The role and performance of Ofsted

Memorandum submitted by the General Social Care Council

1. Areas of the inquiry addressed in this submission:

· "What the purposes of inspection should be (relating not only to schools but to all organisations, settings and services under Ofsted’s remit);

· The weight given to different factors within the inspection process".

Introduction: About the General Social Care Council

2. The General Social Care Council (GSCC) is the social care workforce regulator for England. It is a Non Departmental Public Body which was established under the Care Standards Act 2000. [1]

3. The GSSC exists to protect people who use services. It does this through its three main ‘statutory functions’, the specific roles which the Government has set out in legislation that it must do:

· it maintains the register of social care workers (the Social Care Register);

· it issues and distributes codes of practice for social care workers and their employers, and holds registrants to account for their conduct; and

· it regulates social work education and training.

4. Through the exercise of these functions the GSCC works both to protect people who use services and also to improve the quality of social care services for the benefit of people who use these services. Related to its statutory functions, the GSCC also has two statutory duties. These are to promote:

· high standards of conduct and practice among social care workers; and

· high standards in their training.

5. The Social Care Register was opened to social workers in 2003 and on the 1st April 2005 ‘social worker’ became a ‘protected title’. This meant that from this date it became an offence in England for an individual to call themselves a social worker without being registered with the GSCC. Currently more than 100,000 social workers and social work students are on the Social Care Register.

The Code of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers

6. Under the Care Standards Act the GSCC has a statutory obligation to produce a code of practice for social care workers and a code of practice for employers of social care workers. The GSCC developed such codes in conjunction with its sister Care Councils across the United Kingdom (the Care Council of Wales, the Northern Ireland Social Care Council, and the Scottish Social Services Council) through an extensive process of consultation across the social care sector.

7. The resulting codes, the Codes of Practice for Social Care Workers and the Codes of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers (Employers Code) are entwined. [2] To give one example, whilst the former sets out the responsibility that social care workers have to undertake training to keep their knowledge and skills up to date, the latter identifies the responsibility that employers of social care workers have for providing opportunities for, and support to, social care workers through such training.

8. The Employers Code sets out responsibilities for employers of social care workers in five broad areas:

· recruitment: employers have a responsibility to ensure that social care workers are suitable to enter the workforce. This includes ensuring that social care workers have the appropriate level of knowledge and skills to carry out the role they have been recruited for. In addition, employers should check that a social care worker is registered with the appropriate care council. Employer references and the relevant CRB checks must also be sought before granting employment;

· supervision and support: employers have a responsibility to ensure that employees receive the appropriate supervision and support to undertake their duties. Employers should also ensure that systems are in place for staff to raise concerns about inadequate resources or operational difficulties which might impede the delivery of safe care;

· training and development: employers should provide induction, training and development opportunities to help social care workers undertake their jobs effectively. Further, they should support staff to meet the registration requirements with the relevant care council (as applicable). Employers should contribute to the provision of social care and social work education and training, including effective workplace assessment and practice learning;

· safety and security: employers have a responsibility to put into place and implement written policies and procedures to deal with dangerous, discriminatory or exploitative behaviour and practice. Employers have a responsibility to support workers who do experience trauma or violence in their work; and

· co-operation with relevant care council: employers have a responsibility to promote the codes of practice to social care workers, service users and careers. Employers also have a duty to inform the care council about any misconduct by a registrant that may call into question their registration. Further, Employers have a responsibility to co-operate with care council investigations and hearings.

9. Adherence to the Codes of Practice for Social Care Workers is compulsory for social care workers registered with the GSCC, currently just over 100,000 social workers and student social workers. However, the Employers Code only has the status of an advisory document – there is no mechanism to ensure that employers adhere to its requirements.

10. The GSCC has had concerns for a considerable period of time that a significant proportion of employers of social care workers have not been fulfilling their responsibilities in areas covered by the Employers Code. Areas of particular concern include the provision of training and development opportunities for social care workers, employers proactively referring information about issues of misconduct to the GSCC and cooperating with the GSCC’s investigations and hearings.

11. The last couple of years have witnessed considerable high profile scrutiny of social workers, their employers and the institutional architecture surrounding the profession. This scrutiny has included Lord Laming's Progress Report on Child Protection, the Children’s Schools and Families Committee investigation into the Training of Children and Families Social Workers and the work of the Social Work Task Force. The evidence presented to these bodies and the findings produced in their reports have served to echo the GSCC’s concerns. For instance with respect to training the Children, Schools and Families Committee received oral evidence from a representative from British Association of Social Workers that:

12. "People who put themselves forward for the post-qualifying child care award which was widely taken up, often found that they didn’t get the workload relief to which they felt entitled. They therefore had to do the course and the rest of their day job. Such pressures and people’s experiences of further qualifications and continuing professional development were not always easy […] many felt that was an unreasonable expectation from employers, when it was actually a work requirement." [3]

13. With respect to supervision Lord Laming commented in his progress report, The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report 2009, that:

