Greening announces £4.7m extra investment in education & training of social workers

In her first speech to the social care profession, Education Secretary Justine Greening has set out her vision for giving vulnerable children the best possible chance of a successful future.

The Education Secretary announced an additional £4.7 million investment in the teaching partnership programme, aimed at improving the education and training of social workers in 11 new areas across the country. She also invited local authorities to nominate talented senior social workers to join the new Practice Leader Development Programme.

Speaking at the annual National Children and Adult Services Conference, Justine Greening said: “This government wants a country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few. Just as we need a world-class education system that works for everyone, so too we need a world-class children’s social care system that ensures the best start possible for every child.”

Speaking after the Education Secretary, Minister for Vulnerable Children and Families Edward Timpson announced a new opportunity to bid to the £200 million Innovation Programme, to pilot new, creative approaches to supporting vulnerable children. The Innovation Programme aims to give local services opportunities to try out new ways of supporting children and their families, empowering professionals on the ground to redesign how they work so they get the best outcomes for those they look after.

Since its launch, this fund has already supported over 50 projects in England. This includes the Mockingbird Family Model which helps connect vulnerable children to give them a sense of extended family and community, as well as NIS Keep Standard which provides training for carers to help them gain the skills needed to deal with difficult children. Results so far show positive changes in behaviour.

The teaching partnership programme, jointly funded with the Department of Health, aims to raise the standard of social workers – both those new to the profession as well those already in practice – by driving up the quality of teaching, learning and development throughout their career.

Justine Greening also confirmed that additional money will be invested in some of the more successful projects from the first phase of the Innovation Programme. This will help to build on the evidence base of what works in children’s social work.

The projects include:

• Positive Choices in Calderdale – which offers intensive support for high risk young people in the local area
• Pause – which helps to break the cycle of children being removed from care among women at risk of repeat removals
• Frontline – which is being backed to scale-up its Firstline leadership development programme, which will support over 400 social work managers across the country.

For more

• Read the Innovation Programme evaluation reports.
• Find out more about the Innovation Programme.

_{Picture (c) Ben Birchall / PA Wire.}