Westminster Hall debate on the contribution to society of social workers House of Commons - 13 March 2018

Good social work can transform people’s lives and protect them from harm. In order to achieve consistently high quality outcomes for children, young people and their carers, social workers must have and maintain the skills and knowledge to establish effective relationships with children, adults and families, professionals in a range of agencies.


Key messages

  • Good social work can transform people’s lives and protect them from harm. In order to achieve consistently high quality outcomes for children, young people and their carers, social workers must have and maintain the skills and knowledge to establish effective relationships with children, adults and families, and professionals in a range of agencies.
  • Helping children and young people to fulfil their potential is a key ambition of all councils, but our children’s services are under increasing pressure. Facing a funding gap of around £2 billion by 2020, demand for these services has also increased dramatically. On average, 90 children entered care every day last year, which also saw the largest annual increase in care numbers since 2010.
  • Councils seek to support children to continue to live with their families where possible through family-based support and early intervention. Over the past decade, the number of children on child protection plans has increased by 83 per cent, compared to an increase of 21 per cent in the number of children in care.
  • Through the Return to Social Work programme we are offering free training to prepare former social workers to return to their careers in London, the West Midlands and the East of England. We are working with the Government to find ways to continue supporting the recruitment and retention of social workers in the next financial year.
  • The LGA is part of the Social Work England Advisory Group and has been supporting calls for SWE to use its remit over qualifications to ensure that providers of social work courses work with employers to improve the quality and relevance of courses. It is important that the right forms of continuing professional development are available throughout social workers’ careers.

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Westminster Hall debate on the contribution to society of social workers