One year in as Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, Isabelle Trowler says the NCAS conference offers a fantastic opportunity to reflect on the progress made and the challenges ahead.
This is your opportunity to understand and inform where social work reform for children and families is heading and how we are going to get there. I am keen to share my priorities with you and gain your insight.
The Department for Education's current policy activity relating to child and family social work has the potential to radically transform services. The introduction of an approved practitioner status for child and family social work, innovative support for adolescents and the whole service redesign of children’s social care all have a central role to play in this transformation.
But where are the gaps in the current social work reform programme and what else needs to be done?
Effective statutory children’s social work requires strong, practice-focused leadership, both at a local level and as a visible, challenging presence in national policy making. We need the most expert practitioners supporting decision making about children, driving forward practice development and scaling up that excellent practice across teams, services, whole cities and counties. The DfE is dedicated to continually improving this area of public service.
Come to this session ready to share your views and contribute to this discussion.
Further information:
Social work reform: progress, opportunities, challenges:
Thursday 30 October 10.35 – 11.35am
Follow the conference on twitter: #NCASC14