Blair wants lead role for social workers

The prime minister has backed social workers to deliver an improved service for looked-after children.

Speaking to sector leaders at Downing Street ahead of the launch of the Care Matters green paper, Tony Blair said that social workers were in a very difficult position and “get clobbered either way”.

However, he said the job might be more attractive if social workers were given a lead professional role, with more freedom to make decisions about children in care.

A National Voice co-ordinator Maxine Wrigley told the prime minister that children in care needed stability. She said the government needed to launch a recruitment drive, similar to that for teachers, to bring in the necessary numbers of
social workers and foster carers.

Blair said he was confident of a reasonable degree of consensus on the basic issues and the government now needed to put in
place suitable structures to produce stability.

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