Minister backs creation of Royal College of Social Work

November 28, 2009 by Shawn Douglas
Filed under: News

Minister Ed Balls says the government will announce the intent to create a Royal College of Social Work to create more ‘professional standards’ in the industry.

Minister Ed Balls

A report due to be delivered on Tuesday by the U.K.’s social work task force is expected to recommend a national college of social work be created to provide more uniform standards across the profession in the U.K. The task force is also expected to recommend clearer career paths and higher rates of pay to help retain top-quality social workers in the field.

However, Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has already been working with Justice Secretary Jack Straw to determine how quickly such a national college could be upgraded to royal college status.

In an interview with The Guardian, Balls said: “I think there has been a culture of not enough voice, not enough representation and not enough of the social work profession itself shaping the future, saying ‘these should be our professional standards, this is how we should do it and this is how we should reform.’”

“We will support the national college to become a Royal College of Social Workers in the speediest way we can.”

Balls expects that a royal college would act as a beacon of reform in the system, providing much-needed standards and probationary periods to workers entering into the profession.

“The government, employers and the profession as a whole have never take[n] a sufficiently long-term strategic approach,” he told The Guardian. “This is a moment we have never had before to recognize the importance of social work in terms of the potential for the profession and for employers.”

The government expects to announce its intentions for a royal college no more than a few hours after the task force, headed by Moira Gibb, releases its report on Tuesday.

The task force was created in part due to the Baby P scandal. The baby, Peter Connelly, died in August 2007 at the age of 17 months after suffering numerous injuries from Tracey Connelly, Steven Barker and Jason Owen. A huge public outcry occurred when it was found that the abuse had happened over an eight-month period that saw over 60 visits from social workers and police.

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Tags: Baby P, Ed Balls, Jack Straw, Jason Owen, Minister, minister royal college social work, Moira Gibb, national college, Peter Connelly, Royal College of Social Work, Royal College of Social Workers, secretary, Steven Barker, The Guardian, Tracey Connelly, United Kingdom

Comments

One Comment on "Minister backs creation of Royal College of Social Work"

Peter Barker on Wed, 2nd Dec 2009 2:26 am

I have forty years experience of social work, firstly in the Probation Service and more recently with CAFCASS. I would like to point out that it was a serious error by Michael Howard and later by Jack Straw to separate out Probation training from the mainstream of social work. Probation officer and social workers have in years gone by regularly swopped agencies enriching both. A newly trained Probation officer now has training that does not allow such a change. What does this say about such training when working effectively with offenders requires a foundation of psychology,social work etc. Please reconnect Probation with social work.
It is clear in all the grandstanding about protecting children from harm that whatever happens the number of cases of child death and injury will probably not alter at all. It is an error to believe that such cases can be predicted. No amount of bureaucracy and ticking boxes will improve matters. Unfortunately the media vilification of the social work profession has frightened away many staff of good quality. They will not come back in a hurry. Nor will the best graduates ever contemplate a career in social work. The need to scapegoat is ever increasing and will only change when the media itself collectively takes action to repair the damage through responsible journalism. This is inconceivable.

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