Today's news review looks at coverage of a report on children's social care.
Children's social care
Yesterday the The National Children’s Bureau published findings from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) inquiry into children’s social care. The report claims the government failed to invest in children’s social care services, despite rising demand.
The report claims there is a shift towards helping children at crisis point, particularly those at risk of abuse, and away from proactively helping families in need of additional support.
This story was covered by ITV news last night, in the Guardian and on the BBC’s website today.
We are improving the focus on quality practice and introducing a practice-based career pathway through the introduction of the National Assessment and Accreditation System; this is about investing in continuous professional development and motivating individuals to invest in activities that will develop social work practice so that accreditation standards are met. Moreover, through the Children and Social Work Bill we will further strengthen protection for the most vulnerable children.
We are already discussing with local government how it might do better collectively to increase its support for local authorities needing support to improve. It is clearly important that we take account of children’s views and the impact of our decisions when developing policy that affects children and families
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
We want every single child, no matter where they live, to receive the same high quality care and support – and this is exactly what our reforms are set up to deliver. We are clear that providing help as early as possible is the most effective way of keeping children safe, and our new What Works Centre for children’s social care will ensure social workers across the country are able to learn from best practice.
We have been taking tough action where councils are failing children, stepping in when they aren’t doing well enough and linking them up with better performing local authorities or sector experts. We are also supporting the recruitment and training of social workers so they have the skills they need for this important job, investing over £800 million in bursaries and in programmes such as Frontline and Step Up.
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