Children’s social work must not be our only focus

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/04/childrens-social-work-sex-abuse-adult-social-care

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The noises off at social care’s annual beanfeast last week were especially distracting. While the great and good were deliberating at the National Children and Adult Services conference in Manchester, a report warned that sexual exploitation of vulnerable children had become the social norm in parts of the same city region and the government’s historical child sex abuse inquiry was collapsing into a leaderless shambles.

Timely, then, that education secretary and equalities minister Nicky Morgan used her appearance at the conference to announce further steps to strengthen children’s social work. In a well-received address, during which she spoke of giving the discipline “an opportunity to shape its own destiny”, she unveiled three more measures in a reform programme for England begun five years ago with the conclusions of the Social Work Taskforce, set up following the Baby Peter scandal.

Morgan confirmed that any social worker with cases of children in need, at risk of harm or in care would be required to have a new approved child and family practitioner status that would “set a stretching new standard”. Those in managerial roles would need to obtain an assessed and accredited supervisor status. And there would be a new job of social work practice leader, “a senior leadership position focused 100% on the quality of frontline practice in a local area, accountable for the quality of that practice”.

All three roles will be based on a new statement of the knowledge and skills needed for children’s social work, to be published shortly by Isabelle Trowler, chief social worker for children and families, following consultation on an 11-point draft issued during the summer.

So far, so good. But the doubts start to creep in when you consider how all this will fit into an already complex reform picture. Any further accreditation or licensing system must mesh with the professional capabilities framework, developed by the Social Work Reform Board but which is operated now by the new College of Social Work. And the planned supervisors and practice leaders must sit alongside the role of principal children and families social workers introduced on the recommendation of the Munro review of child protection in 2011. Confused? It’s hardly surprising.

Then there’s the question of where the buck stops. If practice leaders are to be accountable for the quality of frontline practice, where does that leave directors of children’s services who currently hold statutory responsibility? Pointedly, Morgan described the director’s role as “corporate leadership” and said the change would “allow a wider pool of leadership talent to be considered for those roles while the rigorous focus on social work practice sits with the new practice leader”.

Above all, Morgan’s further initiatives in respect of children’s social work – including a third year of funding for the still unproven Frontline scheme for fast-tracking top graduates into children’s social work – paint the other half of the profession, who work with adults, as the increasingly poor relation.

To say “half” is now an exaggeration, however. As recently as 2010, the majority of social workers employed by English councils worked with adults. Last year, it was less than 40%.

Some of this switch is explained by growing numbers of children’s social workers, up 13% by headcount over those three years, but more significantly there was a simultaneous fall of almost 30% on the adult side. With councils’ adult social care budgets facing a shortfall of £4.3bn by the end of the decade, according to the Local Government Association, that trend looks alarmingly entrenched.

In her first annual report, just published, the chief social worker for adults, Lyn Romeo, observes that the habitual focus on children’s services leaves work with adults “sometimes marginalised”. She necessarily chooses her words with care. Putting it more bluntly, we risk a crisis in adult social care of comparable severity to that on the children’s side if we let the balance continue to slip.