Community Care

MARCH 15, 2024

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Black, Asian and minority ethnic social care staff face disproportionately high levels of workplace bullying, disciplinary action and fitness to practise referrals, while also being less likely than white counterparts to be shortlisted for jobs.

Diversity 290

Diversity Social Worker Social Services Social Services 290

Community Care

MARCH 15, 2024

Non-statutory placements make up over half of practice learning provision for social work students in Scotland, leaving some graduates underprepared for practice, research has revealed. The lack of placements in local authorities is driven by underfunding and practice educator shortages, said a report commissioned by regulator the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and the Social Work Education Partnership (SWEP), an alliance of sector leaders that oversees the education system.

Administration 287

Administration Mental Health University Social Worker 287

Community Care

MARCH 12, 2024

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Older people are routinely having their human rights breached because of a failure to tackle the “huge” Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) backlog and a system in “complete disarray” That was the verdict from an Age UK report that warned many people were being unlawfully deprived of their liberty because of the government’s failure to reform DoLS, signifi

Government 281

Government Nursing Home Mental Health Social Worker 281

Community Care

MARCH 8, 2024

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Since Lyn Romeo announced her retirement in October last year , the tributes to the now former chief social worker for adults from across the profession have been warm and fulsome. Lyn Romeo is without a doubt a social worker for social workers!

Social Worker 266

Social Worker Government Mental Health Adoption 266

Community Care

MARCH 7, 2024

This is the first in a series of interviews celebrating Community Care’s 50th anniversary. We will be speaking to key figures who have shaped the last 50 years in social work and those who will shape it in the years to come. Mark Allen is the founder and chairman of the Mark Allen Group , a publishing company which employs more than 500 staff and publishes more than 100 titles, including Community Care.

Interviewing 183

Interviewing Social Worker Psychiatric Adoption 183

Community Care

MARCH 1, 2024

One in nine councils with social services responsibilities are getting emergency government help to enable them to balance their books. Ministers have agreed in principle almost £2bn in financial support overall for the 17 local authorities, with by far the biggest share going to Birmingham (£1.255.1bn), revealed the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) yesterday.

Government 169

Government Social Services Social Services 169

Community Care

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Local authorities’ use of agency social workers in adults’ services rose by a quarter from September 2022 to September 2023, official figures have shown. Councils employed about 1,900 locum adult social workers in September 2023, compared with around 1,500 a year earlier, according to Skills for Care figures.

Social Worker 216

Social Worker Government Social Services Social Services 216

Community Care

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

Just over four in five of the first cohort of social work apprentices gained their qualification, official data has shown. According to Skills for Care , 82.7% of apprentices qualified as a social worker in 2021-22, including all of those who completed the course. The remainder (17.3%) did not finish their training. With the apprenticeship, which takes three years, having been rolled out in 2019 , this represents the first full cohort to complete the degree-level programme.

University 218

University Government Social Worker 218

Community Care

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

By Corinne May-Chahal and Sarah Carlick Many think digital safeguarding is about staying safe online but it means much more. Our work seeks to develop innovative ways in which children and young people can digitally and safely self-refer to children’s social care, allowing them to communicate harms and experiences in real time. Such a digital front door would support frontline practitioners to manage risk in real time and build better relationships with their communities.

Case Management 185

Case Management Communication Self-harm Adoption 185

Community Care

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

Joanne* recently completed the consolidation programme , a mandatory learning and development qualification for newly qualified social workers (NQSWs) in Wales. “It was a good chance to consolidate and reflect on my practice and has been transformational in many respects,” she says. “But I am glad it is out of the way.” All social workers who qualified in Wales on or after 1 April 2016 must complete the programme during their first three-year registration period.

Social Worker 199

Social Worker University Communication Social Services 199

Community Care

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

By Beverley Barnett-Jones Addressing ethnic inequalities in children’s social care requires an understanding of the disparities that families face, as well as the factors that shape them. The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory recently added to the evidence base by publishing a briefing paper on the ethnicity of children in care and supervision proceedings in England.

Adoption 241

Adoption Interventional Social Worker Government 241

Community Care

FEBRUARY 2, 2024

Councils would be able to exceed regionally agreed agency social work price caps under proposed statutory guidance issued by the Department for Education. Leaders would be able to sign off on breaches of the caps, but all such cases must then be reported to regional partnerships and the DfE, said the draft guidance. The flexibility comes despite Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) concerns that breaches would risk undermining national rules on councils engaging child and

Engagement 263

Engagement Consultation Social Worker Administration 263

Community Care

JANUARY 31, 2024

About 400 more social work apprentices could be recruited over the next year in England courtesy of a £12m fund designed to boost practitioner capacity adults’ services, announced by the government today. The Department of Health and Social Care is inviting expressions of interest from councils for up to £30,000 per apprentice to help them resource the recruitment, supervision and training of additional trainees, up to the end of March 2025.

