Memorandum submitted by the Children's
Workforce Development Council
SUMMARY
CWDC welcomes the opportunity to provide evidence
to this review. The following comments reflect discussions with
employers across the sector and build on evidence from recent
research. Our evidence suggests that the system is complex, not
easily understood and lacks clear levers for driving up the quality
and flexibility of provision which is essential to meet the needs
of employers and children and young people.
INTRODUCTION
1. The Children's Workforce Development
Council (CWDC) is an employer-led organisation, set up in 2005
to support delivery of the Every Child Matters agenda. We are
an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body, sponsored by the Department
for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), and part of the sector
skills council, Skills for Care and Development.
2. CWDC aims to improve the lives of children,
young people, their families and carers by ensuring that those
who work with children and young people have the best possible
training, qualifications and support. We help organisations work
together more closely so that children and young people are at
the heart of what they do.
3. Since 2008, CWDC has led a wide-reaching
programme for social workers who work with children and families,
funded by the DCSF, that aims to:
— improve the way social workers are recruited
and supported to work with children and families in England;
— encourage talented and committed people
to join and stay with the profession, and
— help the public understand better what
social workers do.
4. This means piloting:
— measures to address the shortage of social
workers and high turnover rates in local authorities;
— support for social workers embarking
on a career with children and families, to make sure they have
the confidence and skills the role demands;
— support for experienced frontline social
workers and their leaders and managers, and
— support for organisations that want to
reshape their social work teams to meet changing needs.
5. Our work is being developed and delivered
in partnership with local authorities and voluntary sector bodies
that employ social workers who work with children and families.
These relationships give us a strong understanding of the challenges
that employers face in recruiting, retaining and developing a
high quality social work workforce.
6. We also work closely with other national
bodies that support or represent social workers and oversee social
work training. This includes the establishment of a national advisory
group to oversee all our social work projects and the creation
of partnership arrangements with Skills for Care, who lead on
developing skills in adult social care, specifically to support
the provision of practice learning placements and regional commissioning
of post-qualifying awards.
ENTRY ROUTES
TO THE
PROFESSION
7. The recruitment and retention difficulties
facing employers of children and families social workers, particularly
in relation to front-line child protection work, are well-publicised.
Market conditions are inimical to attracting high calibre people
into the profession, and especially into front-line services.
Action is needed to both encourage and enable highly able people
to become social workers.
8. Starting in June 2009, CWDC will be running
a recruitment campaign for children and families social work that
will target both people at the start of their working lives and
those looking for a change of career. This will encourage people
to consider social work as a profession. To enable them to take
this step, CWDC believes that the number of entry routes to the
profession should be increased, so that it is easier and more
attractive for a wider range of talented and committed people
to qualify as social workers. Such an expansion of entry routes
should include opportunities for groups of employers to work collaboratively
and take the lead in training new social workers. However, this
may need to be medium term aspiration as the current vacancy position
could impede employers' capacity to lead the regeneration of initial
training. Our work to widen entry routes currently includes:
— piloting a post-graduate course aimed
at high achieving individuals who have not previously worked in
the social work field. Around 100 graduates began their studies
in autumn 2008, and a second cohort of 200 will be recruited in
2009. The pilot will be evaluated to identify whether targeting
high achieving graduates leads to more capable social workers
and better outcomes for children, young people and families, and
— developing options for introducing a
fast track to social work that enables mature graduates with experience
in allied professional areas to qualify and develop as social
workers on an accelerated pathway.
9. There has been no nationally co-ordinated
support to enable social workers who have left the profession
to re-enter with confidence and updated skills. CWDC welcomes
the Government's indication that it wishes CWDC to establish a
national programme to support 500 social workers to return to
practice. We believe this provision will need to include refresher
training, and flexible working packages offering part-time working,
term-time working, compressed hours and childcare provision. The
provision will need to be sufficiently flexible to be attractive
to recently qualified social workers who are not currently employed
in social work, those who have taken a career break and those
who may have retired early.
STRUCTURE OF
TRAINING
10. Both the undergraduate and postgraduate
programmes are generic and train candidates to work with children
and adults. As set out in Lord Laming's report, CWDC would support
a greater degree of specialism in the initial training programme.
The current arrangements are not providing newly qualified social
workers in the children's sector with the skills and competences
required by employers.
11. The 200 days of work-based training are essential
aspects of the initial degree. These must be relevant to the career
aspirations of individuals; and they must be of high quality.
