The General Social Care Council (GSCC) today welcomed the publication of the children’s workforce strategy and its particular emphasis on social work.
As part of the strategy, the government has announced a ‘Social Work Taskforce’ which will look at frontline social work practice and where improvements can be made to training, recruitment and leadership.
When they register with the GSCC, social workers sign up to a code of practice which sets out the standards they must abide by. They can be held to account if they are found to have breached this and could be removed from the profession. There is also a code of practice for employers but this is not mandatory. The GSCC would like this to be changed and want Ofsted and the newly formed Care Quality Commission to enforce it during inspections.
Rosie Varley, who took up the post of GSCC Chair in November of this year, said:
“Social workers have for too long been the piece of the children’s workforce jigsaw that gets overlooked, and their work to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our society has gone unrecognised. The tragic death of Baby P and other recent cases have thrown the spotlight on the profession and it is right that the government focuses its attention now on how frontline practice, particularly in the field of child protection, can be improved. We must also make sure this extends to those working in adult social care, and look forward to the publication of the adult workforce strategy early next year.
Given the challenging work they do, it is absolutely vital that social workers are properly trained, equipped and supported. In the short time it has been in place, the social work degree has contributed significantly to the raising of standards in social work. We do however need to look at what more can be included in that initial training to fully prepare graduates for the beginning of their career in social work, particularly given the many developments in social care and children’s services over the past few years. We also welcome the plans to look at how our inspection regime of degree courses and providers can be strengthened.
We also need to look at the support and training received on the job, as the process of learning and development should not end at graduation but continue throughout a social worker’s career. Those working in child protection for instance should not be taking on complex cases until they have the relevant specialist training. We are pleased that there will be stronger requirements for social workers to keep their skills and knowledge up to date”.