was full of academic non practice based stuidies. I didn't even fully learn about child protection. We need training that offers more about what happens on the ground in practice. Children's Services and Universities should work together very closely to create a SW programme that is fit for purpose. Social workers are churned out of university and into Children's Services unprepared. And as for the newly qualified programme, I have way too much work to do to benefit from the programme. As a newly qualified, what I need is a reduced, varied caseload. A mentor with the time to show me the ropes and time that I can actually prioritise for my training. Instead, I've just hit the ground running, always scared that I will do something wrong and I am truly exausted already. People have such a poor view of Social Workers, we are always under scrutiny. I never heard people acknowledge the good work we do. I feel I work over and above what I should do for my wage and feel no reward - just demoralisation. I am nearly at my 12 month anniversary of qualifying and I am thinking what is the point of putting myself and my family through it?

heidi
27 Jun 2009

Lord Laming Report I am sure stated that Social worker case loads should be about 12/15 children. I always have at least 28 to 32 children on my case load and have reported dangerous practice because of my high case load. Been on sick leave twice in 18 months with stress however nothing has changed. I get frustrated because it feels nobody is listen to the front line staff to prevent baby P happening again. I have to work far more than the hours I am paid for so that my Service users get the best I can give. This does inpede into my family life which suffers. My family hate me doing the job but I am committed to it although I feel like the under dog in the profession. Social workers always get bad press and I have always done excellent work. I think the goverment is on a good thing and out touch.

J Ryan
26 Jun 2009

I have been in Child Protection for 10 years and have never received any gratitude from the public only ridicule. The press never report about all the excellent work we do. They report on the very few bad incidents that sadly accur. No wonder Social workers are leaving the profession.

J Ryan
26 Jun 2009

I started the masters degree in S/W last September at UEA in Norwich where I found myself getting deeper and deeper into personal finacial trouble due to the distance I had to travel. 200 miles a week to and fro at £50.00 a week. I was given maintenance for the year but this was spent in my first 2 and a 1/2 months on the course. Near the end of my initial placement I had to discontinue my degree and go back to work due to the lack of finanical support to complete the programme. I feel this to be a road block into social work not only for myself but also other mature students with families and finanical commitments.

Michael Wishon
19 Jun 2009

The practice training of social workers can only be as good as the placements which are provided. I would like to see more efforts made by the GSCC to monitor the quality of placements, as i do not feel that universities are best placed to do this. In my experience as a student, i have seen universities continue to enrol students for the financial gain, while they are unable to fullfill their part of the bargain by securing appropriate placements which fully prepare students for social work careers. If the GSCC is serious about supporting social workers they need to looking at the inadequacy of the placements which do not fully prepare students for what is a very complex role.

Helen Izat
19 Jun 2009

Caseload management is essential A maximum of 10 families per social worker is essential if cases are to be done properly . Parents, carers and extended family often live in different places and all need visiting; many professionals need to be contacted; plans for every child in a family often need to be made ; children need to trust the worker who they have seen on a more regular basis than once a fortnight ; recording, planning meetings and reviews are essential; supervision and reflection on practice and checking lessons from research and updating training needs to take place; there are only 5 days in a week! It is no wonder Social Workers leave the profession with caseloads of 26 and a culture which places recording on computers as the main priority (making any delay a disciplinary offence!) Child Protection Work is stressful and there are often emergencies. Social Workers need a learning supportive culture where they can develop their practice.

Eilish Doran
18 Jun 2009

Although I agree with the proposals about the development of an advanced social work professional role so that skilled social workers can progress their careers in practice rather than move into management; equally I think that we should be attracting and then supporting, skilled and experienced social workers INTO management positions - to ensure that we do have understanding & valuing of the social work role from the top down.

Ali Bell
18 Jun 2009

I completely agree with the 6 themes from the taskforce. Especially in regards to training. I am from Canada and for so long I keep speaking up about the post-qualifying training model for child protection workers and how it dramatically improved our system, especially social worker retention. Here in England I have raised this many times, but nobody seems to care or are interested. Until this changes, the Social Work profession in England I believe will continue to decline and fall further behind international workers by failing to draw on their collective experiences and progress. Our systems abroad only became as good as they are because we drew on national and international experiences and incorporated those into our profession.

Joseph Davenport
18 Jun 2009

I am currently a student and I have to admit I am concerned that the training does not at present adequately prepare us for practice. I am due to start my final year and do not feel ready. I believe that the whole degree should be leaning more towards work based training- something along the same lines as nurse training. The academic aspect is still crucial but my view is that presently, too much time is spent focusing on the academia and not enough time is spent out there in practice.

claire lintott
17 Jun 2009

Also to add unto Laming report during our Social work training not all of us had our placements with social services . I believe having training or placement directly with social services and placement with a voluntary organisation is not the same. However, many social services are a little reluctant to take students also at time placement available at social services for students are quiet less.

Nana Fremah -Miles
17 Jun 2009

Getting the balance right is very difficult. Keeping up to date is vital. I know everyone is busy, but perhaps at least one hour per week should be allocated for reading: ie research; journals; articles. NB: This is the first time I have made the time to do so.

Ann Oliver
17 Jun 2009

I fully agree that social workers are under valued within the role Nationally and the work we do which is good is not really reported in the media. I work in the area of sensory impairments with an ageing population majority of elderly people have a sensory impairment however, the skills we need to do our role as social workers is barely recognised for example British sign language and Deafblind manual communication.

debbie kirk
17 Jun 2009