University 250

University Hospitals Government 250

Community Care

JANUARY 26, 2024

Children’s social workers’ caseloads have grown increasingly complex over the past decade, alongside a sharp rise in concerns relating to child mental health, an analysis of official data has found. From 2014-21, the steepest rise in demand concerned child mental health as a single factor, with the number of such cases annually more than doubling from 2014 to 2021.

Mental Health 276

Mental Health Disability Interventional University 276

Community Care

JANUARY 18, 2024

A lack of specialist teams, strategy and resources are hampering councils’ efforts to reunify children in care with their birth families, a study has found. While most councils would like to do more to support reunification – both on principle and to save money on care placements – the government wasn’t supporting them to prioritise it, said the NSPCC and Action for Children.

Government 211

Government 211

Community Care

JANUARY 17, 2024

By Tim Spencer-Lane In Rachel Meade v Westminster City Council and Social Work England (2200179/2022 and 2211483/2022) , a social worker won multiple claims for harassment, on account of beliefs protected in law, against her employer and the regulator. The claimant, Rachel Meade, is a qualified social worker in adult services, who started working at Westminster City Council in 2001.

Social Worker 328

Social Worker Engagement Diversity Mental Health 328

Community Care

JANUARY 14, 2024

Child in need cases have been opened up to non-social work qualified staff despite concerns that the policy will increase risks to children. The Department for Education’s (DfE) revised version of Working Together to Safeguard Children has removed the previous requirement for child in need assessments and casework to be reserved for qualified social workers.

Disability 319

Disability Consultation Social Worker Youth Worker 319

Community Care

JANUARY 8, 2024

Experts are predicting that more councils will declare ‘bankruptcy’ after the government rejected calls for extra social care funding for authorities in 2024-25. Think tank the Institute for Government (IfG) made the claim after the provisional local government finance settlement included no extra resource for authorities beyond that already committed, despite leaders’ calls for extra cash.

Government 237

Government Disability Social Services Social Services 237

Community Care

DECEMBER 12, 2023

The number of people using council-arranged long-term adult social care in England grew in 2022-23 following years of decline, official data has shown. Overall, 835,335 people received long-term care during the year, up 2.1% on 2021-22, when 817,995 people were given a service, showed the figures from NHS England. This figure had declined year on year from a high of 872,520 since 2015-16, with the exception of 2020-21, where numbers may have been inflated by the inclusion of people receiving Cov

Nursing Home 220

Nursing Home Government Social Services Social Services 220

Community Care

DECEMBER 11, 2023

By Beverley Tarka, president, ADASS When ADASS and carers’ organisations launched the Carers Challenge in October, our goal was to unearth the gold standard work social care teams and voluntary organisations are doing to support unpaid carers. The response has been great, with lots of stories about how organisations are working with carers to co-produce services and place them at the heart of decision making.

Hospital Discharges 190

Hospital Discharges Hospitals 190

Community Care

DECEMBER 7, 2023

A record 100,495 social workers in England have renewed their registration with the regulator this year. Social Work England said 97.3% of practitioners who needed to renew completed the process during the three-month window, which closed on 30 November. This is the highest proportion recorded in the four renewal rounds since it took over the regulation of social workers in England in December 2019. 3,600 more social workers on register As a result, England starts the new registration year with

Social Worker 221

Social Worker Communication 221

Community Care

DECEMBER 7, 2023

Safeguarding leaders have launched a national review into child sexual abuse within the family due to a “concerning number” of such cases. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel said the inquiry would examine how practitioners and agencies could improve how they identified, assessed and responded to CSA within the family. The panel, whose role is to oversee and draw national lessons from serious cases, has commissioned the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre)

Engagement 227

Engagement Government Social Worker 227

Community Care

DECEMBER 1, 2023

Introducing specialist child protection social workers is posing workforce challenges for the councils testing the system. Issues included retaining staff, maintaining safeguarding skills among other social workers and avoiding disruption to families as a result of the reform. Leaders from Dorset, Lincolnshire and Wolverhampton councils relayed the messages in a session at this week’s National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) on their experience as families first for children

Social Worker 246

Social Worker Adoption Diversity Consultation 246

Community Care

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Councils across England face insolvency without national rules to regulate mounting care placement costs, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ (ADCS) president has warned. John Pearce told Community Care that these should include a calculated fair cost for care and rules on provider behaviour, in an interview at this year’s National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC).

Government 205

Government Mental Health Interviewing Adoption 205

Community Care

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

Pay is now the top motivator for social workers to change jobs, Community Care’s annual jobseeker survey has found. Improving salary has overtaken achieving a better work-life balance as the biggest temptation for practitioners to move roles, found the research. While pay was also the most compelling reason to move for respondents to our 2021 survey, a bigger proportion (55%) selected it in 2023 than in previous rounds of the research.

