Social Work Bill

“What other profession would tolerate these problems? The way adults’ and children’s social workers are treated in this country is a national disgrace. It cannot go on any longer and we intend to ensure it won’t.” – BASW Chief Executive Hilton Dawson

BASW delivers legislative programme to No. 10 Downing Street, including plans for major reform of social work supervision in England.

Download the Social Work Bill
BASW statement on the Social Work Bill launch

What, why and how – all about the Bill

Ten reasons to renew social work

1.    Seven in ten social workers say they have been unable to protect a child because of the constraints of the job, according to BASW study [Sept 2010]

2.    One in six social workers has more than 40 cases at one time [Community Care, Sept 2010]

3.    90% say high caseloads hinder their ability to do the job well [Community Care, Sept 2010]

4.    56% have seriously considered leaving the profession during the past year [BASW, April 2010]

5.    11.3% of social work posts in England are vacant [Community Care, Aug 2010]

6.    Only 5% of child protection teams are fully staffed [BASW, April 2010]

7.    52% of child protection teams are struggling with shortages of 30% or more [BASW, April 2010]

8.    13% say they have a 50% shortage of permanent social work staff [BASW, April 2010]

9.    Social work sickness rates are 60% higher than the national average [FOI request, Sept 2009]

10.    95% say too much time is spent on paperwork and not enough with families [BASW Sept 2010]

In publishing this Social Work Bill BASW is proposing a raft of ambitious reforms to genuinely transform the Social Work profession, with the clear aim of improving the services people receive by boosting recruitment and retention, guaranteeing proper employer support and raising professional standards.

At a time when public sector finances are seriously stretched BASW recognises that the injection of new resources is unrealistic, so the proposed legislative agenda is designed to forge real savings in present levels of expenditure. Quite simply, it would provide better services at a lower cost.

Given the very profound challenges presently confronting social work services BASW believes that the profession must be spared the short term cuts that would prove catastrophic for the vulnerable people who rely on Social Workers. Once the system set out in this Bill is in place, however, the government in England would have a model that would offer a cost effective solution and provide better services.

This legislation is centred on five key reforms, each with the common aim of raising the status of Social Work, empowering SocialWorkers–both individually and professionally – and transforming the support that practitioners can expect to receive.

1. THE RECOGNITION OF THE PROFESSION OF SOCIAL WORK IN ENGLAND through statutory recognition of the Social Work function, title and role. In the interests of public protection and ensuring the very highest standards of practice, it is imperative that the law recognises Social Work’s unique contribution in society. Not anyone can undertake the work Social Workers are trained and experienced in doing and the use of unqualified staff for tasks that ought to be specific to Social Work amounts to an unnecessary gamble with vital service provision.

2. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE OFFICE OF CHIEF SOCIAL WORKER to ensure no government can ever again be ignorant of the needs of the Social Work profession, and the value of its work.

3. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SOCIAL WORK COMMISSIONING BOARD to provide transparent and effective management of central government funding for Social Work throughout England. Appointed by government and accountable to ministers, the Commissioning Board will act as a single organisation to ensure all public services co-operate to support and develop social work services at a local level.

4. THE FORMATION OF GENERIC SOCIAL WORK BOARDS to ensure fair funding and effective supervision of Social Work at a local level. GSWBs will be directly accountable to local people and to carers and service users.

5. THE STATUTORY RECOGNITION OF A COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK to underpin the quality of training and high standards of practice we need to ensure is always associated with the profession. Part of this legislation will require the College to regularly prove that it has 51% of registered social workers in its membership. The Social Work Bill also proposes new laws to strengthen the regulation and inspection of the profession for maximum public protection.

“A Chief Social Worker would be a brilliant move forward” – Andrew Ellery, BASW member, September 2010

Social Work Bill FAQ

Why do we need a Social Work Bill at all?

It’s no secret that social work is in crisis and has been for a long time. Because of a combination of pressures and failings, it seems local authorities are not able to properly resource, support, manage or understand the complexities of social work and this is having a direct and detrimental impact on the profession and the thousands of families that use social work services. The bureaucracy is out of control and the press and the public are confused about what social work is. Things have got to change and that change can’t cost the taxpayer more money in the present economic climate – the BASW Social Work Bill is part of the solution.

Why is BASW proposing this Bill?

BASW is the only organisation in the UK that is purely accountable to and led by social workers, constantly eliciting the views of frontline workers to inform our policies. As the voice of the profession, BASW understands social work and has employed this knowledge to inform the development of a credible and realistic but challenging legislative agenda for renewing the social work profession.

Isn’t the Social Work Reform Board going to take care of all this?

BASW believes the SWRB’s work is not radical enough or sufficiently tough to address the challenges facing the profession. Also, the SWRB is burdened in its work by competing claims from special interests. This Social Work Bill comes directly from the social work profession, which recognises the urgency of the situation we face.

How would this Bill affect the development of a College of Social Work?

This legislation will afford the College the statutory standing it needs to become an irresistible force for good in social work, recognised by all as the standard bearer for the profession and a potent force for high quality social work practice.

This Bill would pave the way for a College to set professional standards and define a strong social work career structure and for the GSWBs to implement those standards for frontline practitioners on the ground.

“You lot save lives. That is to be commended and celebrated.” – Peaches Cadogan, Former service user

Does this affect the Munro review?

The review currently being led by Professor Eileen Munro is a welcome focus on systems child safeguarding, with a view to reducing the bureaucracy many social workers currently face. Unlike BASW’s draft legislative programme, the Munro review is not focussed on the wider social work profession, its standards, structures and future shape. BASW has been supporting the Munro review and endorsed the initial findings published on 1 October.

How will this new model be funded?

BASW’s Social Work Bill will offer taxpayers clear lines of accountability for social work services in their areas – whoever delivers them – and will facilitate and encourage the better deployment of social workers in a locality to meet service needs. This legislation will not cost the taxpayer anything additional – it stands to ensure far more cost effective use of public expenditure.

How will the GSWBs work?

The GSWBs would bring the professional supervision of social work services under the auspices of one body, rather than splitting them across local authority departments and health bodies, as is often the case at present. The proposed system would be more effective than the current approach for a number of reasons, including the benefit of having a clear line of accountability between social work and the general public, and ensuring a specialist social work body is responsible for maintaining the highest possible standards in the day-to-day work of frontline practitioners.

Would the GSWBs be responsible for recruiting and managing social workers?

The GSWBs will not be employers of all social workers – they will still be employed by local authorities and other professional organisations, or in their own social work practices. The role of the GSWB is to ensure that the social work service is run well – not to do it itself.

Each Generic Social Work Board will be led by representatives from the local authority, the GP commissioning consortium, a figure from each social work practice in an area, services users – including two under 18- year-olds – and a member of the general public. They will only employ a Chief Executive and an administrator.

“You were my social worker. I will never forget what you did for us. You were the one person at that time in our lives who came in regularly and supported us as a family.” – A service user speaking to Cathie Jamieson, Scottish MSP and former social worker

Social work saves lives

Violent and unexplained deaths of children aged 14 and under in England and Wales fell from 136 to 84 between 1974 and 2006

This amounted to a 38% drop in violent child deaths

Statistics in the USA over the same period showed 47 deaths per million children, a
2% rise over the same period.

In Germany the rate was 21 per million, a lower drop than in England and Wales

The Bournemouth University team behind the study said “better monitoring” by social workers was a key factor in the reduction of child deaths