Social work leaders sceptical over call for more third-party provider input

The warning follows a speech given yesterday by Education Secretary Michael Gove, where he called for a “rethink” over how children’s social services are organised, with councils giving more consideration to child protection services being delivered by “third party providers”.

Gove predicted the model of improvement used at Doncaster Council – where an independent trust is being established to handle the day-to-day running of children’s social work – “will grow”.

The introduction of recent freedoms allowing councils to delegate children’s social work functions to third parties is a “first step towards freeing up innovative and ambitious local authorities to deliver greater diversity and excellence in provision", Gove added.

But David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said child protection is one of the most important tasks councils are responsible for.

“Elected politicians remain determined to ensure high standards and a robust approach to turning around the lives of children who face abuse, harm and neglect,” he added.

Annie Hudson, chief executive of The College of Social Work, said she supported Gove’s call for innovation in how social work is practiced, but warned that councils must retain ultimate accountability for services.

She added: “It is vital that if local authorities do hand over some of their powers for looking after children to third parties, that there are clear lines of accountability back to them.”

Graeme McDonald, director of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, welcomed Gove’s “personal commitment” to social work reform, but said this needed to be based on “evidence-led assessments and not succumb to overly simplistic ideological assessments of what needs to change”.

He added: “Local government does incredibly complex and challenging work with some of the most vulnerable residents and simplistic narratives do no justice to the scale and complexity of the challenge.”