Munro review finds social workers prevented from using judgement

BASW has welcomed the publication of a government-commissioned review into England’s child protection system that has found social workers are being prevented from exercising professional judgement because of a focus on rules and regulation.

Professor Eileen Munro, who was appointed to carry out the review in June, has warned that a target-driven culture is taking social workers away from direct work with children and families.

In the first of three reports, she has set out an analysis of what has gone wrong within the system, based on over 1,000 pieces of evidence she has gathered.

Her analysis reflects many of the concerns raised by BASW in its written submission, which included the time social workers spend entering data into the Integrated Children’s System (ICS).

BASW England manager Ruth Cartwright said: “We are very pleased with her avowed aim of looking at the whole system as too often difficulties lead to an element of the system being tweaked and this has unintended consequences elsewhere. We like her view that targets and inspections have gone too far – although all public servants must be accountable, ‘ticking all the boxes’ does not always add up to a good child-centred piece of intervention. We are also delighted that she says we as social workers should be free to use our professional judgement and to be flexible rather than be restricted by too much guidance – a balance it is difficult to get right, admittedly.”

“Professor Munro speaks wisely about the ineffectiveness and injustice of scapegoating social workers when a child dies or is injured by those who are supposed to be caring for him or her and we hope this finds support from the Government, remembering the Conservative report ‘No More Blame Game’ a few years ago. A focus of SCRs away from telling the story and apportioning blame to a more analytical approach seeking to learn lessons is another good suggestion,” she added.

Professor Munro’s key points:
• professionals too focused on complying with rules and regulations and so spending less time assessing children’s needs • serious case reviews concentrating only on errors when things have gone wrong, rather than looking at good practice and continually reflecting on what could be done better • professionals becoming demoralised over time as organisations fail to recognise the emotional impact of the work they do and the support they need • professionals spending too much time completing documentation

Professor Munro is continuing to examine evidence on early intervention and prevention front-line practice, including the experience and views of children and young people; guidance and judgment; ICT; family courts transparency and accountability, including inspection and performance management; serious case reviews and learning; media and public image.

In January 2011, she will publish an interim report and a final report, including recommendations for change, will be launched the following April.

To coincide with the launch of the report, BASW joined forces with Daybreak, the breakfast television programme launched in September, to survey around 1,300 social workers. The poll revealed that nearly 70% of social workers felt they could not protect a child because of the constraints of the job and 95% said they had too much paperwork. Almost 70% said the job had caused them emotional or mental instability.