Training of Children and Families Social Workers - Children, Schools and Families Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by Surrey County Council

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL WORKER PROFESSION—BOOSTING THE SUPPLY IN THE SE REGION

  We would like to contribute some key data and information to your Select Committee Inquiry into the training of children & families social workers. Earlier this year, a large group of local authorities in the south east, hosted by Surrey County Council, got together to try and seek collective and significant solutions to the problem we all share of the critical supply shortage of suitably qualified social workers to effectively run our front line child protection services.

The cause of the problem is complex with long roots but:

    Employers of social workers do not have a strong voice in organising the "supply" of the profession in the UK which is now through Universities overseen by the General Social Care Council (GSCC).

    Leadership for the profession is diffused across Skills for Care, Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC), GSCC, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) with no one agency really leading on sorting out the critical shortage.

    Workforce planning at a national and regional level has not delivered sufficient supply of competent qualified workers to fulfil the role. Local authorities produce their own local workforce plans but they have no control over the number and type of training provided by Universities who can decide whether to support social work training or not. This is extremely critical for such a key statutory role. It is a problem which has largely been grappled with and resolved in other key areas of the public sector eg teaching, nursing, police, by a concerted national approach to workforce supply, by training backed by funding and by a national pay and standards approach. The deep problems with Children's Social Workers have persisted for the last 5-10 years with little concrete progress.

    The job is increasingly specialised and requires different training. The concept of generic training for social workers, whether they work with adults or children and young people is attractive to the profession but not for employers at the sharp end of child protection service delivery. With the introduction of care management and self directed support the role of the qualified social worker in adult social care is very different from that of a children's social worker dealing with child protection as part of an integrated children's service. The quality of social work training is not delivering in terms of preparing people for the role once qualified.

    Too long a lead time to produce a fully competent children's social worker. The response from CWDC to date has been to look at additional support for newly qualified social workers, and additional development for senior practitioners. Universities also offer post qualification specialist awards in children's social work at additional cost. The social worker degree introduced in 2003 which is three years long and includes 200 days of work placement ought to be sufficiently practically-focused to produce competent workers. Although it has succeeded in attracting a younger cohort towards qualifying in the profession it has arguably exacerbated the recruitment crisis as it now takes three years to become qualified rather than two years under the previous Diploma.

    We need to increase the use of support roles to help maintain manageable workloads. The demand for qualified workers has increased as legislation has expanded the scope of roles that must be undertaken by a qualified social worker; however; no consideration was made of the need to prepare for these changes by increasing supply in advance.

    A clear career path from support roles into qualified professional is needed and a clear training package for family support workers, for whom there is no definition of their role or clear progression route to become qualified. Family support workers are increasingly being relied on in areas of acute shortages to undertake work without proper training in the absence of sufficiently qualified social workers.

    We now have an opportunity to take steps to increase the number of people at the front line working in services to children and families but we need key things to change to get there. We are finding as local authorities that it is relatively easy, for example, to recruit competent and committed people to work as family support workers in social care, and we also receive lots of enquiries from individuals wanting to get into this area of work. This potential supply of labour has increased significantly in the South East as the economy has gone into recession. Also, the new school Diploma promises a potential supply of future younger workers who would benefit from a para-professional route into the profession. Working in a support role in children's social care gives a much better understanding of the work and an individual's aptitude for it than academic study and allows individuals to see if they have sufficient emotional resilience, analytical skills and ability to communicate with children, young people and their families on a daily basis. We need your help and the help of your Select Committee to bring about changes in social work training.

    The costs and time commitment of undertaking a social work degree are the major barriers to "career changers". Increasingly local authorities are offering sponsorships and bursaries to students; or seconding staff to undertake social work training. However, this approach places a heavy burden on local authority budgets with no guarantee the individual will stay in the profession or with the authority in the longer term or that they will have the proven aptitude to undertake the work when qualified. Authorities in London and the South East may make this investment only to have workers move to areas with cheaper living costs once qualified. Moreover the quality of training for children's social work in this country is variable and sometimes very poor according to anecdotal feedback from employers and research summarized in the recent Local Government Association report respect and protect:

      —  only one-third of newly qualified children's social workers believe their degree courses prepared them fully or largely for their job.

      —  only half of newly-qualified practitioners said their training "completely or mostly" covered child protection and only one-third said it "completely or mostly" covered child development.

