News

I have heard it said that a good school is at the centre of its community but is not a community centre. I disagree. A good school is not just located in the heart of a community; its day-to-day activities are shaped by it.

The best schools already open their doors to those living in the neighbourhood, offering activities for children after the school day, training courses for adults and improved access to a range of support and advice for families. The government is encouraging such developments. It hopes that, in future, all schools will become extended schools and that, in doing so, health, education and social services will work closer together.

These changes are at the centre of the government's Every Child Matters agenda. Schools are being expected to play a major role in the drive to improve outcomes for children. In terms of safeguarding children, it is now recognised that schools have an important role to play since they see children more regularly than any other service and are in a good position to identify children for whom there are protection concerns. Already more referrals to social services come from schools than from any other source.

But some schools are worried about rising expectations on what they can deliver. Their anxiety is often expressed as a plea to allow teachers to be teachers, rather than social workers. Such pleas are misleading.

Teachers are not resistant to having regard for children's welfare. Nor will they be expected to usurp social workers' responsibilities. But in the future teachers and social workers will have to work more closely together.

Both professions will have to adapt their approach. And this will require changes to attitudes, expectations and ways of working.

Teachers and social workers need to understand each other's roles better and appreciate the differing work constraints. Schools often say that social workers find reasons not to take on cases, miss appointments and delay making referrals. Teachers may fail to appreciate the heavy workloads, tight deadlines and paperwork with which social workers toil.

Social workers, on the other hand, tend to believe teachers dump all their problems on them and can fail to appreciate teachers' ability to communicate with children and their opportunities to pick up signs of abuse at an early stage.

Both professions remain wary and suspicious of each other. Each can feel that, on safeguarding children, they are working alone. Yet both have a crucial role to play.

But understanding each other's roles will not be enough. If teachers and social workers are to work together effectively they will also have to adapt their methods. Teachers need to become better at responding to child protection concerns. And social workers need to be more available to work with teachers.

One barrier to change is the different approach each profession takes in managing its work. Because of the government's "new relationship with schools", there are now fewer directives issued by government (although schools might contest whether this is the case). Schools have gained more freedoms to make decisions about how to organise their services in the best interests of children. Social workers, by comparison, still operate under the considerable weight of procedural directives and there is little regard for autonomous decision-making.

As a result teachers and social workers speak different languages. Neither really understands how the other makes decisions. At child protection meetings teachers are sometimes bemused as to why more time can be spent discussing whether procedures have been followed than how the respective agencies might work together. On the other hand, social workers find it difficult to pin down what teachers actually do. The different styles of working help to breed at best distrust, at worst contempt.

In the coming days the government is expected to publish a strategy for the children's workforce. The strategy is unlikely to be a blueprint for change, but rather a consultation document exploring the likely direction of different parts of the children's workforce and the merits of a common qualifications framework.

These are important debates. But changes to attitudes, expectations and ways of working will not come about by simply aligning career structures. It will fall to leaders in the sector to promote a new relationship between schools and social workers, one based on mutual understanding, respect and a shared approach.

Lisa Harker is chair of the Daycare Trust.