New children's social care service for Northern Ireland on the cards
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, October 19, 2022
The use of agency social workers should end and a new children’s social care service be created in Northern Ireland to fix a system in "crisis", a review has said.
The major reforms have been recommended by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care Services launched earlier this year.
In interim findings, Professor Ray Jones, who is leading the review, has put forward a raft of measures to address high vacancy rates of 30-40 per cent across teams, with some reported to be running on 50 per cent of posts unfilled. Health minister Robin Swann has already announced plans to end the use of costly agency social workers by June next year.
Prof Jones also recommended creating an “Arms-Length Body” (ALB) within the department of health to manage the service, a radical step that would remove delivery of children's social work from Northern Ireland's five health and social care trusts (HSCT) where it currently sits.
Prof Jones said: "It is now my clear view – and which having checked with many others I am not alone – that the endemic and systemic serious crisis in children’s social care in Northern Ireland requires structural change. Rather than children’s social care being a minor and may be marginal part of what are very busy and pressured health and social care trusts, there should be one children’s social care body for Northern Ireland... albeit with local delivery of services through geographical divisions based on the HSCTs areas.
"A region-wide children’s social care ALB also offers the scope to push forward with increased focus and energy with partners on developing more multi-professional children and families frontline services and teams rather than professional silo working."
Health minister Robin Swann has pledged to act on the findings.
He said: “I have accepted Prof Jones’ first recommendation and work has already started to address ongoing workforce challenges, including the cessation of the use of agency social workers within a specified timeframe.
“The professor’s second recommendation is more far-reaching and would constitute a significant reform.
“Given the clear need for action, I have instructed my officials to develop an options appraisal for the future delivery of children’s social care services. This will include the option to establish a new ALB.”
Officials are expected to report back within the next four months.
Prof Jones spells out his findings at the halfway mark of the review in a newsletter published this month.
He writes: "A major concern should be that there is a serious crisis in children’s social care services. This is not just my view. It is what I am told in meetings and in individual conversations with young people and families. It is what I am told by practitioners and managers. It is what I am told by those working with and alongside the services."
He adds: "It is a significant serious crisis which is endemic, and it is systemic. It is endemic in that it is longstanding. It is systemic in that it is right across the region and every HSCT. It is not about the failings of individuals. It is structural. But it is fixable."
Under the interim recommendations, the ALB would have sole responsibility for children’s services, with its own chief executive and local delivery bodies.
Speaking to PSW magazine last month, Prof Jones indicated such a move would ensure children’s services get the “leadership and dedicated attention they require”.
He said: “Those trusts themselves are under tremendous pressure in terms of the health service in Northern Ireland, particularly around the big hospitals with waiting times, pressures on A&E, ambulance delays. That gobbles up a lot of time and attention.”
He said he was also looking at "increasing the skills mix" within teams to free practitioners to concentrate on their "core professional competencies" by bringing in social work assistants, family support workers and administrative staff.
BASW Northern Ireland welcomed the interim recommendations as a “vital intervention in the face of insurmountable pressures on children’s social work services".
Chair Orlaith McGibbon said: "Social workers across children and families services are facing increasing demand, with problems exacerbated by the current cost of living crisis, resulting in the highest number of children looked after by social services on record.
“Urgent action to address workforce challenges is a priority and BASW NI will work with the Department of Health to ensure long-term sustainable solutions to the high level of social work vacancies and the overreliance on agency staff. I also look forward to the Department’s appraisal of Professor Jones’s far-reaching proposals for the reorganisation of children’s services.”
The review is due to publish its final report next June.