Government unveils 'watershed' social work reforms

Children's Secretary Ed Balls spoke today of a "watershed" moment as he unveiled a series of reforms aimed at transforming a demoralised social work profession in the wake of the Baby P tragedy.

Mr Balls said the recommendations of a "landmark" report by a Government appointed social work task force needed moving forward in the "speediest possible" way.

He said: "This is a watershed moment, this is a profession which in the past, too often, has not had sufficient public support, there has not been enough focus on the training of social workers and especially in their earlier years, we haven't had enough support for social workers to stay on the front line and become advanced professionals."

Under the reforms, new social workers will be guaranteed extra support for their first year of work but will then need to pass an assessment to earn a licence to practise, which they can only keep by sticking to a professional code of conduct.

Employers will be obliged to provide high quality supervision, ensure workloads are manageable and give staff time for professional development.

Mr Balls and Health Secretary Andy Burnham joined DJ and actor Goldie at a news conference in central London to unveil the report alongside Moira Gibb, who headed the task force.

The report calls for social workers to be paid "fairly", in line with their skills, knowledge and level of responsibility.

There should in particular be "progression routes" to help keep high-quality, specialist social workers in frontline practice, it said.

"In contrast to other professions, social workers are not able to make progress in their careers while staying in frontline practice," the report noted.

The report also recommends the creation of a new National College of Social Work - independent of government - to act as the voice of the profession.

Mr Balls said he would push for the college to be given royal status as quickly as possible, becoming the first Royal College of Social Work.

Speaking at the news conference, Ms Gibb said: "We think that social work is a difficult job - not everyone can do it - therefore we should more careful about who we select to go on courses, we should train them better, so that all the courses are of the standard of the best, and we should train them for longer.

"We should not let training stop once they qualify, it should go on."

Ministers launched the social work taskforce in January to carry out a comprehensive review of the profession in England in the wake of the failings exposed by Baby Peter's death.

In July it published an interim report which painted a picture of over-burdened social workers who feel undervalued and whose training often fails to prepare them properly for the demands of the job.

Social work is struggling to hold its own as a "durable, attractive" profession, with widespread staff shortages "seriously compromising" the quality of frontline services, the report said.

The taskforce, whose members include The Sun's agony aunt Deidre Sanders, also highlighted the absence of a single body responsible for promoting the profession and improving standards.

The package announced today also includes:

:: Reforming social work training to ensure all graduates and newly qualified social workers are of a high calibre;

:: Ensuring universities raise the bar for social work degrees with a practice-based Masters qualification aimed at keeping the skills and specialist knowledge of all social workers up to date;

:: Creating a new campaign to improve the public understanding of social work;

:: Developing a new system to help employers to better plan and forecast the demand and workload of their social workers.

A Social Work Reform Board will be set up to work alongside the Government to take forward today's recommendations.

Mr Burnham, backing the idea of a royal college for social workers said royal colleges in the health field such as the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of GPs could provide a "good model".

He said he hoped the report would build a sense of optimism and confidence in the future among the social work profession.

Answering questions about how the Government would fund the planned reforms in the current harsh economic climate, Mr Balls said: "As well as the money going into local authority budgets, we have also put over £100 million more into social work this year and next year, to support the advanced social worker status, the induction year, other ways in which we have been encouraging trained social workers to come back into the profession.

"There are going to be issues about resources for the next spending review and we will need to make sure that local authorities are setting their budgets properly, prioritising the importance of child protection social work as we, the central Government, have a responsibility to, as well."

He added that many of the recommendations in the report were about "consistency of practice", quality of training and making sure that there is the right support and career structure for social workers.

"It is not only about resources, it is also about regulation, training and professional standards," he said.

Ms Gibb, responding to the question about funding, indicated that she would have preferred the reforms were going through at a time when the economy was more buoyant.

She said: "I would have much preferred to have been doing this 10 years ago when the reforms to the teaching profession were happening but, nevertheless, I think it is important not to say that it cannot be done. It needs to be done and we have to make the most of the resources we have got.

"Obviously, I am waiting for the Government's action plan in due course. It will tell us about their commitment."

Mr Balls was asked how long he thought it would take to before the country has the right calibre and right number of good social workers in place.

He said: "It is not going to happen overnight. Even before the events in Haringey a year ago, we had high vacancy rates in some parts of the country and we had local authorities relying upon agency staff, staff from abroad who come in with the right skills but often in a quite expensive way.

"So finding people in our country to be properly trained to be social workers is going to take years rather than weeks."

Barnardo's, the charity for children, young people and their families, welcomed the taskforce recommendations.

Deputy chief executive Chris Hanvey said: "This report is a positive move to refocus social work and reinforce morale and status to professionals who have to make life-changing decisions every day."

Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on children, schools and families, Annette Brooke, said: "This report provides a long overdue and much-needed insight into the profession.

"However, these changes should have been made following the tragedy of Victoria Climbie's death nearly 10 years ago.

"Social work needs to be rebuilt as a vocation with support structures in place from the first day of training.

"Ministers now need to explain where the money will come from to pay for these changes.

"Without funding, the Government's commitment to these proposals is meaningless."

Shadow children's minister Tim Loughton said: "The task force makes some sensible suggestions for improving social work and child protection, many of which we proposed some time ago.

"Better training and an improved status for the profession are essential to deal with the current crisis.

"But social work also needs a committed public face, so we are disappointed that the task force has not recommended the creation of a chief social worker to publicise good practice.

"Ultimately the success of these proposals must be judged on whether they improve conditions on the front line. This Government has strangled social work with 12 years of bureaucracy - it is important that it now acts to improve the situation."