National Children's Bureau chief executive Paul Ennals has been appointed chair of the Children's Workforce Development Council.
He will take up the three-year appointment in August, succeeding the late Mike Leadbetter, who lost his battle with cancer in April.
Ennals, who was knighted last month, will take the helm of the CWDC at a time of intense focus within the organisation on the development of children's social workers, through government-backed schemes including:-
- The newly qualified social worker programme to provide extra support and managed caseloads for staff in their first year after qualification, which will be rolled out to all new graduates this year.
- The remodelling social work pilots to test new ways of working with children and families, designed to give social workers more contact time and enable them to intervene early in families experiencing problems.
- The development of the advanced social work professional role to enable experienced practitioners to stay at the frontline.
- The graduate recruitment scheme to encourage high-flyers from other fields to retrain as social workers.
Ennals said: "I am thrilled and honoured to have been appointed chair of CWDC. I have long believed that the transformation of the children and youth workforce is the key to improving outcomes for children and young people, and CWDC is right at the heart of that process.
“CWDC has achieved much in its first four years; I look forward to supporting our future achievements."
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