Social workers

• Children's services blow for new chiefs

  Surrey CC’s children’s services are still inadequate, according to Ofsted – three years after they received the same grade.

  

• A child referred to social services every 49 seconds, figures reveal

  Referrals to council children's services reached 646,120 last year, according to new figures from the Local Government Association (LGA).

  

• Council leaders demand end to pay cap

  Nearly 100 council leaders have written to the chancellor demanding extra funding for workers and an end to the public sector pay cap.

  

• Five councils chosen to pilot social worker accreditation system

  Five local authorities have been chosen to pilot the roll-out of the new National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) for child and family social workers.

  

• Project launched to retrain 100 social workers

  Three regions will take part in a new programme to help retrain 100 social workers who have left the profession.

  

• Minimum wage enforcement for care workers is suspended for a month

  A further suspension of the minimum wage enforcement in the social care sector has been announced by the Government.

  

• Failing to provide the full picture

  Gary Pettengell warns that messy government data makes it impossible to predict outcomes for vulnerable children.

  

• Social workers demand ‘respect’ to stem exodus from profession

  Social workers launched a campaign today demanding respect for their profession after report revealed they work more than £600m of unpaid overtime a year.

  

• Intervention for vulnerable children being dictated by resources, warn social workers

  Vulnerable children are less likely to qualify for help from social services because of a growing lack of resources, according to new research.

  

• Research warns of ‘mass exodus’ of social workers from profession

  More than half of social workers in the UK are considering leaving the profession in the next 18 months, a new survey has revealed.