Memorandum submitted by the National Association
of Social Workers in Education (NASWE)
1. The National Association of Social Workers
in Education (NASWE) was founded in 1884 and is the only association
representing staff in the education welfare service across all
grades. The association has no paid officers and is run by its
members for it's members and has membership across the UK.
2. This NASWE submission to the House of Commons
Select Committee inquiring into the training of children and families
social workers may be summarised as follows:
— Education Welfare Service (EWS) staff,
as a distinct workforce, have been recommended for social work
training, following an earlier national review and the later introduction
of statutory guidance under the Children Act 1989, but this has
not been properly implemented in England. In Northern Ireland,
all such staff now require a recognised social work qualification.
— Despite the fact that EWOs are often
the first local authority staff to uncover and seek to resolve
serious problems within a local family, in their pursuit of consistent
school attendance, there are no entry qualifications at all for
EWS staff. Recent research evidence points to only a quarter of
EWOs in England holding a social work qualification.
— EWOs often deal with complex cases, according
to a recent case file audit compiled by independent researchers
and funded by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC).
There is a perception that many local social service thresholds
have been raised, over recent years, leaving such cases to be
addressed by EWS and similar staff.
— School attendance levels, and changes
to pupils' behaviour in school, are good barometers of family
wellbeing and the public are entitled to expect that an EWO visiting
a family home on behalf of a local authority is subject to appropriate
regulation, training and qualification. NASWE therefore recommends
six specific measures to address the current difficulties highlighted
and evidenced in this submission.
BACKGROUND
3. The Education Welfare Service[1]
is the oldest state-funded welfare service, tracing its origins
to the late 1880s when education became compulsory. Whilst many
aspects of the role, the ways in which services are organised
and the profile of its workforce have changed, one core function,
to ensure that children attend school regularly, remains intact
and is the focus of its work. The only national review of the
EWS was published in 1974 sponsored by the then Local Government
Training Board. The report recommended that the appropriate training
for EWOs was "social work; training suitably structured to
take account of the educational setting in which that role is
performed." In the past, there have sometimes been social
work training courses offered with a specific EWS pathway but
this provision was discontinued.
4. The recommendations of the national review
were never followed through at national level, though some local
authorities introduced this as an entry requirement, and others
made provision for staff to undertake professional social work
training. Following the introduction of Education Supervision
Orders, under the Children Act 1989, a clear duty (in statutory
guidance) was placed on Local Authorities to ensure that staff
were appropriately trained to perform this role; it suggested,
though did not demand, a recognised social work qualification.
In most local authorities, this simply did not happen and, as
a consequence, the majority fail to make full use of this holistic
child- centred provision.
5. Following devolution, Northern Ireland
introduced a recognised social work qualification for all EWOs,
and all EWOs are either qualified, in the process of qualification
or where retirement is imminent given access to appropriate CPD
opportunities. We do no believe that the EWS role in England is
substantially different. There are approximately 3,000 EWOs in
England, most are employed by the local authority, and some are
employed and managed directly by schools.
QUALIFICATION AND
TRAINING—THE
CURRENT POSITION
6. Whilst there has been recent attention
to the qualification and training needs of the EWS in England,
this has been considered in the context of its place within the
"LDSS" family (Learning Development & Support Services).
The current recognised qualification for the LDSS family is an
NVQ at Levels 3 and 4. This link with Connexions Personal Advisors
and Learning Mentors was not based on systematic evidence—gathering,
although we would agree that there is commonality. EWOs, however,
also have significant commonalities with social care colleagues.
One of the major concerns for the EWS is the absence of entry
qualifications. Whilst there is some concern about the NVQ 4 LDSS
qualification's fitness for purpose, the fact remains that it
cannot be achieved unless a practitioner has been in practice
for some time. The nature of the NVQ route makes it impossible
for a practitioner to undertake independently, it also lacks a
period of supervised practice as would be the case for pre-qualifying
social workers, pre-qualifying and newly-qualified teachers.
7. For those EWS staff based in schools or working
to a service level agreement to a specific school or group of
schools, there is little opportunity to differentiate workers
skills and experience and the work they may be required to undertake.
There has been some take up of the LDSS NVQ but the lack of any
ring-fenced funding or external drivers such as regulatory or
inspection requirements has made this ad hoc and extremely variable
across England. Many NASWE members report that they have little
or no access to training and development opportunities. We do
not know with accuracy the numbers of EWOs holding relevant or
appropriate qualifications. Research undertaken by NASWE in 2005,
supported by CWDC, revealed that in a sample of just over 100
officers, 26% held a recognised SW qualification with more than
half of those in management positions. Worryingly, the next largest
category 18% reported holding no qualifications at all. The data
includes EWOs at practitioner, supervisory and management grades.
WHAT TYPES
OF FAMILIES
DO EWOS
WORK WITH?
8. There is a perception that social service
thresholds have become increasingly harder to reach and that many
support staff are therefore undertaking work that may exceed their
agency's brief. There are serious questions about the competence,
training and supervisory support for dealing with complex cases.
Whilst not all casework is of a complex nature, increasingly,
routine work is undertaken by ancillary staff or dealt with at
an administrative level. Consequently, it is likely that the proportion
of "routine" cases carried by EWS has diminished. In
an attempt to understand more about the needs of children coming
to the attention of education welfare services, and the ability
of those staff to address those needs, a case file audit was undertaken
(funded through CWDC) with four local authority education welfare
services. Independent consultants undertook a matching needs and
services audit to gain a picture of the pattern of need in these
areas. A threshold exercise completed by those doing the audit
was designed to measure the seriousness of children and family
needs. Cases were scored using an adapted version of the levels
of seriousness described in section 17 of the Children Act 1989:
as 3 (serious/complex needs) 2 (moderate/additional needs) or
1 (lower level). These three levels correspond with the levels
of need described in the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).
