Memorandum submitted by Children England
INTRODUCTION
1. Children England welcomes the decision
of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee to undertake
an inquiry into the training of children and families' social
workers. It is vital to the social work profession and for children,
young people and families more widely to have a thorough, impartial
examination of the current state of social work training. We strongly
support the Committee's undertaking in examining issues pertaining
to the training of social workers to assess the Government's current
approaches to training and supporting new social workers.
2. As the leading membership organisation for
the children, young people and families voluntary sector, Children
England is in a unique position to represent charities that work
with children, young people and families. Our members include
the largest children's charities in the country through to small
local groups. Our mission is to create a fairer world for children,
young people and families by championing the voluntary organisations
which work on their behalf. The role of the voluntary and community
sector in the field of social work is vital not only in directly
providing and supporting social workers, but in ensuring that
children and families are safe, supported and enabled to thrive.
3. This short submission does not attempt to
cover each aspect of Children England's concern in relation into
the training of children and families social workers. Rather it
sets out some of the key themes that we believe must be addressed,
and we would urge the Committee to consider these issues as part
of their inquiry into the training of children and families social
workers.
4. Children England would be very happy
to assist with any further questions the Committee may have with
the inquiry. We would also be willing to help the Committee to
engage with the children, young people and families voluntary
sector.
CONTEXT AND
DRIVERS
5. There are a number of drivers which are
impacting on the training of children and families social workers
at this point in time. Key issues are:
— Strengthening the delivery system which
supports and challenges social workers.
6. The Government and its partners, including
the third sector, needs to develop its thinking and its work programmes
to help address the current issues within social work. These include
recruitment, retention and issues around morale and status, as
well as practice.
7. There is a need to help build confidence
and skills for the children and families' social workers doing
their job, as well as supporting experienced social workers, and
to encourage more to remain in front line roles.
ENTRY ROUTES
TO THE
PROFESSION
8. Social work with families and children
is one of the most challenging and rewarding careers to enter
into. It is also a career with great variety that demands aptness
of response, understanding and strong communication skills. As
such, the field of social work needs to attract and retain people
with many different backgrounds—from the new graduate to
mature and experienced people moving from different fields.
9. Flexibility thus has to be a crucial issue
in entry into social work—not only to attract a wide range
of people with a range of skills and experience, but to ensure
that in this current climate of increasing vacancies the maximum
amount of people see social work as a viable and flexible option
as a long-term career. This however, should not undermine the
need for highly skilled, well qualified applicants nor add greater
confusion to the myriad of qualifications currently associated
with social work.
10. What is required are a series of well-defined
entry routes into the profession. This should prevent some potential
applicants from being excluded whilst ensuring consistency across
the country as to how one can enter the profession.
11. Qualifications are important in terms
of ensuring standards in the profession, but these courses need
to be delivered in such a way that allows the maximum number of
committed individuals to access them.
12. Making routes into the profession flexible,
yet ensuring consistent practice across the country needs to be
mirrored with greater promotion by the relevant bodies. It is
not enough to improve the clarity of entry routes into the profession
for those already interested; social work as a career and the
ways into it need greater promotion from the outset.
13. Entry routes need to be flexible but
without compromising the status of the profession to encourage
mature entrants, re-entrants and people considering a career change.
For example, degree level qualifications are very expensive. A
framework needs to encourage both recruitment and retention, with
sustainable funding.
STRUCTURE OF
TRAINING
14. Degree level qualifications do not necessarily
deliver the required skill-mix needed. Although degree entry provides
in effect a baseline of academic ability, unless the degree course
challenges the student both academically and personally the momentum
of learning can be lost. It is also important to note that social
work degrees provide the first step in entering and developing
within the profession.
15. Ongoing career development is highly important.
The quality of supervision, support, leadership and management
that a social worker has after their initial training and throughout
their careers underpins the development of their skills. The degree
acts as a foundation to build their career upon. The focus throughout
a social worker's career should shift from practice to more emphasis
on research with time and experience. Allowing the development
of leaders so those entering the profession can aspire is also
important.
