Session 2024-25
Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill
Written evidence submitted by the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) England (CWSB138)
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Committee Stage
Briefing for MPs on Public Bill Committee
Executive Summary
1. BASW England welcomes the ambitions of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill but emphasises the critical role of social work in delivering meaningful reform within children’s social care.
2. The government must prioritise investment in social workers by delivering a fully resourced programme of professional development and addressing workforce challenges to ensure that children and families receive high-quality, rights-based support. Without this, the proposed reforms risk being undermined by systemic barriers, such as high caseloads, underfunding, and limited capacity in local authorities.
3. Social workers are central to relationship-based practice, early intervention, and safeguarding, yet the profession lacks the sustained investment seen in comparable sectors like health. BASW England calls for the government to honour the £2.6 billion funding recommended by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, alongside urgent measures to strengthen retention, reduce reliance on profit-making providers, and empower social workers to deliver the stability and care children need to thrive.
About BASW
4. The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) is the professional association for social work in the UK with offices in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. With over 22,000 members, we exist to promote the best possible social work services for all people who may need them, while also securing the well-being of social workers working in all health and social care settings.
5. Social workers play a critical role in children’s social care, safeguarding vulnerable children, supporting families, and promoting children’s welfare within complex and often challenging circumstances. Many of the proposals set out in the Bill therefore stand to impact the day-to-day work of children and family social workers in England.
Kinship Care
Clause 1, 5 & 6
6. BASW England supports mandatory family group decision-making (FGDM) meetings before care proceedings but urges that practice guidance will ensure they occur early, to reduce the risk of escalation and are flexible.
7. Defining kinship carers in law and requiring a "kinship local offer" are positive, but local authorities must be adequately resourced. Kinship care breakdown often occurs because of a lack of support and resources for families, better direct provision, including financial support, is needed particularly where families are experiencing poverty. The importance of social workers in providing relationship-based care and conducting robust ongoing assessments is critical.
8. Additionally, therapeutic life story and permanency work should be prioritised to support children’s emotional needs, ensuring their voice is central in decisions that affect their lives. This approach must address family dynamics and be rooted in long-term stability.
Child Protection
Clause 2 & 3
9. BASW England supports good multi-agency collaboration but believes that mandating multi-agency teams risks undermining social work’s role and safeguarding principles, with little or no evidence to support this as an effective model. We emphasise investment in early help, relationship-based practice, and clarity on professional priorities to prevent detrimental impacts on children’s rights and social worker retention. We also believe greater clarity is needed on the remit, structure and governance of these teams and remain concerned that they are being mandated prior to the full evaluation of the pilots.
10. Some members felt that a narrow remit for the multi-agency team that focussed on information sharing rather than direct practice would be positive.
11. Additionally, we note that pilot areas received significant funding to implement the MASH model and seek clarity on whether similar levels of funding will be provided to support all local authorities in implementing this model
Accommodation for looked after children
Clause 9
12. BASW England supports greater collaboration in planning and commissioning but opposes mandatory regional care cooperatives (RCCs) if that were to prioritise financial savings over children’s rights and local placements. RCCs must strengthen local authorities’ capacity to deliver services in-house, and to be able to offer local, relationship-based care and to reduce reliance on profit-making providers. Investment, including capital investment, is needed to strengthen local authority direct provision, including kinship and residential care.
13. Effective RCCs should also integrate education as well as social care, health, and criminal justice, ensuring services align to meet children’s needs locally. Changes must focus on children’s welfare, not cost-cutting or rigid regional models We believe that residential provision should not be seen as "last resort" as it can be the best option for some children in terms of meeting their specific individual needs, if it can be delivered locally.
Clause 14 & 16
14. BASW England opposes profit-making in children’s social care. Capping profits is a positive step, but the long-term ambition should be to eliminate profiteering in children's social care entirely. We call for investment and capital funding to help local authorities build children’s homes and deliver in-house, relationship-based services focused on welfare, local placements, kinship care, and better residential care.
Overall Comments
15. Social Workers need a fully resourced and comprehensive offer of continuous professional development.
16. Social work team members at all levels and in all areas of practice, including senior and executive social work leaders, need a clear, accessible and fully resourced programme of post-qualifying professional development in order to be able to offer effective support to children and their families that is delivered from within a legally compliant, rights based practice model built around the Social Model of Disability, in this and other complex areas of practice.
17. The undergraduate curriculum for Social Workers is already full, and a clear, funded commitment from central government to enabling qualified Social Workers to progress and develop the specialist skills needed if any of the proposed reforms in the law are to be implemented in any meaningful way.
18. While Doctors spend 10 years developing their practice and expertise once qualified through an NHSE funded and regulated programme of clinically supervised professional development, no such offer or financial investment exists for Social Work as a universal profession.