CWDC recognises that employers and higher education institutions
are jointly responsible for these placements; however we believe
that the higher education training providers must be held accountable
for the quality and relevance of their arrangements. We also see
these placements as much more than work experience; we would wish
them to be periods of assessed, work-based learning where individuals
are involved in a structured and well-organised programme that
builds their confidence and competence.
12. The demands on social workers are such
that CWDC believes it is important that social work is a graduate
profession where subsequent training and development is both a
right and a responsibility. Because of these demands, CWDC would
advocate a more rigorous recruitment and selection process, with
high expectations, for entry to the initial training programme.
The processes should involve a full and genuine partnership between
training providers and employers.
13. The current training opportunities (undergraduate
and postgraduate entry) are limited; to attract a broader range
of capable candidates there should be additional training opportunities
which meet the needs of individuals. More flexibility on the design
of training programmes would be welcomed.
14. Following initial training, all social
workers should receive additional support in their early years
of employment. CWDC launched in September 2008 a three-year pilot
programme for newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) that offers
a package of support in their first year including:
— 10% of their time set aside for training
and development;
— access, through their employer, to additional
funds to support development activities;
— regular supervision, and
— the opportunity of support from other
NQSWs.
15. The design of the pilot programme was
informed by consultation with 500 NQSWs and 47 employers. When
NQSWs were asked what specific factors had contributed to their
confidence as a social worker, nine out of 10 of them identified
"working alongside more experienced colleagues". Three
quarters selected "supervision", two thirds "training"
and three in five "knowledge of policies and procedures"
and "building on learning from the social work degree".1
These findings informed the development of CWDC's 2008-11 pilot
programme for NQSW, and give us confidence that it is meeting
the needs of employers and candidates.
16. 970 NQSWs, working for 89 employers,
are participating in the first year of the pilot, with more due
to join from September 2009. We welcome the Government's recent
announcement that all social workers employed to work with children
and families in a voluntary or statutory service will be offered
the NQSW programme from September 2009. With the NQSW programme's
strong focus on child protection, we believe this expansion will
help to improve outcomes for more vulnerable children and families.
17. We are currently working with 45 local
authorities to develop an early professional development programme
that will provide support for social workers in their second and
third years of employment. This programme, which begins in September
2009, will provide additional support for up to 1,000 social workers
through enhanced supervision and structured arrangements to meet
a set of national expectations. Taken together, the NQSW and early
professional development provide scaffolding for social workers
to build a successful career based on a set of national expectations,
bespoke training and entitlements to support.
CONTENT OF
INITIAL TRAINING
18. A key challenge in determining the appropriate
content of initial training in relation to the tasks that social
workers are asked to undertake when in employment is that there
is not a clear, shared understanding of the role and tasks of
social work with children and families. Significant social changes,
and developments in the way services to children, young people
and families are conceptualised and delivered, mean that the day-to-day
business of social work has altered considerably in recent years.
A range of different views is held—across and between employers
and higher education institutions—about where qualifying
training should end and on-the-job learning begin. This can be
highlighted by differing perceptions about whether the qualifying
period is best described as professional training or education.
In this highly vocational area, it is important for candidates
to be professionally competent as well as capable and informed
in order for them to make rapid progress once they gain employment.
19. Our 2008 consultation with 500 NQSWs and
47 employers provides some evidence regarding their views on initial
training. One third of NQSWs who responded to our questionnaire
thought that their course had prepared them "fully"
or "quite a lot" for their job, but over half thought
it had been "just enough" to allow them to get by, and
one in seven did not feel it had prepared them at all. In discussion
groups (attended by 415 NQSWs) the overwhelming majority of participants
reported that the training provided by their social work degree
had failed to prepare them sufficiently to embark on professional
practice.
20. Evidence from employers through the
same research suggests that they feel NQSWs are insufficiently
prepared for the complex task of working with children and families
in difficult circumstances or able to anticipate the challenge
of working with some very challenging families. They did not think
that NQSWs were always clear on the role, purpose or task of the
social worker. Several employers made the distinction between
an "academic" view of competence and that of employers.
21. Of the 47 employers we consulted, 11
considered that the degree had prepared their NQSWs for "most
of the role", while 35 said that it had only prepared them
for "some of their role". In relation to specific tasks,
one in four thought the course had failed to prepare NQSWs for
decision making and one in five thought this to be the case in
relation to analysing information and understanding social work
within the wider context of children's services. Many commented
that they felt there was an over-reliance on the placement experience
to provide the depth of knowledge required to practise. In discussion
groups, employers highlighted a lack of understanding of child
development and poor skills in analytical assessment and writing
court reports.
