Community Care

APRIL 16, 2025

The DfE set up the group, comprising five social work leaders, an expert by experience, a specialist in curriculum design and a representative from Social Work England, in 2023 to help establish the knowledge and skills required of new council children’s social workers under the then planned early career framework (ECF).

Social Worker 50

Social Worker Consultation Communication Government 50

Community Care

FEBRUARY 1, 2023

Specialist social workers will be appointed to lead child protection cases while a new framework will be introduced to support practitioners at the start of their careers, the government has said in its response to the care review.

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Social Worker Consultation Government Foster Care 67

Community Care

JANUARY 14, 2022

The Department for Education has scrapped its national assessment and accreditation scheme (NAAS) for children’s social workers. The DfE’s original plan was for all children’s social workers to be assessed by 2020, which it later revised to rolling out the scheme from that year following a series of trial phases.

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Government Social Worker Interventional Consultation 72

Community Care

SEPTEMBER 22, 2023

The government has delayed its response to a consultation on controversial national rules to regulate agency social work in England’s statutory children’s services. A requirement for employers to request and provide references for all agency social worker candidates.

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Consultation Social Worker Engagement Government 53

Community Care

OCTOBER 27, 2023

The Department for Education (DfE) has ditched plans to cap agency social worker pay to the equivalent of permanent staff in local authority children’s services. The changes came after the DfE received over 1,200 responses to the consultation on the rules , 70% of which were from individual social workers.

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Social Worker Consultation Engagement Government 70

Community Care

FEBRUARY 28, 2025

Social work assistants would be regulated in Scotland under plans issued for consultation. Regulator the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is also consulting on adding adult day centre supervisors, practitioners and support workers, and offender accommodation managers, supervisors and practitioners to its register.

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Consultation Social Services Social Services Social Worker 41

Community Care

JUNE 17, 2022

The lack of adult social workers is the sector’s biggest concern as it prepares to deliver the cap on care costs, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has found. Get full coverage on the government’s adult social care reforms. More social workers needed amid shortages.

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Social Worker Consultation Government Therapist 65

Community Care

MAY 23, 2025

By Ray Jones The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is currently being debated within Parliament and, at the same time, the Department for Education (DfE) is consulting on its proposals for new post-qualifying standards for children and family social workers and an accompanying induction programme.

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Social Worker Consultation Schools Social Services 43

Community Care

MARCH 8, 2022

Council social workers are receiving a 1.75% pay increase this month, back paid from April last year, after unions agreed a deal with employers. The rise constitutes a real-terms pay cut with the government’s preferred measure of inflation – the consumer prices index – having risen from 1.5% in April last year to 5.5%

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Social Worker Government Consultation 58

Community Care

FEBRUARY 3, 2023

Agency social worker pay in would be capped to the equivalent earned by permanent staff under government plans to reduce the use and cost of locums in statutory children’s services. ” “However, overreliance on agency social work resource has led to workforce instability, churn and high costs,” it said.

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Social Worker Engagement Consultation Government 62

Community Care

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

In calling for a shift to much more direct contact, the group – which included representation from local government, Cafcass, the law, academia and the adoption sector – recommended significant practice changes for both adoption and child protection social workers.

Adoption 53

Adoption Social Worker Government Communication 53

Community Care

MAY 12, 2024

Revisions to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 code of practice are still under discussion two years after proposed changes were consulted upon. However, despite publishing draft legislation in 2022, the government has not come forward with a full bill to enact the changes. What is the MCA code and why was it being revised?

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Consultation Mental Health Government Hospitals 54

Community Care

APRIL 24, 2025

However, the approach poses resource challenges for Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru because for the need for social workers to invest significantly more time working with families at the start of cases compared with the existing child arrangements programme (CAP) system, the report added.

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Government Social Worker Interviewing Administration 57

Community Care

AUGUST 8, 2024

The shortage in children’s social workers in English local authorities is likely to increase over the coming decade, the Department for Education has said. It also came despite the number of permanently employed social workers reaching a record high.

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Social Worker Interventional Government Disorder 61

Community Care

AUGUST 8, 2023

The government is reviewing the case for giving social workers in England powers of entry in adult safeguarding cases. However, the review said that social workers “often referenced” their lack of a power of entry as a barrier to effectively protecting adults experiencing abuse at home from carers.

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Social Worker Government Domestic Violence Disorder 49

Community Care

SEPTEMBER 9, 2024

The government will legislate to tackle “profiteering” from children’s care placements in England, a minister has vowed. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Government Interventional Consultation Schools 67

Community Care

MARCH 25, 2022

Children’s social workers’ caseloads are bigger, more complex and harder to manage, taking a toll on their mental health and family life and leaving some contemplating quitting. A third of social workers said their caseloads had increased “a lot” over the past year, while a further 36% said they had risen “slightly”.

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Social Worker Mental Health Interventional Government 65

Community Care

JUNE 1, 2023

Children will not get the protection they deserve from the government’s response to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), its chair has warned. The government said it would introduce a redress scheme following “extensive engagement” on the nature of the scheme, though without setting a timeframe for this.

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Government Consultation Social Worker Engagement 60

Community Care

APRIL 19, 2023

The government should set an expectation that frontline children’s social workers carry out face-to-face practice, in the light of concerns about the rise of remote working. “If a social worker is able to work remotely then the mandatory ‘cool off’ period will have little impact.