Social Worker 224

Social Worker Government 224

Community Care

NOVEMBER 24, 2023

More than half of social workers had not completed the registration renewal process two weeks out from the 30 November deadline, Social Work England has revealed. As of 16 November, 45,875 social workers had completed their renewal application form, submitted two pieces of continuing professional development (CPD) – one of which had been reflected upon with a peer – and paid their £90 fee.

Social Worker 245

Social Worker Communication 245

Community Care

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

The care population in England has grown for a 15th consecutive year, official data shows. For the second year in succession , the increase has been driven almost entirely by increasing numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children arriving in the UK, revealed the Department for Education’s (DfE) annual looked-after children’s statistics, issued last week.

Adoption 196

Adoption Government Social Services Social Services 196

Community Care

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

There was a 110% rise in the number of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children placed in unregulated settings from 2021-23, annual statistics on the care system have shown. The number placed in independent or semi-independent settings more than doubled, from 2,120 to 4,450. This outstripped, proportionately, the 76% increase in the number of unaccompanied children, from 4,150 to 7,290, over the same period.

Foster Care 225

Foster Care Government Social Services Social Services 225

Community Care

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

The government has rejected an expert panel’s proposal to “severely curtail” the “inhumane” solitary confinement of people with learning disabilities and autistic people in mental health hospitals. In a damning report published last week , psychiatrist and learning disability expert Baroness Sheila Hollins said there was “no therapeutic benefit” to the long-term segregation of people detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 in hospital.

Disability 287

Disability Hospitals Mental Health Rehabilitation 287

Community Care

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

The Labour Party has pledged to reform the Mental Health Act 1983 if elected to power at the next general election. Shadow health and social care secretary Wes Streeting told the House of Commons today that the party would introduce a bill to overhaul the act as part of its first legislative programme after polling day, which is due to take place by January 2025.

Mental Health 277

Mental Health Government Disability 277

Community Care

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Adult social care has its fourth cabinet minister in two years following Rishi Sunak’s major government reshuffle. Victoria Atkins has replaced Steve Barclay as health and social care secretary, after the latter spent one year in post in his second stint in the job. Since 2021, the post has also been occupied by Sajid Javid and – briefly, under Liz Truss’s short-lived premiership – Thérèse Coffey.

Consultation 256

Consultation Government 256

Community Care

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

There are “significant risks” around the government’s capacity to deliver its already delayed plan to introduce a cap on care costs by October 2025, the public spending watchdog has warned. The National Audit Office (NAO) said work needed to start soon, backed by more resource, to deliver the cap and a more generous means-test for care by the revised target date, two years later than originally planned.

Government 168

Government Social Worker Case Management Administration 168

Community Care

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

At Community Care Live, a panel of experts discussed the role of learning and development in attracting and retaining early-career social workers. As part of our Choose Social Work campaign, we asked each of them for the best piece of advice they would give to new social workers. Sophie Gilbert, head of learning academy, Birmingham Children’s Trust For me it would be: don’t stay put.

Social Worker 251

Social Worker 251

Community Care

NOVEMBER 5, 2023

Councils are rationing adult social care through “subjective” eligibility judgments, a think-tank has concluded. The Institute for Government (IFG) said that a long-term decline in the number of people receiving adult social care, amid increases in requests for support, was most likely down to rationing, not the use of strengths-based practice to make people more independent and less in need of care.

Government 327

Government Disability Mental Health Social Services 327

Community Care

OCTOBER 27, 2023

The Department for Education (DfE) has ditched plans to cap agency social worker pay to the equivalent of permanent staff in local authority children’s services. The move is part of a wider dilution of proposed national rules to limit the use of locums, who accounted for a record 17.6% of full-time equivalent posts in council children’s services as of September 2022.

Social Worker 325

Social Worker Consultation Engagement Government 325

Community Care

OCTOBER 27, 2023

Half of councils have been given a share of £11.7m to recruit 461 social work apprentices to bolster their children’s services workforces. The Department for Education funding will go to 79 of the 153 authorities, who were chosen following an application process. The trainees will be employed, and based, in their children’s services departments, and follow existing three-year university social work apprenticeship programmes, with councils then deciding whether to hire them on qualifi

Consultation 240

Consultation Social Worker Government University 240

Community Care

OCTOBER 23, 2023

A minister has sidestepped a question on whether the government will include a bill to reform the Mental Health Act (MHA) in next month’s King Speech. With the speech on 7 November marking the start of the last parliamentary session before the next election, it is the final chance for the government to reform the MHA in accordance with a commitment in the 2019 Conservative Party manifesto.

Mental Health 213

Mental Health Government Treatment Planning 213