Baroness King of Bow
Main Page: Baroness King of Bow (Labour - Life peer)College of Social Work
Baroness King of Bow Excerpts
Baroness King of Bow
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what long-term funding is in place for the College of Social Work.
Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)
My Lords, the college has been established as a membership organisation independent of Parliament and as such it has ongoing revenue from membership fees. Over the past six years the college has received over £8.2 million in core funding, contracts and grants. Both the Department for Education and the Department of Health are currently in discussions with the college over a range of possible direct grants next year, and the college regularly competes for contracts with government and other agencies.
Baroness King of Bow (Lab)
Today is World Social Work Day and our changing world has never been more in need of high-quality social workers, whether in regard to children at risk or the fact that in Britain our population aged over 85 will double in the next 15 years. So would the Minister agree with the Lords Select Committee chaired by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, which concluded that although improving the training of social workers has cost implications,
“this is an area of work of such importance to society … that under-resourcing it would be a false economy”?
If so, in supporting the College of Social Work, should we not seek cross-party consensus to secure longer-term adequate funding?
Baroness Garden of Frognal
My Lords, I entirely agree with the noble Baroness about the importance of social workers and the vital part that they have to play in our society. On the point about training, the coalition Government have spent over £680 million on training social workers. We now have the Step Up to Social Work programme which has attracted some £47.5 million of funding, and the Frontline pilot, which is also receiving significant funds. The importance of proper training for social workers is in absolutely no doubt.