College launches professional guidance for fostering and adoption

The College of Social Work (TCSW) has today released additional guidance on professional capabilities for social workers to support high professional standards and best practice in fostering and adoption.

The statements, to be used in conjunction with TCSW’s Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF), are an important tool for social workers to help them identify their professional capability strengths as well as areas for improvement. They specifically set out how the College’s PCF domains and levels can be applied to fostering and adoption practice.

The additional statements, drawn up by The College in partnership with practitioners from across the sector, will help social workers working with children in care as well as in fostering and adoption understand fully how the professional capabilities framework relates to their specialist area of work. They are applicable to all social workers working in the discipline, irrespective of setting. They also apply to all PCF levels from newly qualified social workers undertaking their ASYE year through to strategic managers.

Anne Mercer, Professional Advisor for The College of Social Work, said: “We hope all social workers working in fostering and adoption will use these new statements to hone their professional strengths and identify and address their development needs. They are an extremely useful tool aimed at providing consistently high standards of practice across the profession, which is essential if social work is to achieve the very best possible outcomes for looked after children.”

Read TCSW’s ‘Additional Statements for Social Workers in Fostering and Adoption’.