Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 6: 6: After Clause 4, insert the following new Clause— ““Social work: employment contracts (1) This section applies to a provider of social work services in relation to the exercise of a function which is the subject of arrangements under section 1. (2) The provider must specify in any job description or employment contract relating to a social worker which it employs or proposes to employ— (a) the minimum level of individual supervision; (b) the minimum level of supervised peer group discussion; and (c) the maximum level of caseload; that that social worker can expect to have. (3) The provider must specify in any job description or employment contract relating to a newly qualified social worker which it employs or proposes to employ— (a) what additional support if offers to that employee; (b) what additional entitlement to individual supervision and supervised peer group discussion it offers to that employee over and above that offered to experienced social workers; (c) what reduced level of caseload it offers to that employee. (4) The Secretary of State must make regulations prescribing the meaning of— (a) ““individual supervision””; (b) supervised peer group discussion””; and (c) ““caseload””.”” The noble Earl said: The purpose of the amendment is to strengthen the professional framework within which social workers operate. By doing so, I hope that it will improve continuity in the care of children. I shall deal first with qualified social workers, and then with the newly qualified social workers. Historically, as we have heard, the media has always leapt on the faults of social workers, and failed generally to note their successes. However, too often, social workers have been ill equipped and ill supported to meet their responsibilities. One should never forget the lack of supervision and unrealistic caseloads that my noble friend Lord Laming highlighted in the tragic death of Victoria Climbié. Failure to ensure manageable caseloads and adequate supervision continues to make child deaths of this kind only too likely. When such deaths occur, they are also public relations disasters for social work. I ask the Minister what steps the General Social Care Council takes to ensure that employers know their duties to their employees; perhaps he could write to me on that. The Government’s social care White Paper, Options for Excellence, and the Scottish Executive’s 21st century review of social work highlighted the need for social workers to work through the relationships they build with their clients if they are to be the key to successful social work. Fundamental to making and keeping those relationships with such troubled and troubling clients is a capacity on the social worker’s part for reflection. There is nothing more important to good quality social work than the good supervision that ensures social workers keep to task and have space to reflect on what they are doing. Nothing is more important, perhaps, except having the manageable caseloads that permit time for reflection. I refer to discussion groups in my amendment. The habit of reflection has seeped from much social supervision over the years, and social work has declined to some extent. Self-work discussion groups are sometimes used in children’s homes, schools and nurseries. A staff member presents a particular client, and his peers and the supervisor can help him reflect on his practice. Perhaps a nursery might have one evening a month with a two-hour late stay, and the key worker of a particular child can say, ““Bob has had certain difficulties recently, this is what I have been trying to improve the matter””. Then he can have the input from his peers and they can say, ““Well this seems like a good idea””. If one is doing the right thing, one often needs to be told that to do it with confidence. That is an example. I recently spoke to a legal professional, both of whose parents are social workers; her mother worked in child protection. I asked her if she had ever considered being a social worker. She replied that she had never dreamed of it; she was too mindful of the immense stress her mother was exposed to. If the Minister wishes to continue to encourage more applicants of the highest calibre into social work, and for them to stay there, then I hope that he will give a sympathetic response to the amendment. After all, this would simply be a duty on local authorities to be as transparent as possible to prospective social workers about how much support they will receive. Briefly, on the newly qualified social workers, the Government are already successfully recruiting more new social workers and we must ensure that their practice is safe. The Government have increased the standard qualification for social work from a two-year diploma to a three-year degree. They have registered social work, thus raising its status as a profession. As I say, numbers are rising. I would be grateful to hear from the Minister what the latest figures for applicant numbers are; perhaps he could write to me on that. Options for Excellence recommended the creation of a newly qualified social work status, and we have already heard from the Minister that the White Paper Care Matters: Time for Change made application of that to child and family social workers. That entails reduced caseloads and increased supervision in the first year of practice. Money has been announced for this in the Comprehensive Spending Review; that is welcome news. Can the Minister remind me of the timing of the implementation of these pilots? How soon can we realistically expect this to be applied, first, to child and family social workers across the board, and then to all social workers? It is important that this support for newly qualified social workers is put in place. The amendment is simply intended to encourage local authorities to bring forward such protections for newly qualified social workers, as some already do, as soon as possible. Not so long ago, I heard an 18 year-old care leaver speak. Many young people from care want to go into either social work or youth work. I think they probably want to improve the lives of others because of their own experiences; of course, this is a field that they know from personal experience. We must ensure that all local authorities give such new social workers appropriate support as a matter of urgency. This is necessary if we are to retain them and their practice is to be safe for children. I hope that the Minister can give the proposal some sort of sympathetic response. I apologise for tabling the amendment rather late. I think that the new year break gives time for reflection, so I understand that the Minister may prefer to write to me on much of this, rather than responding now.