Government’s adoption measures ‘could save millions’
The government has estimated that its adoption measures set out in the Children and Social Work Bill could save millions of pounds.
Placing more children in care up for adoption could make potential savings of £310m to local authorities over 10 years, the Department for Education has claimed.
In an impact assessment of the Social Work [...]
Preferred candidate for Ofsted head named
The education secretary has named Amanda Spielman as the preferred candidate to head up Ofsted.
Nicky Morgan has recommended Ms Spielman for the post of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills at Ofsted for “her impressive breadth of experience across the education sector and her proven commitment to raising standards for children [...]
Frontline and Birmingham Council announce partnership
Graduate programme to expand into West Midlands to help troubled authority.
Frontline and Birmingham Council have announced a partnership for graduates to train as children’s social workers in the West Midlands.
The Frontline programme is set to expand into Birmingham in a bid to drive up standards in the authority.
Birmingham’s children’s services has been rated ‘inadequate’ by [...]
Social workers critical of accreditation scheme
An overwhelming 91% of social workers think the introduction of the new assessment and accreditation scheme should not be a priority for the social work profession.
A survey of 100 social workers carried out by public sector union UNISON found that social workers would rather the government focused on funding, training and reducing caseloads.
“The Government’s reform [...]
Under pressure: How the rise in care applications is squeezing the system
Under pressure: How the rise in care applications is squeezing the system
Care applications are at an all-time high and experts warn that this is increasing the risk of serious mistakes being made
The pressure on the care system is showing no signs of easing.
Last month the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) [...]
Government to abolish Serious Case Reviews
The government will abolish Serious Case Reviews, it announced yesterday following a review into Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards and multi-agency working.
The review, led by former president of the Association of Children’s Services Alan Wood, recommended that SCRs were scrapped saying that despite guidance to the contrary, the model of serious case reviews has not been [...]
