England is to have its own review on the future of social work, similar to the ongoing inquiry in Scotland, writes Mithran Samuel.

The General Social Care Council said it was doing some “scoping work” on an English equivalent of the 21st Century Review of Social Work in Scotland.

The English review is likely to have a narrower remit than the Scottish inquiry, which has looked at the entire social work system in Scotland.

Instead, the English inquiry is expected to examine the role and purpose of social workers, though the GSCC said it could not comment on its remit.

In an interview with Community Care this week, the Department of Health’s national director of social care, Kathryn Hudson, championed the English review.

She said: “There’s a specific social work role and we need to revisit it and define it rather more clearly.”

She said it could lead to more social workers practising outside local government, in the voluntary and community sectors.

The Scottish review, which is set to report this autumn, has concluded that social workers are over-burdened by bureaucracy and could be freed up to spend more time with service users by transferring work to support staff.

Read more about the interview in Thursday 1st September issue of Community Care.