The hidden children’s services workforce

This may be the most active phase of DfE policy development since the early 2000s and the policy and legislation that emerges as a result will shape our work - and the lives of the children and families we serve - for a generation to come. I’ve been trying to join the dots of all the different elements together in my head, and this week I’ve homed in on the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, with a particular focus on workforce.

There is a dedicated workforce chapter in the review. Here the headlines about the proposals for a £253 million investment, including in an early career framework for social workers, a reduced reliance on agency social workers and tackling bureaucracy to enable social workers to prioritise direct work with children, young people and their families are all likely to be welcome, although there remain concerns about how the Expert Practitioner role might play out in practice. Under the heading ‘Developing the wider children’s social care workforce’ this chapter also outlines proposals for the professional development of family support workers (within the envisaged multi-disciplinary ‘family help’ teams), and residential care workers and children’s home managers. These are often neglected roles and the recognition of their importance and the need for investment in their professional development is long overdue.