By Charlotte Webster-
The appointment of specialist social workers arising from a new Child Protection Lead Practitioner role, is to include specialist training in amalgamation with other services such as the police, to better identify and respond to significant harm.
Under the plans, child protection lead practitioners who will have received “advanced specialist training”, will be appointed to lead safeguarding cases in the pathfinder areas, as called for by the care review.
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In addition, the pathfinders will test the national panel’s proposal to set up multi-agency teams consisting of social workers, police officers and health professionals to carry out child protection work.
A Care Strategy including £200m in funding over two years, and calling for £2.6bn over five years will include social work training and development, with an early career framework established to support social workers in the years after graduation, as recommended by the care review.
The care review recommended a five-year framework, with those who completed it gaining the status of expert practitioners.
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The DfE said it would “look to develop an expert practitioner level of the ECF for years 3 to 5
post-qualifying”, creating “a cohort of highly trained social workers capable of dealing with the most complex cases and spreading best practice”.
The Department Of Education said Councils will be supported to recruit up to 500 more social work apprentices to help tackle staff shortages.
Kinship care placements will be “prioritised” by simplifying processes, while £9m will be spent on improving training and support for kinship carers.
The government will also explore the case for the care review’s recommendations of a financial allowance and the extension of legal aid for those who become special guardians or responsible for children through child arrangements orders.
As recommended by the review, the DfE said it would pilot the introduction of a lead child protection practitioner in up to 12 areas that will also be trialling the care review’s proposed establishment of ‘family help’ teams to provide early intervention to families in need.
The department will also test the headline recommendation from the national panel’s inquiry into Arthur and Star’s murders, namely the creation of multi-agency expert units to lead child protection cases in each area.
“We want a model of child protection where multi-agency practitioners work as a team on a day-to-day basis, to provide better consistency and robust critical thinking and challenge to each other when making child protection decisions,” it said.
The care review also proposed a number of measures to reduce the “inexcusably high” use of agency social workers.
These included restrictions on who can be hired and stricter adherence to regional agreements, plus funding to help councils set up not-for-profit staff banks that would be their first port of call for hiring temporary staff.
One of its main aims is to effectively protect children from harms that happen outside of the home, such as criminal exploitation and serious violence.
The long-awaited children’s social care implementation strategy, published today by the Department for Education (DfE), also includes plans to support councils recruit up to 500 social work apprentices and consultative proposals on reducing authorities’ reliance on agency staff.
The plan is in response to recommendations made by three independent reviews by Josh MacAlister, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel into the tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The findings revealed the current care system is often fragmented, siloed, and struggling to meet the needs of children and families across England.
Under the scheme, families will receive local early help and intervention with challenges such as addiction, domestic abuse or mental health, to help families to stay together where possible and overcome adversity. This will start in 12 local authorities and is backed by £45m to embed a best practice model that will then be shared more widely.
The Department of Education said the proposals put relationships at the heart of the care system and prioritise family-like placements where a child can no longer live with their parents because children who grow up in loving stable homes tend to have better outcomes.
Its vision for reform of children’s social care is based on recommendations from 3 independent reviews.
A consultation is seeking views on support and protection for children and families, support for kinship carers, and wider family networks, reforms to the experience of being in care, including corporate parenting support for the workforce, and delivery and system reform
National rules will be introduced for use of agency social workers, including on children’s social care strategy and on children’s social care national framework, with the DfE provides 20% of funding urged by care review in response
Announcing the strategy, children’s minister Claire Coutinho said: “Children in care deserve the same love and stability as everyone else. Yet we’ve seen from the two tragic murders of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson that more needs to be done to protect our most vulnerable children.
“Our wide-ranging reforms will put strong relationships at are the heart of the care system. From supporting our brilliant foster carers, kinship carers and social workers to getting early help to families and improving children’s homes, we want every child to get the support and protection they need.”
The strategy is the Department Of Education’s (DfE’) response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s inquiry into the murders of Arthur and Star and the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) study of the children’s social care market, all issued last year.
The DfE said it will consult on reducing local authorities’ reliance on agency social workers. Up to £45m will be allocated for up to 12 ‘families first for children pathfinder’ areas to trial the care review proposal to introduce family help services, to provide “non-judgmental”, joined-up support for families affected by issues such as domestic abuse or poor mental health.
The government plans to inject £25m on a carer recruitment and retention programme over the next two years focused on shortage areas, such as sibling groups, teenagers, unaccompanied children, parent and child placements and children who have suffered complex trauma. The care review called for the recruitment of 9,000 carers over three years.
Above Inflation Minimum Allowance For Foster Carers
In addition, foster carers will receive an above-inflation rise in minimum allowances to deal with rising costs. Children in care and care leavers: £30m will be spent on family finding, befriending and mentoring programmes for looked-after children and care leavers, to help them find and maintain relationships, as the care review recommended.
The suggested grant made available to children leaving care will increase from £2,000 to £3,000, while the bursary for those undertaking apprenticeships will rise from £1,000 to £3,000, broadly in line with care review recommendations.
The DfE will consult on a children’s social care national framework, as proposed by the review, setting expected outcomes for children and families that should be achieved by all local authorities. The social work reforms trailed are broadly in line with recommendations from the care review and Arthur and Star reports.
It has accepted the care review’s call for the establishment of an early career framework, replacing the assessed and supported year in employment once established. This would likely be in 2026, though the DfE said it would be trialled from this year.
This would provide two years of “consistent, high-quality support and development”, with “rigorous, supportive and fair assessment processes, which are integrated into the
development and training aspects of the programme”.
The entire idea is progressive and forward looking in substantially improving social care in the Uk.
The Eye Of Media.Com will be contributing its ideas to the consultation.
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