Care Review response: New child protection role among measures planned for workforce reform

The 220-page Department for Education report, Stable Homes, Built on Love, has been published in response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, a safeguarding review into the murders of Star Hobson and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in 2020 and the Competition and Markets Authority report on the children’s social care market.

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The DfE’s £200m implementation plan, which takes forward some of the 80 recommendations made by Care Review chair Josh MacAlister, includes plans to create a new child protection lead practitioner role within council’s children’s services departments.

According to the report, the role “will value the specific practice skills, knowledge and experience that are needed when working directly with families where there is actual or likely significant harm. They will tackle issues such as domestic abuse, drug and alcohol use, exploitation, sexual abuse, and nonaccidental injury”.

These practitioners will work within family help teams “so that existing relationships with families are kept while bringing a sharp child protection focus”, it adds, citing the strategy's key aim of keeping families together where possible.

The government also plans to introduce new multi-agency child protection units, made up of child protection lead practitioners alongside professionals working in areas such as education and policing to carry out “specific child protection functions, such as section 47 enquiries and oversight of children on child protection plans”.

According to latest DfE figures, 50,920 children were subject to child protection plans as of 31 March last year.

Steve Crocker, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, said “strategy’s emphasis on multi-agency working will be essential to the success of these reforms”.

Further recommendations aimed at shaking-up the social work workforce include the implementation of an early career framework (ECF) for social workers similar to that used in teaching.

The EFC is described in the report as a professional development framework designed to replace the current assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).

The five-year framework will “improve retention and ensure that all social workers make a strong start and develop the skills and knowledge needed to support and protect children,” the report states.

It adds that DfE “will look to develop an expert practitioner level of the ECF for years three to five post-qualifying” which will enable social workers to move to child protection lead practitioner roles.

However, the plan to replace the AYSE with an ECF has come under fire from some experts who cite a survey by TeacherTapp which finds just 14 per cent of teachers say they found the ECF a good use of their time. 

Joe Hanley, a social work lecturer at the Open University, has urged the government to exercise “extreme caution” when implementing the ECF.

The government’s strategy also pushes forwards a recommendation by MacAlister for all practicing social workers to carry out 100 hours of face-to-face time with families each year, regardless of their seniority.

It also puts forward for consultation a series of measures to restrict the use of agency social workers by local authorities, following an investigation on the use of managed agency teams by CYP Now.

However, it does not take forward a proposal for the independent reviewing officer role to be scrapped.

Two further consultations will be held on plans for workforce reform and the strategy as a whole. All consultations close on May 11 with the government expected to respond by September. 

Ministers plan to introduce new measures for children’s social care by April next year.