      —  just over half of social workers said their course prepared them "just enough" for their role, with the rest saying it had not prepared them at all to practice.

  The finding, from a survey of 500 newly qualified practitioners, compares poorly with a 2005 survey of more than 2,000 newly-qualified teachers, in which 85% agreed that their training course had prepared them to be an effective teacher.

  One in five new social work graduates is currently unemployed. Despite reports of recruitment problems in local authorities across England, the unemployment rate for graduates was nearly a fifth. Of the 6,000 newly-qualified social workers who registered in 2007, 23% were described as unemployed. There may be a number of reasons for this, such as students taking a break before searching for a job, but the GSCC also refers to some anecdotal evidence that some new graduates were having difficulty in obtaining work. This is supported by anecdotal evidence from employers that the quality of some newly qualified workers was so poor that despite acute shortages they were unwilling to offer them a role.

  The current system of social worker training is very costly to administer with a complex system of arranging work-based placements, practice teaching and work-based supervisors. Local authority departments under pressure find it difficult to support students properly and students face uncertainty around getting placements and gaining sufficient experience in areas they want to work.

  The Laming report identified the shortcomings in social worker training, calling for more inspection of social work courses, specialisation in children's social work after the first year and for all social workers to return to university to do a post-qualification award.

  However, as employers we do not believe this goes far enough in terms of dealing with the urgent supply crisis. As workloads rise, particularly for experienced social workers, more social workers will leave the profession and the vicious circle intensifies. Adding on post qualification training does nothing to address the shortcomings on initial training and puts further pressure on authorities to release frontline staff.

  From Surrey County Council, here are our views as to what we believe will help bring about the scale of change we need:

    A single national body—taking responsibility for workforce planning for the profession, setting qualification standards, marketing, promoting and funding social work training and enabling employers of social workers to have a strong voice on this body.

    A proper reform of social worker training—recognising the failure of the current social work training to supply sufficient qualified competent children's and adults social workers.

    A two year part-time work based foundation degree for family support workers, undertaken whilst working in social care on a day release basis, be developed in children's social work. This should cover practical skills and key knowledge around child development, child protection legislation, working with parents and families. As they would already be working for an employer in the field it would remove the need for complex work placements. The employer would pay the salary but the training provision should receive significant funding from the Government through Universities/FE colleges.

    Additional responsibilities following foundation degree—once qualified, these workers would be able, with supervision, to hold cases and work with families with children in need, be the designated worker for Looked After Children, work with foster parents and prospective adoptive parents, work in residential settings and schools. They would need to register with the GSCC to practice.

    Intensive foundation degree level qualification for those with complementary degrees eg psychology, sociology, social policy, law, be developed or extensive relevant professional experience eg youth workers, police officers, early years workers, health professionals. For example six months intensive academic study to cover the same syllabus as the foundation degree in a shorter timescale. Once qualified they would need to work under supervision as a family support worker or Social Work Para-Professional for six months before being able to undertake children's social worker duties and register with the GSCC.

    Introduce a one year masters level qualification in children's social work and child protection for either existing social workers or those with a foundation degree and two years post qualification experience. Social workers with this qualification can lead on child protection proceedings, and manage teams of children's social workers. The one-year training would be focused on child protection legislation, management and supervision skills, data analysis and risk management. Again this training needs to be fully funded by government through Universities with financial support for local authorities to release workers to participate. Over time more and more children's social workers should become qualified to masters level.

    More systematic selection for degree courses— in terms of identifying individuals with the emotional resilience, analytical skills and ability to work with children and young people effectively. Employers should recruit jointly with Universities/FE colleges to all courses, with more use of competency testing rather than interviews/academic credentials.

  We also believe change is needed around pay:

    A national pay structure be developed for:

    Family support workers.

    Family support workers undertaking the foundation degree.

    Qualified social workers holding at least the foundation degree.

    Senior social workers holding at least the masters level qualification.

    Team managers and Senior practitioners/specialists.

  National pay spine/pay ranges be developed to avoid the current situation of employees "salary hopping" and increasing reliance on agency staffing, developing pay spines and ranges with weightings to reflect the additional living costs of working in London and the South East. These might be formally or informally agreed between employers.

  If we can provide any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me, as we are keen to see a solution to this long standing problem.

Andrew Roberts

Strategic Director for Children, Schools & Families

May 2009








 
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