Government rejects spending extra money on social workers

The government has rejected a plea by MPs to invest additional money in supporting under pressure social workers.

Last autumn’s Children, Schools and Families Select Committee report into the training of children’s social workers said that, “investment is needed on a substantial and sustainable scale, not just directly in training, but in frontline service delivery and workforce capacity.”

However, in the government’s response children’s minister Delyth Morgan said “there is already substantial investment being made in social work training and service delivery”.

She pointed to latest government figures that show that councils spend in the region of £21bn on social services each year and the Department for Children, Schools and Families is ploughing £130m into a social work recruitment campaign.

Instead she points to a recommendation by the Social Work Task Force, which was set up by the government to review the profession following the Baby Peter scandal, calling for improvements to come from “within existing budgets”.

Among other recommendations made by the select committee was a call for stronger leadership for the profession through the setting up of a single Social Work Development Agency. This would take control of all recruitment, training and workforce development issues facing the profession.

Morgan says that a decision on how social work organisations could be streamlined will not be made until a wider Department of Health review of health bodies is completed.