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The children's green paper, Every Child Matters, has been broadly welcomed for its vision of a system aiming at identifying problems at their earliest stages, where children are helped to reach their full potential and are better protected. However, will the government commit to the required spending levels and will the key difficulties faced by field social workers be addressed?

In recent years the workload in field work teams has increased and the thresholds for involvement are higher. Reorganisations have often masked cuts and, even when fully staffed, child protection teams have been stretched to the limits. Stress-related absences are high.


Understaffing is fundamental. Vacancies are hard to fill; agency staff move on, breaking continuity for their clients, and workers are recruited from overseas with little experience of child protection work. Encouragingly, Every Child Matters pays attention to recruitment and retention, discussing how the work can be made more attractive. Better pay scales are crucial, as are structures which enable skilled workers to develop and be promoted without moving into management. It is a current frustration that there are few opportunities for promotion while retaining face to face work with children and families.

Turnover of social workers is high. There are few rewards but a personal sense of a significant positive outcome achieved for a child, with recognition from peers and managers, is enough. However, when case loads are so high this is sadly lacking. Social workers often just monitor families, either leaving children in danger or removing them to safety without attempting the planned, sustained work which could bring about real change.

No time to achieve
There is no time for the preventive, therapeutic, or direct work with children needed to break the cycle of abuse or neglect where children grow up to follow the same destructive behaviour patterns as their parents. This feels unsafe and unrewarding and social workers are choosing to leave faster than they can be replaced.

To promote the profession field work teams must have enough staff to do the work that is needed, rather than the bare minimum. And to retain staff the range of work must be wider, with opportunities that recognise individual skills and expertise.

Working horizons can be broadened by working with other professionals, and information exchange was cited as a key factor in the Victoria Climbie Report. Every Child Matters suggests multi-disciplinary teams to address this with core training in child protection issues. Problems do arise from a lack of awareness of different professionals whose priorities, quite understandably, lie elsewhere. Social work is not the only profession under pressure.


Information is withheld, not through malice, but through a lack of insight into the issues. Conversely, there is a danger of information overload due to anxious professionals fearing they are negligent if they don't share everything. Focused, multi-disciplinary working with clear lines of accountability, good supervision and enough staff to share the work will mean the right information can be passed to the right people and the appropriate services put into place for the child. Different professions need to understand each other's roles and how best to meet the interests of the child together. This can be addressed by core training for all professionals who have involvement with children. All this can be achieved outside multi-disciplinary teams.

There is tremendous value in a peer group working together with specialised supervision. Core training can address the need for working together without losing the benefits of specialised teams.

Reorganising doesn't resolve problems for families. This can only come from the skilled intervention of well trained staff. Enhancing the standing of child protection work is a long-term issue. But if the funding can be provided for good staffing levels, with pay scales that recognise what social workers actually do and its value to society, and with strong, inter-disciplinary training, then a good, protective service can be provided to children and their families. This would be an attractive environment in which to work. Social workers are a highly skilled, motivated group and need to be properly rewarded.

Worrying comments
Comments such as the paper's "using resources more effectively" and Margaret Hodge's "we can save money, we don't need more money" are of concern in terms of the government's commitment to financing these reforms. Front-line staff will not hold their breath for sustained levels of increased funding. Working in a department which has been consistently under-resourced for so long has bred a level of cynicism which will be slow to evaporate.