22. In our recent submission to the Social
Work Task Force, we suggested that the three year degree should
be adjusted so that the third year is focused on specialist training
relating to the population group with whom the social worker intends
to work. This final year should have a specific focus on preparing
students for undertaking assessments, analysing complex and conflicting
information, planning and decision making. This part of their
training should include developing their knowledge base in relation
to risk factors in child protection cases This would help to ensure
that no NQSW who wants to work with children and families could
graduate without having been assessed on their ability to do so,
as can happen at present.
23. The Government's recent proposal to
develop a practice-based Masters degree, which we welcome, provides
a further opportunity to embed high quality training for child
protection and strengthen social workers' understanding of the
lessons that can and should be learnt from recent serious case
reviews.
QUALITY
24. We welcome GSCC's commitment to examine
current arrangements for monitoring quality standards and interrogate
whether it is sufficient for regulation to depend on examination
of HEIs' own quality systems rather than on examination of delivery
itself. We believe that all employers should be able to expect
all those trained on an approved social work degree to be ready
for employment and capable, with support from the NQSW programme,
of operating at a high level of competence.
25. A concern we have seen raised by employers
and NQSWs alike is the variability of the current practice knowledge
and experience of those delivering initial training. NQSWs who
were particularly positive about the level and quality of teaching
were most likely to comment that their lecturers had recently
practised social work, or were continuing to practise. We think
it is also worth noting the large number of candidates who do
not successfully complete the degree programme, and the number
of those who do complete who do not subsequently move into relevant
employment. More could and should be done to ensure that the degree
is presented and marketed as a professional training programme
as well as a course of academic study.
26. Practice learning is a key element of
social work initial training. CWDC's role, in partnership with
Skills for Care, includes supporting employers to provide practice
learning placements that enable HEIs to meet the Department of
Health requirements for social work training, which require every
student to spend at least 200 days gaining required experience
and learning in practice settings.2 The introduction of the social
work degree, and the increase in the volume of social workers
in training, has put significant pressure on employers in relation
to practice learning—particularly on local authorities,
who are more likely to be able to offer placements offering experience
of statutory social work tasks involving legal interventions.
Despite the success of the Practice Learning Task Force set up
in 2002 in increasing the number of practice learning opportunities
in third sector organisations and a range of public sector settings
such as schools or health services, a significant challenge remains
in ensuring that all practice learning is of a high quality and
that all students graduate with experience of practice in a setting
where the statutory powers and duties of social work are exercised.
27. CWDC welcomes the GSCC's commitment
to considering whether the current reporting system by which HEIs
demonstrate that the practice placements offered through their
programme are of a high quality are sufficiently robust. The GSCC's
recent report on raising standards in social work education in
England in 2007-08 notes that HEIs' self-reporting that only 82
of the 11,500 placements provided failed to meet their own quality
standards is both remarkably small, and "at odds with emerging
reports from students and employers of poor-quality placement
experiences, poor levels of practice assessing and ill-prepared
qualifying students". The GSCC also notes that "the
quality and provision of practice learning was a common area identified
for improvement in re-approving degree courses".3 CWDC believes
that courses should not be permitted to run if they do not consistently
provide high quality practice learning for all students, in a
setting relevant to the population group with whom they intend
to work.
28. Placements in which students gain experience
of the applications of social work law, and the exercise of duties
and powers conferred on specific organisations are important in
enabling them to become competent and confident practitioners.
CWDC is currently working with Skills for Care, GSCC and a range
of stakeholders, to propose a strengthened definition of what
are commonly referred to as "statutory placements" and
begin to assess with employers what the potential impact of applying
this definition through the regulatory framework would be. We
intend to offer learning from this work to the Social Work Task
Force.
29. We should aspire to a culture, as exists
in medicine, where it is the norm for more experienced practitioners—as
part of their own progress up the career ladder—to take
personal responsibility for the development of the next generation
of practitioners. Establishing a career framework for social work
with children and families would assist greatly in creating an
environment in which practice learning could flourish. Such a
framework, which needs to be discussed across the profession,
should have links to the package of rewards available to individuals.
30. While we do not have specific evidence
of whether the switch to degree-level qualification has improved
the calibre of recruits and the effectiveness of NQSWs, we note
the concerns expressed by employers in relation to NQSWs' readiness
to practice during our consultation last year.
