The College of Social Work’s first regional conference took place in Bristol on Monday, with chief social worker for children and families Isabelle Trowler among the keynote speakers. The theme was leadership and capability in practice, across both adult and children’s services. Here are some of the key talking points from the three main speeches.
New accreditations in children and family social work
Isabelle Trowler expanded on education secretary Nicky Morgan’s recent announcement of new social work accreditations. These are: child and family social worker, practice supervisor and social work practice leader. Trowler said the latter accreditation would go “right to senior levels of organisations”, and that without “national practice leaders who understand practice”, social work would not be in the right conditions to flourish. She also argued that it would help with continuing professional development, and address practice need from the point of qualification right through to senior practice roles in organisations.
Social work is a force to be reckoned with
Trowler stated that this is a very important moment in the professional history of social work, and that in the past five to 10 years, social work has emerged as a “force to be reckoned with”. She said that this is due in part to the efforts of the College of Social Work and the “stunning” network of principal social workers who are giving social work a much stronger voice across the country. With a new administration coming in May, Trowler argued that “we need to be positioned so that right at the beginning of that we know what we want to say”.
Evidence and policy
David Berridge, professor of social work at the University of Bristol, cautioned about the relationship between evidence, policy and practice. While acknowledging that it’s generally accepted that evidence and research should play a part in the formation of political policies, Berridge referred to the issue of “post-truth politics”, much-talked about in the United States, where evidence has to fit in with political and ideological views rather than the other way round. He said: “We haven’t reached that position in child welfare in the UK ... we need to be cautious about the role of ideology and the way in which policies are developed, particularly attitudes towards poorer people.” He noted that many service users in child welfare and social care rely on state welfare, “so some rhetorical statements about the poor and the workshy affect the people receiving our services”.
Need for other agencies to take responsibility
Berridge also referred to the recent documentary about the Baby P case, saying the programme showed that social workers were put under the media spotlight in a way that health professionals and the police were not. “Social work and social workers in the children’s field shouldn’t feel alone in things,” Berridge said. “Nationally I think there’s a major role to be done about the way a wider range of agencies take full responsibility and play a full professional part in safeguarding children ... and if they don’t I’m not sure how long the current position will be sustainable.” Berridge also raised the concern that some people may be put off studying social work, despite a desire to work in social services, due to the way the profession is treated in the media.
Making safeguarding personal
Cathie Williams, of the Local Government Association, gave an update on the Making Safeguarding Personal programme, which aims to improve safeguarding practice in adult services, giving service users more involvement. This year the programme is receiving funding from the Department of Health to expand it into more areas, and it is also included in the Care Act statutory guidance.
Another development this year is creating tools to help people to think about responses to domestic violence within the safeguarding context. “About 50% of work with adults is in their own home,” said Williams. “And I think that tendency has been for people to think that domestic abuse is about violence between intimate partners, whereas it could be around any family member. It could be sons and daughters, nieces and nephews.” She said older people and disabled people are rarely included in domestic abuse and violence services, but half of disabled women will experience abuse at some point in their life.
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