College: Chief social worker must cover adults and children

The proposed chief social worker post for England should cover adults’ as well as children’s services, the College of Social Work said in its response to Eileen Munro’s report on child protection.

Munro proposed the creation of a chief social worker at government level, backed up by principal social workers at local authority level for children and family services.

“We endorse the Munro review’s recommendation for a chief social worker at the highest level of government, but it is important that this role covers the whole of social work and not just children’s services,” said Corinne May-Chahal, interim chair of the College of Social Work.

It will be up to the government to decide whether any chief social worker post covers children’s services only or the whole social work profession. One complication is that responsibility for each service is split at government level between the Department for Education (children’s services) and the Department of Health (adult services).

However, DH care services minister Paul Burstow recently voiced support for the role, suggesting it could cut across both departments and both parts of the profession.

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