Proposed structure for the Children and Young People's Workforce ...

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2010- Workforce Strategy DraftAlthough the majority of the 58 recommendations in this document refer to action to be takenby central government some have direct implications for Children’s Trusts or LocalSafeguarding Children Boards and many of the national recommendations have implicationsfor local practice.The main chapter headings are:Leadership and accountabilitySupport for childrenInteragency workingImprovement and challengeOrganisation and financeLegal considerationsThe Laming Report welcomed recent developments such as the setting up of the SocialWork Task Force and recommendations, within the 2020 Children and Young People’sWorkforce Strategy, to review how well the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge for theChildren’s Workforce has been embedded, especially in sectors such as health or the police.Recommendation is also made that the DCSF should revise Working Together to SafeguardChildren to “… set out clear expectations at all points where concerns about a child’s safetyare received, ensuring intake/duty teams have sufficient training and expertise to takereferrals and that staff have immediate, on-site support available from an experienced socialworker. Local authorities should take appropriate action to implement these changes.”A number of recommendations impact directly on workforce issues:The Social Work Task Force should:• develop the basis for a national children’s social worker supply strategy that willaddress recruitment and retention difficulties, to be implemented by the Departmentfor Children, Schools and Families. This should have a particular emphasis on childprotection social workers;• work with the Children’s Workforce Development Council and other partners toimplement, on a national basis, clear progression routes for children’s social workers;• develop national guidelines setting out maximum case-loads of children in need andchild protection cases, supported by a weighting mechanism to reflect the complexityof cases, that will help plan the workloads of children’s social workers; and• develop a strategy for remodelling children’s social work which delivers sharedownership of cases, administrative support and multi-disciplinary support to bedelivered nationally.Children’s Trusts should ensure a named, and preferably co-located, representative from thepolice service, community paediatric specialist and health visitor are active partners withineach children’s social work department.The General Social Care Council, together with relevant government departments, should:• work with higher education institutions and employers to raise the quality andconsistency of social work degrees and strengthen their curriculums to provide highquality practical skills in children’s social work;• work with higher education institutions to reform the current degree programmetowards a system which allows for specialism in children’s social work, includingstatutory children’s social work placements, after the first year; and• put in place a comprehensive inspection regime to raise the quality and consistencyof social work degrees across higher education institutions.The Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department for Innovation,Universities and Skills should introduce a fully-funded, practice-focused children’s socialVersion 2.6 36
2010- Workforce Strategy Draftwork postgraduate qualification for experienced children’s social workers, with an expectationthey will complete the programme as soon as is practicable.The Department for Children, Schools and Families, working with the Children’s WorkforceDevelopment Council, General Social Care Council and partners should introduce aconversion qualification and English language test for internationally qualified children’ssocial workers that ensures understanding of legislation, guidance and practice in England.Consideration should be given to the appropriate length of a compulsory induction period in apractice setting prior to formal registration as a social worker in England.Children’s Trusts should ensure that all staff who work with children receive initial trainingand continuing professional development which enables them to understand normal childdevelopment and recognise potential signs of abuse or neglect.All Children’s Trusts should have sufficient multi-agency training in place to create a sharedlanguage and understanding of local referral procedures, assessment, information sharingand decision making across early years, schools, youth services, health, police and otherservices who work to protect children. A named child protection lead in each setting shouldreceive this training.The General Social Care Council should review the Code of Practice for Social Workers andthe employers’ code ensuring the needs of children are paramount in both and that theemployers’ code provides for clear lines of accountability, quality supervision and support,and time for reflective practice. The employers’ code should then be made statutory for allemployers of social workers.The Department of Health should prioritise its commitment to promote the recruitment andprofessional development of health visitors (made in Healthy lives, brighter futures) bypublishing a national strategy to support and challenge Strategic Health Authorities to have asufficient capacity of well trained health visitors in each area with a clear understanding oftheir role.The Department of Health should review the Healthy Child Programme for 0–5-year-olds toensure that the role of health visitors in safeguarding and child protection is prioritised andhas sufficient clarity, and ensure that similar clarity is provided in the Healthy ChildProgramme for 5–19-year-olds.The Department of Health should promote the statutory duty of all GP providers to complywith child protection legislation and to ensure that all individual GPs have the necessary skillsand training to carry out their duties. They should also take further steps to raise the profileand level of expertise for child protection within GP practices, for example by working withthe Department for Children, Schools andFamilies to support joint training opportunities for GPs and children’s social workers andthrough the new practice accreditation scheme being developed by the Royal College ofGeneral Practitioners.The Department of Health should work with partners to develop a national trainingprogramme to improve the understanding and skills of the children’s health workforce(including paediatricians, midwives, health visitors, GPs and school nurses) to further supportthem in dealing with safeguarding and child protection issues.The Home Office should take national action to ensure that police child protection teams arewell resourced and have specialist training to support them in their important responsibilities.vi.Building a safe, confident future. The final report of the Social Work Task Force(2009)Version 2.6 37
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