Fund play materials for social workers, campaigners urge

According to researchers, fewer than 20 per cent of social work practitioners currently use play resources during their work with children.

Academics claim that the materials are a "vital tool" for initiating contact and building trust.

Sussex University's professor of social work Gillian Ruch, one of the team members behind the Kitbag Campaign, acknowledged councils are cash-strapped, but suggested a relatively small outlay would bring bigger benefits.

Ruch said: "Appropriate child-centred materials are a vital tool for making initial contact with children and building up the required levels of trust, so it really is concerning that many social workers don't have these materials to hand for their day-to-day work.

"While we appreciate that budgets are tighter than ever in local government, we feel strongly that a very small investment in suitable materials will certainly reap rewards in terms of greater engagement with the children for whom local councils have a duty of care."

The Kitbag, which contains "finger puppets, feelings and emotions cards, a Talking Stick and calming oil", was designed by Scottish educational charity International Futures Forum (IFF).

Dr Margaret Hannah, IFF's director of health programmes, said: "Kitbag uses simple materials expertly designed and brought together to help establish a nurturing relational space and has been adopted with enthusiasm in schools, family and other settings - with or without professional support."

The campaign has the backing of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), which is advocating for social workers' time to be rebalanced so they spend less time on administrative tasks and more on "direct relationship-based work with children and their families".

Children's charity Children 1st already uses the bag and Brighton and Hove City Council is embarking on a six-month trial, making it the first English local authority to be involved.

• Special Report: Play and Play Work
• Research: The Play Return - A Review of the Wider Impact of Play Initiatives

The call comes as a related project called Talking and Listening to Children (TLC), a research collaboration between the universities of Sussex, Cardiff, Queen's Belfast and Edinburgh, revealed some of the practices of social workers surveyed.

A statement from the University of Sussex, said that research "suggested that of the social workers who do use play materials to engage with children, most buy toys or arts and crafts materials out of their own pockets rather than have bespoke child-centred resources supplied to them by their employers".
 
Social workers told researchers that they felt such items should be provided as an essential part of their professional work but such resources are extremely scarce, if available at all.

Tom Stibbs, principal social worker at Brighton and Hove Council, said: "Some of our social workers have been part of the Talking and Listening to Children pilot, and their feedback has been very positive.

"They've told us it helped them re-focus their time on direct work with children and to be more confident in this work.

"We're now looking forward to rolling the trial, including access to ‘Kitbags', out across our social work teams as part of our commitment to developing relationship-based practice and supporting our social workers to prioritise direct work with children and families."

To help Ruch gather a better national picture of local authorities' policies on play resources, social workers can complete a one question online survey.

BASW England national director Maris Stratulis, said: "It's very important that social workers in direct practice share their views to help shape the work the Kitbag Campaign is doing."

Sector professionals can also book a place at a "80:20" conference hosted by BASW and the University of Sussex on 4 April 2019, which discusses implementing ways to devote more time direct work with children and families.