Reflections on our role in the reform of children’s social care

The Department for Education (DfE) recently published the ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love: Implementation Strategy’, which sets out the government’s response to recommendations by 3 independent reviews of children’s social care.

Social work is central to the strategy, with one of the key pillars of reform to transform children’s social care being ‘a valued, supported and highly skilled social worker for every child who needs one.’ As the regulator for all social workers in England, we are committed to working in partnership with the profession to achieve real impact through these reforms – not just for children but for adults too.

With our unique view of the whole profession, we are considering how the recommendations in the strategy impact on all areas of social work. These are our initial reflections on our role in the proposals and their impact on our regulation and leadership role within the sector.

Public protection

Our starting point, as always, is public protection. We are reviewing these proposals through a regulatory lens, seeking reassurance that their desired impact aligns with our overall objective of reducing risk and increasing public safety. Underpinning this are our professional standards, which set out the knowledge, skills, behaviours and values that every social worker must meet, and which give the millions of people they support confidence in them. These must be the bedrock of reform, to ensure transformative change is driven by a sustainable, skilled and supported workforce that is valued by society.

Education and training

As the regulator of all social work courses in England, we were pleased to see the emphasis on social work education and training in the strategy. It recognises the importance of our oversight and monitoring of almost 300 social work courses, giving students and apprentices reassurance that their education provider meets our education and training standards, and that they will then meet our professional standards once starting their social work career.

This focus of the strategy is timely, as last year we launched our approach to social work education and training. Our approach sets out how we strive to make positive improvements and make sure that the public can feel confident that graduates are ready to join the register and (with the right support) ready for professional practice. We set out our intention to develop a closer relationship with practice educators, assuring their training, supporting their practice, and ensuring the ongoing suitability and competence of social workers who take on this role.

The government’s strategy supports this approach and we will soon be commissioning research into the role of practice educators. We will use the findings of the research and ongoing discussions with the DfE to determine our future relationship with this important group.

The strategy proposes a new Early Career Framework (ECF) for social workers to give them consistent, high-quality support and development early in their career. This is something we have already been in discussions with the DfE about. This will eventually replace the current assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) programme for child and family social workers and will also consider the development of an expert practitioner level for years 3 to 5 post-qualifying.

We will continue to liaise with the DfE closely on this part of the strategy to ensure that all frameworks align with our work. We will also seek further clarity on where the role of practice educator might sit within this framework.

The strategy acknowledges the Care Review’s recommendation for social workers in all roles to undertake 100 hours of direct practice every year to fully understand the challenges of the front line. The DfE feels that it is right to highlight the importance of leaders and academics remaining close to practice, but wants to ensure that any changes do not expose children and families to more changes of social worker or take managers away from important tasks such as supervision.

We have therefore been asked to work on an approach to asking all social workers how much time they are spending in direct practice and how they are using it to support their professional development.

Improving workforce stability

We have been working closely with the DfE and coordinating a national conversation with sector leaders to consider the challenges facing the workforce and how collectively we can address these through meaningful action, across the whole profession. As part of this, we have committed to commissioning research into the social work workforce, and in particular around understanding vacancies, and the current recruitment and retention picture.

We have also started work to analyse the international recruitment picture in the sector, and will continue to develop this in line with our strategic objectives, as well as what is outlined in this implementation strategy.

Recruitment and retention pressures are increasing and need shared action from all in the social care system. We will need to consider how the findings of the research can inform our work in this space, and within the parameters of our role as the regulator.

With the pandemic, we’ve seen in recent years how social workers are adapting the ways in which they deliver social work. But the pressures on the workforce highlighted can undermine the stability of relationships at the heart of good social work practice. As the report recognises, improving workforce stability is crucial for social workers’ ability to build strong relationships with children and families.

We believe that people who require the support of a social worker at any stage of their life should feel confident in the stability and consistency of that support. Regulation supports consistency across the children’s and adults workforce through high-quality education and training, the professional standards and continuing professional development.

The public profile of social work, especially in comparison to other regulated professions like doctors and nurses, is regularly raised as an issue in discussions on workforce and retention. We will continue to consider the extent of our role as the regulator in promoting the social work profession, and how we can best do this.

We have always committed to gathering and sharing insight into the sector. Next month we will publish our state of the nation Social Work in England report, which is the culmination of our learning in our first 3 years.

Next steps

We will continue to consider the recommendations in the strategy before submitting our response to the formal consultations which will also be published on our website. We encourage everyone with lived and learned experience of social work to give their views and support this opportunity to improve social care for millions of people.