14. "Regular, high-quality, organised supervision is critical, as are routine opportunities for peer-learning and discussion. Currently, not enough time is dedicated to this and individuals are carrying too much personal responsibility, with no outlet for the sometimes severe emotional and psychological stresses that staff involved in child protection often face." [4]

15. whilst, also with respect to supervision, the final report of the Social Work Taskforce reported that:

16. "surveys continue to show that too many social workers do not get access to this type of supervision. As a result, they feel that their original skills are stagnating and they are not acquiring new ones. They become reluctant to think critically or creatively about the judgments they need to make and fall back on a more mechanistic approach to their work. They can begin to question their own effectiveness and experience ‘burn out’ through a combination of heavy workloads and low support". [5]

Transfer of GSCC Functions to the Health Professions Council and the role Social Work Reform Board

17. Two important developments need to be noted here, these being the future transfer of the functions of the GSCC to the HPC and the ongoing work of the Social Work Reform Board.

18. Following a Department of Health review of its arms-length bodies, the Government announced in July its intention for the regulation of the social work profession to be transferred from the GSCC to the HPC, subject to legislative change. [6] While a definitive timetable has yet to be agreed, it is anticipated that this transfer will take place in April 2012 at the earliest.

19. The Social Work Reform Board, set up in January 2010, currently leads a national social work reform programme. The aim is to develop a social work system that provides high quality services by social workers who are well supported, and in whom the public feels confident. The Board leads the implementation of the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force (December 2009).

20. Amongst the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force were the establishment of clear standards for employers as to how social work should be resourced and managed and how social workers are supported to do their work. The drafting of such an employers standard is currently being taken forward by a workstream of the Social Work Reform Board.

21. These two developments may in future impact on the role of the GSCC’s Employers Code. However at present the Employers Code is a statutory code covering all employers of social care workers.

Ofsted’s Inspection of Providers of Social Care

22. Ofsted took over the responsibility for inspecting providers of children’s social care from the Commission for Social Care Inspection and for inspecting the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Court Administration from 1st April 2007. With respect to social care Ofsted, therefore, has responsibility for inspecting:

· Children's homes;

· Residential family centres;

· Independent fostering agencies;

· Voluntary adoption agencies;

· Adoption support agencies;

· Boarding schools;

· Residential colleges;

· Residential special schools;

· Local authority adoption agencies;

· Local authority fostering agencies;

· Local authorities; and

· CAFCASS.

23. CAFCASS itself is the largest single employer of social workers in England and, collectively, Ofsted is the service inspector for a significant proportion of the employers of social workers and other social care workers in England.

24. Ofsted undertakes the inspections of these various services through a number of inspection frameworks, including a general framework which applies to all inspections, a specific framework for the inspection of contact, referral and assessment arrangements and a specific framework for the inspection of safeguarding and looked after children services. [7] , [8]

25. These frameworks cover a number of the areas which are also covered in the GSCC’s Employers Code. For instance the inspection framework for contact, referral and assessment arrangements states that inspections will usually include an evaluation of:

· "the quality of management oversight and decision-making, including:

· senior management audit of how well workers manage risk of harm through effective referral and assessment;

· case allocation and caseload management;

· the quality of direct supervision and support."

26. However, there are number of areas of the GSCC’s Employers Code which are not covered by Ofsted’s inspection frameworks. These gaps include the requirement in the Employers Code for employers to inform the GSCC regarding concerns that they have with respect to the suitability of social care workers:

27. "Informing the GSCC about any misconduct by registered social care workers that might call into question their registration and inform the worker involved that a report has been made to the GSCC" [9]

28. and the requirement in the Employers Code for employers to co-operate with GSCC hearings and investigations:

29. "Co-operating with GSCC investigations and hearings and responding appropriately to the findings and decisions of the GSCC". [10]

30. Ensuring public protection requires a close relationship between employers, workforce and service regulators. The Commission for Social Care Inspection, the body who undertook the inspection of children’s social care prior to their transfer to Ofsted, included a specific reference to the GSCC’s Employers Code in their inspection framework.

31. As a statutory code covering all employers of social care workers, it is our view that Ofsted should include a specific requirement for inspections to check that employer of social care workers are adhering to the requirements of the GSCC’s Employers Code as part of the relevant inspection process.

32. Ensuring employers adherence to the GSCC’s Employers Code would strengthen Ofsted’s inspection framework and serve to enhance public protection.

Summary of Key Messages

· The GSCC is under a statutory obligation to produce a code of practice for employers of social care workers;

· the GSCC’s Employers Code sets out responsibilities for employers of social care workers in five broad areas: recruitment; supervision and support; training and development; safety and security and co-operation with the relevant workforce regulator;

· no mechanism exists to ensure employers adhere to the GSCC’s Employers Code;

· Ofsted is the service inspector for a considerable proportion of employers of social care workers. Ofsted’s inspection framework’s for these employers do not require the employers to adhere to the GSCC’s Employers Code;

· ensuring public protection requires a close working relationship between employers, service and workforce regulators;

· including an obligation for employers to adhere to the GSCC’s Employers Code in the relevant Ofsted inspection frameworks would strengthen these inspection frameworks and serve to enhance public protection.

October 2010