Councils told to follow NHS over social work

Moira Gibb also told the Local Government Association annual conference that there had been a breakdown between local authorities and the education sector in recent years that was close to the heart of the recruitment and retention problems the sector faces.

Ms Gibb, who is also chief executive of Camden LBC, said that the Baby P tragedy had not been the start of the sector’s problems, but it had not helped.

She said that her panel’s ongoing work, which is due to provide a final report to Government in October, recognised that there were stark differences between the way the NHS invested in its future professionals and how councils behaved.

“A great part of the NHS is focused on delivering the future generation of doctors, but I don’t think that in local government there’s a focus on delivering the future generation of social workers.”

I don’t think that in local government there’s a focus on delivering the future generation of social workers

Moira Gibb

Ms Gibb said councils seemed to take little direct interest in training future social workers but currently expected external bodies to do the work for them - creating a reality gap between what was needed and what educators provided.

“We found that some of the relationships that used to exist between higher education and local government have broken down,” she said.

“The expectations are different. Employers are expecting social workers ready to practice and educators are training people for a different world that the one they are about to enter.”

Ms Gibb applauded developments such as a new initiative from Surrey CC to offer 50 bursaries a year for student social workers - including the offer of summer work experience.

But she said that authorities played a much greater role in developing social workers - and paying them while they trained in previous decades..

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