Council social work teams ‘are overloaded’
Councils are facing a £116m a year bill to improve child protection systems and social work teams are overloaded, the Local Government Association has warned.
The emergency overhaul, which followed the case of Baby Peter, has led to social work teams feeling they are pushed beyond the number of cases they can reasonably manage.
The LGA warned the increase in rules and targets has led to over-stretched child protection teams and risks weakening the safety net, which keeps children safe from harm, the group warned in new research.
Research from Loughborough University on implementation of Lord Laming’s latest recommendations also predicted up to 2,000 extra social workers would be needed and the total extra cost would be £116m.
The LGA has set out a five-point plan to ensure social work reforms lead to the best possible child protection systems:
* Give social workers more power to process referrals in the way which will best help the child, using their own discretion, and scrap the requirement to always do a formal initial assessment.
* Have all professionals record information in the same way, using the Common Assessment Framework, to reduce time cross-referencing information.
* Increase the role of other bodies, such as the police and health services, in making decisions about a child’s needs.
* Reduce the 300 pages of guidance on child protection to a target of 100 pages
* Government t provide interim funding to plug the gap created by social work reforms, and to pay for recommendation 19(1) if it is not amended.
Cllr Shireen Ritchie, chair of the LGA children and young people board, said: ‘Children who are at risk, and families which are struggling, will benefit more from additional time with experienced social workers than they will from an increase in the number of forms filled in about them.
‘Some paperwork is essential to doing the best possible job, but it is right to try to reduce bureaucracy where it can ease the pressure on social workers and increase the quality of care offered to children. It is time to show more trust in our social workers to do the right thing for children.’
She added: ‘Money is an ugly topic to raise when the issue is the safety and wellbeing of children, but it would be irresponsible to pretend social work teams can make major changes to how they operate without there being implications for their workload and resources.’
Click here to view the Loughborough University reseach.
http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/aio/9387423
