Staff skills must be developed, says Platt

Chief inspector of social services Denise Platt has called for
greater investment in developing social workers’ skills.

In what could be seen as an attack on earlier government plans to
develop generic social workers, Platt told delegates she was
“concerned about some proposals that seem to airbrush out some of
the expert skills of social workers”.

Platt, who is to leave her current post to head up the Commission
for Social Care Inspection in July, said she hoped any structural
changes in departments would provide the “impetus and resources to
resolve some of the deficiencies in the infrastructure of the
system”.

One of the most pressing needs was the lack of sufficient staff in
the system to deliver the government’s plans, she said. She called
for more investment in skills and warned that, if not, the green
paper on children would fail.

“We must develop flexibility and new ways of doing things and the
right skills mix of staffÉ but that alone will not fill the
shortages of staff we need to do the job. There has been investment
in skills in Northern Ireland and we need that in England,” Platt
said.