The General Social Care Council has welcomed research published today aimed at building a stronger base for professionals working together, across social work, teaching, the police service, and health care.
The University of Salford’s Centre for Social Work Research and Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Collaborative Research has published research on training in inter-agency working. It was requested and funded by Government following Lord Laming’s recommendations on the death of Victoria Climbié and was referenced in the Green Paper Every Child Matters.
The General Social Care Council, who led a reference group supporting the research, welcomed the report’s contribution to the debate. GSCC Chief Executive Lynne Berry said:
“What is important to children, families and other service users is that professionals work effectively together. We need to equip people to work seamlessly together, to consistent standards, to help prevent children from falling through the safety net.
“The tragic case of Victoria Climbié shows the terrible consequences of professions not sharing information and working together for the benefit of service users. Common standards for inter-agency working will strengthen the working relationships that already exist between social workers and the police, teachers, nurses and doctors. We hope that this report will provide another important step towards ensuring better protection and care for service users and build on the new degree in social work which emphasises joint working as part of the syllabus.”
Training for social workers has long recognised the need for a multi-disciplinary and inter-agency framework. The new social work degree, which will prepare social workers for practice across the range of social work services, includes working with children and their families, with specialisation at post-qualifying level.
The report can be accessed at http://www.chssc.salford.ac.uk/scswr/projects/interagency_working.shtml