SUPPLY OF
INITIAL TRAINING
31. Decisions about whether to offer qualifying
courses in social work are taken by individual HEIs in the context
of their wider business planning; they are not informed by a national
supply strategy. The GSCC has responsibility for the approval
of social work courses under section 63 of the Care Standards
Act 2000. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) monitors the provision
of higher education against subject benchmark statements.4 Funding
for delivery of social work qualifying courses is disbursed to
HEIs from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Bursaries are available through the NHS Business Services Authority
to any student not funded by their employer. The dispersed nature
of these arrangements, and the lack of a national supply strategy,
impedes effective market management of initial training. We have
heard concerns that social work course leaders within HEIs feel
pressure from their institutions to increase student numbers,
within existing resources, because of the availability of student
bursaries.5
POST-QUALIFYING
TRAINING AND
CAREER PATHS
32. We believe two things are needed to
increase the fitness for purpose of post-qualifying training and
to encourage social workers to build a long-term career in the
field:
33. Similarly to the situation for qualifying
training, responsibility for funding, quality assurance and inspection
of current post-qualifying training arrangements is so widely
spread as to compromise its effectiveness. We also recognise that
the post qualifying (PQ) arrangements are just one way of many
for social workers to receive further development. We see continuing
professional development as encompassing a myriad of learning
opportunities which include coaching, short courses, peer review,
co-working, mentoring as well as attendance on a PQ programme.
34. Feedback from employers suggests that
partnership arrangements between employers and HEIs for commissioning
post-qualifying training are of variable effectiveness. CWDC,
GSCC and Skills for Care have recently commissioned further work
to increase understanding of the picture of current partnership
arrangements. In the current environment a lack of a national
framework or set of expectations has led to fragmentation and
variable results. There is a need for assurance that the current
regional commissioning basis is providing the quality and flexibility
that employers need and individual social workers want.
35. Most professions have a recognised career
pathway for those who enter them. This not only helps to ensure
the retention of staff, but also sets the clear expectation that
senior colleagues have a responsibility to support and enable
the development of the generation that follows them. CWDC has
initiated work to develop a career framework for children and
families social work and believes that this is a vital foundation
for strengthening the profession and ensuring the needs of vulnerable
children and families are met. The further development of post-qualifying
training (in its widest form) needs to be situated in this context
and address concerns raised by employers regarding the structure
and content of the current framework including the adequacy of
provision for the development of practice educators, following
the loss of the old practice teaching award. The announcement
that the NQSW programme will be available to all eligible social
workers in a children and families context provides an opportunity
for training to be designed around the needs of NQSWs as they
all work towards a set of nationally agreed outcomes.
36. The support that employers provide to
their social work staff varies. Training and development budgets
are always vulnerable when finances are tight. In order to ensure
greater consistency across the country, there is a need to establish
clearer expectations of employers in relation to the support they
provide their social work workforce and to their understanding
and use of social workers' professional expertise and authority.
We have been struck in our discussions with employers by the appetite
for central direction in relation to the recruitment, retention
and development of the social work workforce.
37. We support the strengthening of the
GSCC's Code of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers and
also recommend that there should be a national agreement with
local authorities detailing what is expected of them in respect
of qualifying and post-qualifying training of social workers.
This would be linked to the career framework we have previously
described and would build on the impact of CWDC's current social
work programme in increasing the consistency of support offered
to social workers. We recognise that there would be some cost
involved, but believe that implementation could be partially achieved
through changes in current working practices. This expectation
should be embedded through performance indicators and inspection
frameworks.
38. The availability and quality of robust
supervision, particularly for social workers in the early stages
of their career, is of paramount importance. A supervisor should
be observing the social worker as they make interventions, and
reflecting with them on the process. Supervision should be both
challenging and offered in the context of learning environment.
The Government's recent announcement that CWDC will lead on strengthening
training for both supervision and coaching is to be welcomed and
will build on work already underway to spread existing effective
practice.
39. In recognition of the value of high
quality of supervision our NQSW pilot programme offers a comprehensive
guide for supervisors, commissioned specifically to support the
programme, and training for all those supervising an NQSW participating
in the programme. This support and training for supervision will
also be available to social workers who participate in CWDC's
early professional development pilot programme from September
2009.
REFERENCES1 CWDC
(2009) Newly Qualified Social Workers—A report on consultations
with newly qualified social workers, employers and those in higher
education.
2 Department of Health (2002) Requirements
for Social Work Training.
3 GSCC (2009) Raising Standards—Social
Work Education in England 2007-2008.
4 QAA (2000) Social
Policy and Administration and Social Work.
5 CWDC/Skills for Care (2009) Research and
Mapping of Statutory Placement Learning Opportunities and Needs
in London.
May 2009
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