9. Key findings from the audit may be summarised
as follows: It is clear that EWS in all four areas are working
with children with serious and complex needs and there is little
difference in the levels of seriousness across the four samples.
— All four agencies are working almost
exclusively with children at levels 2 and 3.
— 37% are judged to have reached the significant
impairment threshold.
— More than a third of the children have
emotional/mental health problems.
— 25% of their parents have mental health
problems.
— 22% of children have a parent who misuses
drugs and/or alcohol.
A UNIQUE ROLE?
10. Long before the current joining of education
and social services, the EWO has worked across the two major systems
as broker, advocate and co-worker. Prior to the Children Act 1989,
EWOs could bring care proceedings in the Juvenile Court in cases
of poor attendance. The EWO has traditionally made operational
links with child and adolescent mental health services, GP services,
youth offending and police services. It is this quality that has
been a major strength for the families that EWOs work with. The
lack of a clear central government Departmental lead has meant
there has been no sustained lead on the development of this job
role. Even now, the policy lead for the EWS role is held largely
with the DCSF schools division attendance and parental responsibilities
team and with the workforce and practice issues held within the
children and families division. Unlike other members of the LDSS
family, education welfare services have duties and responsibilities,
delegated by the local authority, to work within a statutory framework
to support and enforce school attendance. EWOs do not have the
luxury of declining to work with young people and parents who
may not want to co-operate. In order to practice competently,
an EWO would have knowledge of the Children Act 1989, a range
of detailed statutory regulations and a working knowledge of the
Police and Criminal Evidence Act as well as the ability to gather
and present evidence in Court. The powers given to the local authority
in respect of enforcing school attendance are complex and may
involve civil, criminal and family law.
11. Experienced EWOs, including those who already
hold a recognised social work qualification, do not necessarily
aspire to work as children and families social workers. They generally
have a deeply held belief in the long-term benefits of a good
educational experience and understand that school attendance is
key to that. EWOs understand that attendance at school, and changes
in a child's behaviour in school are generally a particularly
good barometer of family well-being. They also understand that
truancy can be a complex behaviour; symptomatic of a range of
different factors within schools, communities and families which
in many cases are dynamically interactive. Supporting or enforcing
school attendance and supporting wider family needs need not and
should not be mutually exclusive. EWOs recognise that sometimes
providing family support services or using statutory enforcement
measures is necessary—this relies on high-level assessment
and intervention skills.
12. This paper concerns aspects of the EWO's
work concerning direct casework with vulnerable children and families.
It should be noted that EWOs are also routinely engaged in a support
and challenge role in schools, policy development and data analysis.
EWOs are also seconded to youth offending teams and looked after
children's teams. Where regulatory powers in relation to the regulation
of child employment are implemented, EWOs are employed to undertake
this very specific function.
AN UNREGULATED
SERVICE
13. Currently only those EWOs with a social
work qualification are registered with the GSCC. As yet, EWOs
without a recognised social work qualification have no timescale
for any form of registration. Every day, EWOs in England are visiting
children and families in their homes, seeing children and young
people at school or in the community. It is likely that EWOs have
more unsupervised access to vulnerable children and families than
many other professional groups, including social workers. The
decisions made, based on the recommendations of EWOs can potentially
have a significant impact on a vulnerable young persons' future
life chances.
14. The public have a right to expect that the
person arriving in their home representing the local authority
is subject to appropriate regulation and has a measurable level
of competence. EWOs have invested in them considerable powers
that may have an enduring impact on families. We suspect that
the general public is unaware of and would be disturbed by this
lack of regulation. Practitioners themselves have a right to work
with vulnerable children and families competently, confidently
and safely and have access to an appropriate level of professional
casework supervision and support. Practitioners should not be
expected to practice in circumstances that exceed their knowledge
and skills.
RECOMMENDATIONS
15. We would recommend, in light of the
above considerations:
— Introduction of entry qualifications
(linked to registration).
— A review of the relevance/appropriateness
of existing LDSS qualification to this workforce (this could potentially
be included in the current development by CWDC of the Qualification
& Credit framework and proposed diploma qualifications).
— Targets for existing staff to reach a
specified level of qualification (linked to registration) within
a reasonable timescale.
— That Local Authority Children's Services
are required to demonstrate that they have in place effective
and appropriate casework supervision for EWOs that recognises
the level of complexity, risk and responsibility and supports
safe practice.
16. We trust the above points will be of
interest to, and considered by, the select committee as part of
its inquiry into the training of children and families social
workers.
SOURCESThe Ralphs
Report, Local Government Training Board, August 1974.
Developing a Qualification and Progression Framework
for the Education Welfare Service, David
Leay, 2008.
An Audit of the needs of 197 children in touch
with Education Welfare Services in four local authority areas,
RyanTunardBrown, 2008.
LDSS EWS Case File Audit Project—Report
& Recommendations, NASWE 2008.
April 2009
1 The terms education welfare service and education
welfare officer are used as a title for service to support and
enforce school attendance. We recognise that local authorities
may use a diverse range of service and job titles to describe
their role. NASWE is not disposed to preserve the role within
a discreet or separate service, but to ensure that this specialist
role is recognised, retained and developed within whatever local
structures are appropriate. Back
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