By Ashley Young-
A joint letter signed by 27 organisations and over 100 individuals was today sent to the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, calling for the replacement of the lead review of children’s social care, Josh MacAlister(pictured)
The letter raises important concerns over the independence of the chair of the recently announced once-in-a-generation review of children’s social care, the review’s time period and its scope.
The group is calling for Gavin Williamson to overhaul the children social care review, including the request to replace lead reviewer, Josh MacAlister, who was recruited by Gavin Williamson without any process.
In an open letter to the education secretary, the professional bodies called for the timescale of the review to be extended from the proposed 12-15 months, and for the inquiry not to be bound by current resource limits, or any presumptions about how services should be reorganised.
They stated that other recent reviews of specific aspects of children’s social care each took several months, but were ”undertaken without the inclusive and transparent participatory processes promised for this wholesale review (though the details of these are yet to be published)
The professional bodies cautioned against rushing this vital review. They said hastily produced plans would inevitably risk making the lives of children, care leavers and families much worse.
Multiple organisations have endorsed the letter which is co-ordinated by children’s rights organisation Article 39, and are pushing for a major transformation. They include the National Association of Independent Reviewing Officers, the Association of Lawyers for Children and the Care Leavers’ Association.
Among the signatories are the first Children’s Commissioner for England, Al Aynsley-Green, former British Association of Social Workers chair Judith Timms, former International Federation of Social Workers president David N
Prof Al Aynsley-Green Image;youtube
and Ray Jones, emeritus professor of social work at Kingston University and St George’s/University of London and former social services director.
Competence
The letter questions the competence of chief executive MacAlister to run the process as the sole reviewer, and his independence from government, given the £72m in funding from the Department for Education Frontline has received over the past five years.
MacAlister was a a teacher before he set up Frontline in 2013. He had “no professional background in children’s social care, and his critics say the task of leading a review would probably be an “impossible” task for “someone with no prior direct knowledge of the children’s social care system”.
MacAlister was appointed directly by Williamson without a formal recruitment process.
Secretary Of Education : Gavin Williamson Image; news.sky.com
The letter also states that the scope of the review encompassing the whole of children’s social care, was “unrealistically wide for a relatively short time period, especially within the context of a global pandemic”. It expresses the collective view that plans may be rushed which would be to the detriment of children in social care,
The fact MacAlister was involved as a lead author for a ‘blueprint’ for children’s social care published by Frontline and other organisations in 2019, has also been cited to support their wide ranging concerns.
It is based on a model that aims to increase social workers’ face-to-face time with families by 60% by stripping out perceived bureaucracy.
The blueprint is criticised for having no extra cost made available to children’s social care, and that the care review’s current terms of reference, made no suggestion of extra funding being available to implement reforms.
It calls for all proposed legal changes to be referred to the Law Commission and ensure that any urgent changes to children’s services are not held up by the review.
In response to the letter, the Department for Education said: “The independent review of children’s social care will set out to radically reform the system, and we will shortly be setting out timings for this ambitious work.
“Josh MacAlister was appointed because of his understanding of the challenges facing the system and his experience of implementing innovative solutions. He will permanently step down from his role at Frontline and will be expected to comply with the Seven Principles of Public Life, in line with standard practice for senior appointments.”