Children’s minister Edward Timpson calls for overhaul of social work training

Minister tells National Children and Adult Services conference that the social work profession must attract brightest and best

Social work training should be overhauled so that newly qualified staff are “match fit” when they join the workforce, says the new children’s minister.

Edward Timpson, who was appointed in last month’s cabinet reshuffle, said he wanted the profession to attract the “brightest and the best”.

Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services conference in Eastbourne, he said that training should include more practice placements.

Timpson told delegates, including social services directors and senior councillors, that it was “encouraging” that the number of social work vacancies was falling, and that the number of agency workers in local authorities was also dropping. He wanted to make the profession more attractive to new recruits, he said.

The minister also shared his personal experiences, and told the conference that his parents fostered more than 80 children over a 30-year period.

While other government ministers have focused on reforming the adoption system, Timpson said: “I want to cut out more of the pointless red tape that prevents foster carers from doing day-to-day parenting.”

He told delegates that it was possible for fostered children to turn their lives around, but he said vulnerable children were too often being let down by bad systems.

Timpson also told the conference that there would be urgent action to improve the standards of residential care for children and young people. He added: “For far too long, far too little attention has been paid to the quality of those placements.”

And he said the government will also be looking into the issue of out-of-area placements.

“What matters most is that [children and young people] get the care, support and protection they deserve and need,” he said.

Timpson said the government will be looking to councils to take the lead on innovation, “attention has to shift from central to local government”, he added.