The government recently wrote to social workers with a message of support. Children's expert Kate Cairns responds.
FAO Ed Balls and Alan Johnson
Thank you for writing to me. In 40 years of social work I have never before received a personal letter from a secretary of state, so this is a significant event.
It made me wonder why I had never heard from your predecessors. There has been no shortage of inquiries and reports making clear the sad inadequacy of the professional training and support available to social workers, and the consequent lack of knowledge, skill and expertise among those appointed to provide protection and services to the most vulnerable.
I realised that it has only been in the past four years that it has been possible for social workers to register as accountable professionals, so earlier secretaries of state would have had no way to write to tell me that they understand that in order to do better for society I need more from society. As a profession we are only just emerging from our birth pangs.
Of my six years of relevant undergraduate and postgraduate study, only one year was recognised as a qualification for practice, the rest being, as it were, optional. When, 20 years ago, I trained for a year (also optional) to be a provider of social work education, I realised that there was then a great opportunity to create a profession fit for purpose. This opportunity was squandered because there seemed to be no political will at that time.
So I am truly glad to hear from you, and to know that it is at last possible for the community I have always tried to serve to communicate with me. You clearly now know who we are, and that is a step on the way to understanding what we do. And your letter seems to indicate a clear political will to enhance the capability and the status of the social work profession.
There is no doubt that social work training must improve. But this should not be confused with the wider training issue that arises out of reports into failures in child protection. The safeguarding agenda, while well-intentioned, has obscured and diluted the absolute necessity to protect the most vulnerable children from being abused by those who are in a position of trust towards them.
If children are to be protected, everyone whose work, paid or voluntary, brings them into contact with them must be trained. This is a massive task for which our Local Safeguarding Children Boards are ill-equipped and poorly funded. It is a different issue from the proper professional training of social workers, or indeed of police officers, who are the other frontline workers in child protection.
Kate Cairns is chief executive of online learning provider Akamas and an expert in foster care and working with vulnerable children and young people
Thanks Kate for drawing attention to the need for training for all workers, paid and voluntary who come into contact with children. Nowadays people working directly and developing relationships with children are often not social workers. In the interests of safeguarding all children, these workers deserve and require the training to support them beyond basic 'child protection' training.
As a Foster carer I agree that relevant adequate training is essential to effective practice. To be able to deal with the ever increasing therapeutic and legislative demands on my practice would be impossible without the proper treaining. In these times of financial constraint training budgets can be viewed as being an acceptable cut back.I feel that training budgets should be one of the last considerations when finances need to be trimmed.
Training for child care staff should never be considered as an option it should only be viewed as an absolute necessity.
I wish to ask for support of a petition which is on the Number10.gov.uk website. Asking that all children who are taken into care are seen by a trained clinical psychologist, this would I feel help with therapeutic support early in there lives.
There is a large sector of the youth prison system.Who are young people who have come through the social service system.
Significant pschological and behavioural problems, are all to often left until it is to late to treat.
The present practice of wait and see-is not in the childrens long term interest. Social workers are all to often, to over worked to see the early signs of long mental health problems.
Please find the time to help this petition gain more support.
I strongly agree with Ray,but perhaps they should also be assesed after they have been with a carer for a few weeks or so as many problems do not start to come out untill after that short 'honeymoon' period we as carers seem to get also by then hopefully a fuller picture will be known.
p.s.Are there any clinical phycologists spare,certainly seems to be a lack of C.A.M.H. workers where i am.