Government to appoint separate chief social workers for children's and adult services

The Munro Review of Child Protection recommended the introduction of a chief social worker post. As such, the government advertised to recruit one chief social worker, reporting to the Department of Health and Department for Education, with a salary of £110,000, earlier this year.

But no candidate was found. The government has now confirmed that it intends to recruit for two separate posts representing children’s and adult services respectively, hosted by a single “office of the chief social worker”.

Dave Hill, chair of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) workforce development policy committee, said “two chief social workers is better than none at all”, but insisted that joint working must be protected.

“Having two chief social workers working between children and adults, and between two government departments, must not be allowed to weaken the influence of the office of the chief social worker on government policy,” he said.

“While we recognise the different specialisms required to work with children and adults, and the different legal frameworks, there are core social work values and practices that are shared by the whole profession, and these must be the guiding principles of both post holders.”

Jo Cleary, joint chair of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services workforce network, added: “Social work needs a loud voice at the heart of government, championing social work’s values and the importance of the work that the profession does, day in, day out, whether with children or adults.

“It is essential that the chief social workers will speak with one voice recognising that social work is one profession. It will be vital that the two post holders work closely together to ensure a coherent and joined-up approach to working with the most vulnerable in our society.”

Maurice Bates, co-chair of the College of Social Work, said that the creation of a single office for the roles goes some way to addressing concerns about the future of partnership working. But he warned that the move could still “open a false divide” in what should be a single leadership role.

“Many individuals and families who social workers come into contact with on a daily basis have wide ranging and complex needs,” he said.

“It will therefore be absolutely vital that the two chief social workers work very closely together as part of a single office of the chief social worker, otherwise an important opportunity will have been lost.”

Bridget Robb, acting chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers, said the work of both the Social Work Task Force and Social Work Reform Board has stressed the importance of a unified profession.
 
“This ethos has been supported across government, and progress to date will be undermined if the role of the chief social worker is split into two separate roles which reflect the existing silos of the departments of health and education. The very last thing the profession needs is more division,” she said.
 
“No other profession has a lead role in government split in this way. This proposed division also ignores the roles of the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office who also employ statutory social workers in the services for which they are responsible.”
 
But a Department for Education spokesman defended the move. He said: “We want to recruit a strong and influential chief social worker and would encourage anyone who feels they can do the job to apply.

“We plan to have two posts, one to focus on children and families social work and the other to focus on adult social work. Both posts will work together to provide unified leadership to the sector.”