Camden chief exec to oversee social work taskforce

Moira Gibb, a former social worker, will chair the board which will oversee the Social Work Taskforce, part of the government's 2020 Children and Young People's Workforce Strategy. Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of the Children's Society, and Andrew Webb, director of children's services in Stockport, will co-chair the board.

The taskforce, which will start work in January and publish its conclusions next summer, will investigate reforms to social work training, recruitment and management. It will be a joint unit across the Department for Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families and will aim to engage front-line social workers, managers, service users, academics and training providers in its work.

In a letter to Moira Gibb outlining the work of the taskforce Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "Social workers are committed to their work and to the people they support. Thanks to that commitment, there have been some improvements in recent years in the quality of the services social workers provide.

"But advice from the Expert Group on the Children and Young People's Workforce is clear that we now need to go much further."

Balls said the Taskforce will need to take account of the findings of the forthcoming report on safeguarding being led by Lord Laming.