Researching Reform was very kindly invited to the House of Lords by new Social Work England Chair, Lord Patel, to discuss social work in England and what families and children felt about it, as service users.
We met with Lord Patel yesterday, who shared updates on Social Work England’s progress with us, as well as his vision for the sector and his views on the current problems it faces.
Lord Patel also revealed that Social Work England, or SWE (which the sector is pronouncing ‘swee’) began its recruitment drive this week, for several positions within the regulatory body. Amongst the jobs currently available, are:
- An Executive Director For Corporate Services
- A Principal Legal Adviser
- An Executive Director For Registration & Quality Assurance
- An Executive Director For Strategy & Policy and;
- An Executive Director For Fitness to Practise
When we spoke with Lord Patel, we discussed the most significant challenges the social work sector faced. We looked at the problems with social work registration, crucially that anyone engaging in social work with a different official job title to that of ‘social worker’ was able to practice without being held accountable by an independent reviewing body. Lord Patel was also concerned about the number of individuals inside the sector who were practicing without the necessary qualifications. We spoke about the misuse of Section 20 arrangements, the need for there to be better redress processes in place with social workers being able to correct errors they make, and the problems around forced adoption. Lord Patel also confirmed that the vast majority of complaints to the HCPC, the current regulatory body which SWE will take over from, and which oversees several medical and health sectors and not just social care, came from the social work sector.
The issue of social workers in children’s care homes was also raised, with Lord Patel expressing concern about the fact that whilst care workers were essentially engaging in social work, they were not required to be registered with SWE and so remained unregulated by an independent body. Lord Patel confirmed too, that SWE was not responsible for care workers in any capacity and so its powers in relation to this demographic were restricted to gathering data relating to this area.
Lord Patel explained that SWE’s remit was limited to its role as a regulator and only monitored individuals rather than councils or agencies, but he was very keen to hear from all voices inside the system, especially service users. Lord Patel then shared the latest ideas he was hoping to encourage the government to implement:
- Engagement Officers in each town which service users could meet with to discuss concerns;
- An online forum for service users to get and share information and offer SWE feedback on its proposals;
- Thorough data collection across the sector, to better inform social work practice and raise standards across the country;
- Raising the standard of social work through courses, university degrees and CPD training;
- Monitoring and maintaining practice standards with a website or portal for social workers and local authority teams to set down what work has been carried out during the year;
- Addressing the lack of complaints procedures relating to care workers, who engage in social work inside children’s care homes but who are currently not regulated by any independent body – Lord Patel is considering creating a sub-body to deal with these complaints and make sure they are recorded. At the moment, the law does not require regulators to respond to these concerns;
- Finding a way to quantify care workers – Lord Patel estimated that there were currently over one million care workers.
We broached the subject of forced adoption with Lord Patel, who agreed that most adoptions which took place were unnecessary and could be avoided with the right support. We explained that service users were incredibly grateful when social workers admitted to a failing, and he agreed that this kind of honest approach was beneficial to the sector and helped to rebuild its image.
Lord Patel’s proposals are likely to take anywhere from a few months to several years to come into effect and whilst not all of these proposals may make it to the finishing line, the ideas themselves will be welcomed by children and families, and we would encourage them to share their thoughts on what they want and need as SWE gets going.
Very many thanks to Lord Patel for his generous invitation, and for taking the time to speak with us. You can follow Lord Patel on Twitter, and although not yet up and running, Social Work England now has a shiny new Twitter account, too.
Researching Reform 
Taking babies at birthto be adopted by strangers becaus of a risk of future emotional abuse…………
Gagging parents whos kids have been taken so they cannot protest to the media…;..
Gagging journalists who are allowed in the family courts but who are not allowed to publish verbatim any of the proceedings or names of those involved !……….
Gagging children taken into care who have phones and laptops confiscated,and,who are not allowed to complain about abuse in care ,or speak their own language if it is not English……………….
A pity none of the points above were discussed…or even considered……………………….
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Hi Ian, we did discuss risk of future harm. We discussed a lot of things. However SWE is a regulator so there is a limit to what they can do. I also invited lord Patel to consider data collection as one of the key drivers in effecting change, for better training, better understanding of the issues and better treatment of families and children.
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I am sure you did your best Natasha but really quoting
“for better training, better understanding of the issues and better treatment of families and children.”
“Better this and better that” avoids any specific actions at all !
A bit like proposing “better conditions for slaves” and avoiding the abolition of slavery altogether ! or
Going more up to date:- proposing new measures to ensure that Google,Starbucksand Amazon pay their fair shareof taxes without saying what those measures are or actually doing anything at all……..
Yes SWE is a regulator but there is no limit on them (or anyone else!) as to the new legislation that they could recommend to Parliament.
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Hi Ian, that wasn’t a quote, that was my thought. Yes, they are limited and as such can’t propose laws. That’s not their job. I still went and represented.
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To an extent i agree with Ian in that they may be Limited but they can still cause a lot of waves if they want to and speak out like Munby has done. it needs Patel and others to take it to the next level.hiding behind the “Limited” label will get nothing done.