CONTENT OF
INITIAL TRAINING
16. The content of the initial training
through the social work degree has to be generic—it has
to cover the crucial legalistic, policy and theoretical frameworks
covering everything from elder abuse to child protection. However,
the degree should also provide an opportunity for students to
develop the vital personal and professional qualities required
to become a successful social worker. This could be developed
by enabling students to meet with families and young people who
have been in contact with social services in the past. This should
help to develop the personal skills required of a potential social
worker—honing negotiating skills, becoming aware of inherent
power relationships, actively listening and acting promptly and
responsibly. This could be facilitated through voluntary sector
bodies who are engaged with hard-to-reach families. Although a
large part of this can be developed through the placement process
it may be of use for social work students to speak with and learn
from more experienced social workers and families who have been
engaged with social services as separate from the placement process.
This would also allow the students greater opportunities to learn
and make mistakes within a safe environment.
17. An aspect of training which is missing from
social work bachelor degrees is an explicit focus on poverty.
Poverty is one of the most common features of families whose children
come to the attention of social workers. It is not the only factor
involved but families on low income are far more likely to be
required to have contact with social care services. The implication
is that social work courses need to equip future social workers
more fully—with the motivation, knowledge and skills to
deal with the poverty of the families with whom they work.
18. Social workers, once in the field, have
to balance the realities of their work with the complex systems
and policy frameworks within which their employer organisations
exist. The continued and important emphasis on child-centred frontline
work and the drive for joined-up working across agencies to support
this needs to be conveyed strongly through initial training.
POST-QUALIFYING
TRAINING AND
CAREER PATHS
19. It has been difficult to recruit social
workers with relevant experience. It used to be a widespread expectation
that someone with post-qualifying experience would be expected
to fill vacant positions. This is no longer the case and what
is now happening is that staff are being recruited to post without
the specialist experience. This de-professionalises the profession
and reduces the quality of service being delivered.
20. It is important to take account of the specialist
services offered both regionally and nationally. Clear pathways
need to exist to recruit specialist staff for this areas allowing
transferability across each specialism.
QUALITY
21. The feedback from employers is that
incorrect placements are being provided and an alternative is
to provide a regulated route similar to health in order to measure
and evaluate. Ideally, there is scope to promote integration placements
across a range of organisations, to enable staff to develop a
real and better understanding.
22. The quality of training needs to be measured
to ensure it is reaching standards, but at the same time needs
flexibility to meet particular regional needs. Training needs
to be consistent throughout the country. Training should be quality
assured by one agency.
23. Any national frameworks or models that
are to be developed should allow for regional variation and disgression,
particularly around pay and reward. As a proxy to this a national
framework should also include pay structures related to post as
currently reflected in teaching. This would help specifically
in developing and retaining staff. There are challenges of negotiating
access to training and funding.
24. The flipside to developing staff qualifications
is that qualifications may mean more pay—who will find the
increase? There needs to be the ability to reward staff properly
for the levels of expertise acquired. We cannot have good services
for children on the cheap, with insecure funding.
SUPPLY OF
INITIAL TRAINING
25. There needs to be integrated workforce
planning and voluntary sector service quality and choice. The
understanding of the demographics of the social work population
is inadequate and there is no supply model of the social work
workforce unlike teachers and nurses. This means that at this
moment in time it is difficult to ensure adequate training capacity
and workforce planning.
26. A statement of collaboration could be signed
by key partners/agencies to ensure integrated working within social
work and that best practice is shared. There also needs to be
ssimple and equitable access to funding for training.
POST-QUALIFYING
TRAINING AND
CAREER PATHS
27. The profession would need to have mainstream
funding to create a sustainable environment and continuing professionalisation
of the role, and status recognition within and outside of the
third sector. This will ensure that accessibility is for all organisations
no matter how small. The stability that mainstream funding would
provide would allow organisations to succession plan efficiently
and effectively.
April 2009
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