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Social Worker Consultation Recovery Engagement 61

Community Care

JULY 15, 2024

Agency social workers numbers are coming down in children’s services in England following significant increases in their use by councils in recent years, a sector leader has said. of the children’s social work workforce in English councils , up from 15.5% As of September 2023, locums represented 17.8%

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Social Worker Government Consultation Engagement 53

Community Care

FEBRUARY 23, 2023

The number of frontline children’s social workers employed by English councils or children’s trusts has tumbled by 8% since 2020, official data shows. DfE workforce census 2022: key numbers 31,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) children’s social workers were in post in English councils as of September 2022.

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Social Worker Consultation Government 60

Community Care

AUGUST 30, 2023

Social Work England is seeking views on proposed standards it will use to approve and monitor best interests assessor (BIA) training courses. “I think we need providers to respond to the consultation [on this point],” she said.

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Consultation Self-harm Mental Health Government 50

Community Care

NOVEMBER 6, 2023

The government is not expecting a significant rise in social care referrals from introducing a duty on professionals to report child sexual abuse. Professionally regulated staff, such as social workers, would also be subject to sanctions from their regulator body. The Home Office consultation runs until 30 November 2023.

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Government Consultation Welfare Social Worker 65

Community Care

FEBRUARY 8, 2023

The Department for Education (DfE) has backed a care review proposal for a five-year early career framework (ECF) for the development of children’s social workers, but rejected its call to introduce national pay scales to recognise progress. “We do not intend to create new DfE-led pay scales.

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Social Worker Consultation Adoption Government 56

Community Care

JANUARY 5, 2024

Champions of asylum-seeking children and anti-racist practice, respectively, were among social workers recognised in the New Year Honours. Children’s practitioner Kirstie Baughan and adult safeguarding lead Shabnam Ahmed were garlanded in the annual list, alongside chief social worker for children and families Isabelle Trowler.

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Social Worker Disability Foster Care Government 56

Community Care

MARCH 14, 2022

Social workers could more than double the time they spend with children and families through more efficient case management systems and fewer meetings. Half of social worker time spent on admin. Sharp rise in children’s social workers leaving council roles, government figures show. Related articles.

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Social Worker Administration Government Case Management 59

Community Care

JULY 18, 2024

The government needs to boost funding for social work bursaries, placements and apprenticeships to attract more people into the profession and tackle persistently high vacancy and turnover rates. That was the message from sector leaders in a 15-year strategy for the adult social care workforce in England, released today.

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Government Social Worker Therapist Diversity 53

Community Care

FEBRUARY 24, 2022

The government is examining how councils can place more social work students to meet its ambitions to increase numbers coming into the profession. It added: “The government plans to invest in new and existing training routes for people who want to become social workers.

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Government Social Worker Consultation 53

Community Care

SEPTEMBER 16, 2024

Rules curbing councils’ use of agency social workers in children’s services will start coming into force next month, the Department for Education (DfE) has announced. Councils should not engage social workers as locums within three months of them leaving a permanent post in the same region.

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Social Worker Engagement Government Consultation 60

Community Care

MAY 30, 2023

UNISON is calling on social workers and other council staff in England and Wales to back strikes after opening its industrial action ballot on this year’s council pay offer. A yes vote could lead to walkouts by the union – which represents an estimated 40,000 social workers across the UK – this summer.

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Social Worker Government Consultation Social Services 53

Community Care

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Moving from expecting compliance from social workers to enabling them to exercise professional curiosity is a key factor in improving children’s services. This included initiatives such as the use of social work academies to develop staff, with training days backfilled and caseloads capped. of the workforce.

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Social Worker Anxiety Interviewing Government 59

Community Care

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Government as a whole therefore needs to prioritise legislative time and investment for these children.” But so many who have lived through or work in this faltering system know that there’s a burning platform. Reforms will get started this year, but children and families will have to wait longer to see results.

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Government Consultation Foster Care Social Worker 56

Community Care

MARCH 24, 2025

There would not be a blanket ban on the courts appointing experts who were not regulated or registered, with proposed exceptions for international social workers, cases where no regulated expert was available and circumstances where the issue in question may only be resolved by the evidence of an expert who was not regulated.

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Psychology Consultation Counseling Clinic 43

Community Care

OCTOBER 20, 2023

The government should find £500,000 to help 200 former practitioners return to social work in its forthcoming autumn statement, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said. 6,760 posts were held by agency workers, as of September 2022, up 13% on the previous year.

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Government Social Worker Administration Consultation 55

Community Care

FEBRUARY 10, 2023

The government has pledged action to tackle “excessive” workload pressures on council children’s social workers as part of its response to the care review. a year earlier, according to an Association of Directors of Children’s Services survey.

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Social Worker Case Management Government Communication 56

The International Association Of Schools Of Social

JANUARY 5, 2024

On 18 December the project had a one-day Expert consultation workshop on ‘Co-creating spaces and empowering tribal communities’ aimed to promote cooperation and knowledge exchange among organizations who engaged in the sphere of education, health, and livelihood. Bipin Jojo, Dean, School of Social Work also graced the occasion.

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Consultation Mental Health Schools Engagement 98

Community Care

MARCH 18, 2022

The draft updated Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice, was published for public consultation on 17 March. The government has decided to produce one overarching code to ensure the principles of the MCA are embedded in the LPS from its introduction. Consultation ends on 4 July. By Tim Spencer-Lane, legal editor, CC Inform.

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Government Therapist Mental Health Disorder 68