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Reblogged this on | truthaholics and commented:
“Taking babies at birth to be adopted by strangers becaus of a risk of future emotional abuse
Gagging parents whos kids have been taken so they cannot protest to the media
Gagging journalists who are allowed in the family courts but who are not allowed to publish verbatim any of the proceedings or names of those involved
Gagging children taken into care who have phones and laptops confiscated,and,who are not allowed to complain about abuse in care ,or speak their own language if it is not English
A pity none of the points above were discussed…or even considered” ~ Ian Josephs
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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Well they must be able to propose “new régulations” (which comes to almost the same thing as new laws) since Lord Patel in your headline names lack of regulationd as his main concern.I would have thought the barbaric isolation and restriction on children taken into care would come well within his remit
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We broached the subject of forced adoption with Lord Patel, who agreed that most adoptions which took place were unnecessary and could be avoided with the right support. This part made me feel feint!
Thank you Natasha for doing this for us all Xx
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Really my pleasure xxxxx
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Reblogged this on tummum's Blog and commented:
We broached the subject of forced adoption with Lord Patel, who agreed that most adoptions which took place were unnecessary and could be avoided with the right support.
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“Lord Patel, who agreed that most adoptions which took place were unnecessary and could be avoided with the right support.”
A very powerful statement coming from one so high up in Society who will have many friends in high places. this is the kind of talk that shakes the foundations of the Adoption industry and that which should provoke more questions about how many babies/children have been Wrongly taken from their parents and Forcibly adopted and what can be done to reverse these wrong decisions.
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He also said he was happy to have All this on record here. I’m not sure what else Ian wants. That’s about as outspoken and political as it gets
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I think what Ian wants is Action following talks. discussions have been going on for years but nothing much ever happens afterwards.Sir James has been on about the shady Family courts and LAs for 3 or 4 yrs now but social workers are still the same and Lies continue to be told to damage the reputation of parents for the courts.
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You’ll see. There’s more to come which I can’t divulge just yet.
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Well Natasha I am sorry if I did not make it clear what I would like to see happen . If you are indeed “not sure what Ian wants” I will take the risk of boring readers by repeating myself !
Lord Patel is concerned by “lack of regulation in children’s homes” ;I therefore respectfully suggest that he could recommend the following regulations.
1:- Freedom of speech and freedom of communication between parents and children in care,so that parents who have never been convicted of harming their children should have regular contact speaking any language they like and discussing any subject they like;
Also there should be an end to those harsh contracts between parent and local authority restricting free speech.that parents are forced to sign under duress otherwise they get no contact at all.
That would be one very good new regulation !
2:-Any complaint by a child in care that they have suffered abuse in care must be investigated seriously and immediately and the result recorded in a complaints book open to viewing by family members.
Any attempt to hush up a complaint by a child should be a sackable offence.
Obviously there will be some false allégations and time wasters but if proved to be so the perpetrators can be suitably disciplined and these incidents should not be used as an excuse to dismiss genuine cases out of hand.
That is is some of what I and most parents with children in care would like to see.
If indeed Lord Patel is concerned by lack of regulation let him recommend some regulations similar to the above instead of waffling about “raising the standard of social work” .A pious hope indeed ………….!
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“perpetrators can be suitably disciplined”.
Dont you mean Prosecuted and assets taken via the proceeds of Crime act ?
that would be more like it.
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Ian, the comment won’t be allowed. I still require consent. You can make your point another way.
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I understand you have to protect yourself but what does that say about democratic Britain??
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It says this blog protects the privacy and human rights of service users. This has nothing to do with democracy.
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Natasha,
was your meeting with Mr Patel recorded on Video ?
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No.
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thats a shame,
it could have went.
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Viral.
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from my own point of view Lord Patel is possible just another Sir Munby say this that and other agree with most for a few years then we get another Lord or Sir, and the children will continue to be screaming to be heard mothers will commit suicide and the family courts remain closed, we need a court case with all evidence produced with the support of the media and the trauma of a child telling all of the trauma they have lived in, but we know that so carry on Lord Patel until you retire
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Yes Maggie, we will have to wait and see.
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they all need to witness the kids from care living on the streets or in the prisons and more, most kids from care are trying to get a life most want love and to be wanted pointless going to Eaton growing up in big houses so what do the elite know of the thousands of kids stolen from families only to be abused, when i was a land lady in London many of my tenants were aur pairs for the elite so i am aware the elite have little no how in bringing up their own kids,
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Natasha you say “It says this blog protects the privacy and human rights of service users. This has nothing to do with democracy. ”
Do you really think a new born baby would be grateful to learn that its mother had been gagged from protesting publicly about its removal in order to protect its privacy?
I anonymised the case I sent you of a victorious mum so that no names of people or places were mentioned and merely quoted her profuse thanks to me for my advice without which she said she would never have succeeded in winning in court and keeping her child..By coincidence I received her thanks the same day as my contribution to your excellent blog !
I quoted it to sjhow that social services can be beaten contrary to a contributor who claimed that such victories never happened.;I reckon to have a 25% success rate.
Pretty miserable I know,but better than most family court lawyers acting for parents.
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This is just as farcical as when Munby makes so many promises to make the Family Justice System fair and just for Families but, did it happen! No!. Why will Lord Patel’s proposals take “many years” to come into effect?
May I say from my sad experience, many of us would NOT have alienated from our loved one’s if these proposals were implemented many years ago.So, what is the point of making these narratives??? Isn’t it to tease us?
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