Just days after a senior politician questioned why the development of a College of Social Work has “gone wrong”, evidence has emerged through a Freedom of Information request of the extent of the problems:
- A risk assessment report by the Interim Board of the College of Social Work outlines how the “entire viability” of the proposed College of Social Work rests on forging a deal with the trade union Unison, confirming social workers’ worst fears that their College will be dominated by a trade union in which social workers are a small minority.
- This publicly funded document presents a highly misleading account of negotiations with BASW and appears to have been used to misinform members of the Interim Board, members of the board of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, which is hosting the College, and government ministers
- The FOI’s publication follows comments by Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham last week when he told the National Children and Adult Services conference: “Things have gone wrong but it’s not possible for me to make a judgment on why it was done. In the first place it [the College of Social Work] was to raise the profile, status and quality of social work.”
Mr Burnham’s comments were made after a decision by the Chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, Margaret Hodge, to refer the matter to the National Audit Office and ahead of talks this week between BASW leaders and MPs from all parties in Westminster.
BASW Chief Executive Hilton Dawson said:
“At public expense the Interim Board has produced a guide which is deeply inaccurate and has been used to mislead key decision makers. Ministers appear to have been taken in by a report which does not in any way represent a true picture of negotiations between BASW and the College.
“Its inaccuracies are summed up by the IB’s inaccurate claim to have ‘worked hard to achieve a merger with BASW’. If it was working hard to achieve a merger why has it not given the information we needed about its deal with Unison, which would have underpinned the work we were trying to do on a joint business plan?”
The risk assessment document, produced by the Interim Board of the College of Social Work and issued in response to a Freedom of Information request, reveals that the College’s entire business model ‘is based on a service level agreement with Unison and a joint member recruitment campaign’.
The information contradicts recent comments made by a Department for Education spokesperson that ‘the College will be self-funding’ and that there are no arrangements in place for Unison to financially subsidise the College.
BASW is today asking two key questions:
- If a college will ultimately be self funding, how can the viability of a college be so wrapped up in a deal with Unison?
- If this deal with Unison underpins the entire business model of a college that social workers are hoping will help restore their profession to full health, why isn’t is published in full for everyone to read?
BASW’s analysis of the risk assessment that has emerged as a result of the FOI also reveals:
- The Interim Board’s view that ‘the PR fall out is harder to manage if this (the decision to exclude BASW from negotiations) is not an active decision’, placing a clear priority on avoiding difficult headlines rather than incorporating the affiliation of 14,000 social workers who are in BASW membership.
- The real risk that the College will become entrenched as a ‘government funded quango’ if it doesn’t develop a separate Trust to disperse the Social Work Education Grant grant money. Otherwise this public funding will inevitably distort the sustainability of the College.
- BASW’s outright rejection of claims by the Interim Board over its adherence to governance standards. These claims are baseless and must be retracted.
ENDS
Note to Editors