The next piece in the jigsaw of reform of social work with children and families is being slotted into place. Candidates are being selected to take part in the first programme to nurture a future generation of leaders of children’s services across England.
Eighty-two applications were received for the initial “practice leader development programme”, which will prepare social work managers to take on the key role of assistant director (AD). The applicants came from 56 local councils – more than one in three of those responsible for children’s services – and this is being seen by Isabelle Trowler, chief social worker for children and families, as further evidence of growing support for the reform agenda.
With some 30 councils set to trial the new assessment and accreditation system for child and family social workers, details of which are currently out for consultation, and 70 now involved in social work teaching partnerships, working with universities to deliver “gold-standard” training, Trowler sees the reforms becoming increasingly mainstream and dismisses allegations of elitism.
“What we have got are the people considered to be some of the profession’s stand-out leaders teaching and supporting future leaders,” she says. “I don’t think that’s elitist. I think it’s got to be OK. Tell me a profession where they would not say that’s the case.”
Trowler is a controversial figure, seen by critics of the reform agenda as its cheerleader in the Department for Education (DfE) and as dismissive of concerns about centralisation of power, about children’s services being put at risk of privatisation and about a growing separation of child and adult social work. But talking to the Guardian Social Care Network about the year ahead, she makes no apology for being impatient for change that improves outcomes for children and families.
“I think that the output of a lot of the work that local authorities have been doing over the last two or three years will come out [in 2017] and will help shape people’s thinking about the future direction and how we should be working with children and families,” she says. “You’ve got to keep on talking, keep on debating, having that public consciousness that things are changing and we need to do things differently.”
The practice leader development programme is being led by Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham and Westminster councils – together making up the west London “triborough” – with support from other councils in the “partners in practice” group selected by the DfE to trial academy-style freedoms in children’s services.
The 82 applicants are being whittled down to a group of about 20 who will start the first, 12-month phase of the programme in May. Structured similarly to the Firstline scheme to train up supervisors in children’s services, itself a spin-off from the Frontline fast-track social work training innovation, the programme will start with a two-day residential course and then comprise monthly seminars and a development project at the participant’s home council.
Participants will enter a second phase of the programme, involving work with a development coach, only if and when they secure an AD role.
Trowler, who was herself an AD in Hackney, east London, says the position is central to the functioning of an effective children’s services department. “It’s a great job, I loved being in that role. You are senior enough to really have a major impact and to influence, but you are still – if you make it your business to be – close to practice and what’s happening for local children and families.”
The aim of the rolling programme is to build a pipeline of managers ready and “superconfident” to step into the AD role, which is usually a single post with responsibility for 200-300 staff.
Trowler adds: “The goal is to have a cohort at any one time of senior social workers who know how to run effective children’s social care services in a way which is ethical, but who are able to balance the pressures of support and practice within a high-risk, high public-profile specialism – and with limited resources. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
She is encouraged both by the recent positive evaluation of Firstline and by “totally inspiring” conversations she has had with some of the 82 applicants for the new programme in the initial sifting process.
“For me it’s about being able to draw out social workers who have a joy in the work and a joy of leadership and who know how to bring those things together and run a successful practice system,” she says. “People who know how to run the system right from the front door through to adoption.”
While she claims growing support for her approach, she acknowledges she is unlikely ever to appease all her critics. “People will always raise questions, always be seeking debate,” she says. “I think that’s fine.”
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