LGA: reform essential in the face of social work staffing challenges

New evidence of the continuing staffing problems faced by council social work teams make reforms to the child protection system more urgent than ever to prevent vulnerable children slipping through the safety net, council leaders have today warned.

The annual Local Government Workforce Survey, carried out by the Local Government Group, shows 85 per cent of councils with retention difficulties struggle to keep children’s social workers. That far outstrips all other areas of work. The figures also show that nearly eight out of ten councils with trouble recruiting staff find children’s social workers the most difficult to employ.

Funding for children’s services is among budgets being reduced by 28 per cent overall. The Local Government Association has warned that deep cuts to local government’s finances combined with higher demand for child protection work since the baby Peter Connelly case will pose very difficult questions for councils over how they can keep children safe.

The LGA argued in the spring about reforms needed to reduce bureaucracy for social workers, freeing them up to focus on working directly with children and making stretched resources go further. One recommendation was accepted but others still outstanding are:

HAVE ALL PROFESSIONALS RECORD INFORMATION IN THE SAME WAY, using the Common Assessment Framework, to reduce time cross-referencing information.
INCREASE THE PART PLAYED BY OTHER BODIES, such as the police and health services, in making decisions about a child’s needs.
REDUCE THE 300 PAGES OF GUIDANCE FOR CHILD PROTECTION to a target of 100 pages

Social work teams are also waiting for the latest Government-commissioned review to report back on how their practices might be amended. Ahead of the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Manchester this week, the LGA is stressing the urgency of the situation if future tragedies are to be prevented.

Baroness Shireen Ritchie, chair of the children and young people board at the LGA, said:
“Protecting vulnerable children from neglect or abuse is one of the most important things that councils do. Frontline social workers save lives, and change lives for the better. They are part of the solution, not the problem.

“There has been a leap in the number of families coming to the attention of social services in the past few years. The priority for all social work teams is to do everything within their power to keep every child safe from harm, and that work continues tirelessly every single day.

“Social workers have their hands tied by red tape and bureaucracy which keeps them away from their most valuable work – dealing face-to-face with struggling families and children in need of help. Some paperwork is essential but a few simple steps to reduce form-filling and to ensure other bodies step up to the mark could make a massive difference. Work to address this is taking place, but not fast enough.

“The cuts in funding to councils must impress on everyone the urgency of getting on with these reforms. Initiatives to increase the number of social workers are on track but were always going to take a while to make a difference. Action is needed now to make sure councils can keep the social workers they have, and that they can spend as much time as possible working with the children who need them.

“Councils will always do the crucial work of protecting children to the best of their ability, but it is possible children would be safer if other parts of the public sector did more to help local government shoulder this precious burden.”