Mike Thomas, former chair of the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, highlighted the issue during a question and answer session at Nacro's annual conference in Nottingham.
Thomas said very few youth offending teams (YOTs) have social workers seconded to them. "It seems the one group of staff that has the most involvement in the safeguarding agenda aren't involved with YOTs in the way they should be and aren't involved in young offender institutions in the way they should be."
Last month Barnardo's accused ministers of dragging their feet in tackling a funding crisis affecting social work within Young Offenders Institutions (YOI).
According to the charity, half of social worker posts in YOIs are vacant due to a dispute surrounding funding for the roles, which were created five years ago.
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