This question has been sparked by goings on in Wirral - see this story in the Liverpool Echo.

It seems that the council plans to reduce the number of qualified social work staff it employs (it is yet to decide on how) and increase the number of non-social work qualified with social workers ceding less complex care management work to non-qualified staff and (in terms of increased self-assessment) service users as well. At the same time, the council is boosting its reablement service significantly (through an expansion of non-social work qualified staff).

We're currently looking into this story ourselves, but it would be good to get a feel for what the story is around the countryside. Does personalisation mean fewer socila workers?

 I saw the story from the Wirral and wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I'll be interested to know what you find if you can dig deeper. It looks like an excuse for cost-cutting and seems to be counter-intuitive in the sense that you would think you might need more specialised support to help someone through arranging their own budget. I had thought that the idea was something about that. 

I don't see self-assessment as reason for less social workers as they will still need interpretating, but it has long been accepted that you don't need social workers to do care management. 

With personalisation, there is still going to be a need for the same level of complex work - safeguarding adult inquiries, residential placements, complex care needs and shortly, deprivation of liberty assessments. I imagine that's the way social work with adults will go. 

There's no reason a qualified social worker will be needed for managing care - but that's the way it is now too. 

I don't know the answer to your question, but I do think it's interesting to ask...

Do you mean: 

1) fewer people working in a role entitled 'social worker', but perhaps working in new ways

or

2) is the image you are asking about of lots of qualified people wandering around jobless?

"Fewer social workers" sounds scary to lots of people. On the other hand, "the development of completely new models of practise in which those qualified in social work can work differently" sounds pretty exciting to lots of people.

It's based on qualification rather than job title - i.e. that councils will need fewer professionally trained social workers.

It could be that both of your ideas come together - that professionally trained social workers may have a more exciting role than at present; but there will be fewer of them.

 I think the topic of workforce changes and personalisation will run and run in the next few months as more councils decide on their approach to tackling the agenda.

 For this reason at Community Care we want to hear your views on how you expect personalisation to affect your working life. So we have created a syrvey to do just that. If you want to share your views you can click here for the survey as well as leaving comments here.

 Thanks

 Bronagh

And here's our story on Wirral.

It would ge great to hear experiences from around the country on this.