Lurching rather than learning – More change on the hoof won’t benefit social work

Now is a dangerous time in social work, because making changes at a time of crisis is often about lurching rather than learning, with opportunities for fine-tuning lost in the frenzy.

At the time of Lord Laming’s inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié, I commented that “destabilising what is nationally effective because of local specific failures does not seem a sensible way forward”. Yet we went on to achieve this destabilisation of an internationally recognised successful child protection system.

Lord Laming’s report did not call for the abolition of social services departments. Indeed, he directed a quarter of his 108 recommendations specifically and singularly to directors of social services. But, in practice, this is what happened.

The 2004 Children Act required local councils to establish directors of children’s services, responsible for all education and social care for children. Since then, a number of trends risk destabilising the system further, exacerbated by the fallout from the Baby P tragedy.

Over recent months, vacancy levels in teams of social workers have risen, as have the number of court proceedings being initiated to remove children from their families. And since the implementation of the 2004 Children Act there has been no decrease, but a slight increase, in the number of children killed each year by their family carers.

What has gone down is the child protection experience of top managers, with most having a background in education services, and the top expertise in the inspectorate, which is now within Ofsted, with its background in schools inspections.

What’s also reduced is the local awareness and ownership of children’s social care services, as mayors and one-party political cabinets meet in private, replacing cross-party decision-making in committees, so senior council officers no longer advise all councillors in front of the press and public.

And what is definitely lower is the confidence of frontline workers, all of who know that they could be next in the tabloids with the mob set on them.

The government’s response to Laming’s inquiry into the death of Baby P is imminent. So what might be sensible at this time?

First, get the focus back on frontline practice across all agencies, back off beating up frontline teams for not hitting arbitrary timescales, and stop more changes that create uncertainty for frontline workers. Free them up to be in contact with children and families and abandon distracting doomed-to-fail national IT databases.

Second, require a public annual report by a senior social worker, with a personal professional responsibility to all councillors and also to the local children’s trust board, on the quality and resourcing of children’s social care services.

Finally, deliver on the commitment to reward and support social workers. Council social workers have just been offered a 0.5% pay increase – once more, less than teachers, health workers, police officers and politicians. Forgotten again already?

• Ray Jones, professor of social work at Kingston University and St George’s University of London, was previously director of social services in Wiltshire.