Draft Social Workers (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2022

Mary Glindon Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2022 General Committees

[Mary Glindon (North Tyneside) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Dame Maria. I am pleased to speak to this statutory instrument on behalf of the Opposition and my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes), who is very sorry that due to a long-standing prior commitment she is unable to be here today. I start by welcoming the new Minister to her post. I wish her well.

Social workers across the country are working hard every day to support families and protect children. They are making difficult decisions about some of our country’s most vulnerable children and young people, often in the most harrowing of circumstances. Social work is too often undervalued. The independent review of children’s social care, published earlier this year, calls for a total reset of children’s social services, and 50% of all children’s services departments are rated “inadequate” or “requires improvement” by Ofsted.

At the heart of this crisis is a workforce feeling increasingly under pressure, with rising case loads and staff recruitment and retention problems across the social sector. I pay tribute to social workers and their vital work, as did the Minister. They are being let down by an absence of leadership from this Government, but the Opposition fully accept the need for regulations to be updated to ensure social workers remain accountable.

The changes the Government are bringing forward today will expand the duties of Social Work England in a range of areas, including disclosing information on applicants to the register of social work to specified organisations including social work employers, NHS bodies and fellow regulators when this is deemed to be in the public interest. They will ensure that all fitness to practise sanctions made against social workers, with the exception of final orders, will appear immediately on the register.

The regulations will give the regulator discretion to grant voluntary removal from the register where there are fitness to practise issues, with such issues to be published, provided they do not infringe on individuals’ rights. They also make changes to the fitness to practise investigation proceedings, including broadening the regulator’s powers to require disclosure of information and to initiate interim orders. Among other changes, they make provision for interim orders to come into force immediately. The changes are supported by Social Work England, and the majority of the 48 consultation responses were in support.

As the Minister will know, important concerns were raised during the consultation, including by trade unions, about the impact of these measures on social workers and, in particular, the plans to allow the regulator to publish details of orders before an appeal has expired. When strengthening the accountability framework for social workers, it is important that the new regulations do not compromise due process and the fair treatment to which every employee is entitled. I hope the Minister will engage with trade unions and other concerned organisations and work to reassure social workers of the intention behind the new measures. I hope she will provide some assurance on this point today.

Finally, I would like to use this opportunity to press the new Minister on the wider crisis in children’s social care. The independent review of children’s social care starkly sets out the pressures and challenges facing children’s social care and makes a compelling case for change. In September, the then Prime Minister committed to publishing a response to the independent review and an accompanying implementation plan before the end of the year. I appreciate that the Minister is new to her post, but I hope it is clear that any further delay in bringing forward reform of children’s social care will continue to let down the country’s most vulnerable children and the professionals who work to support them.

Will the Minister confirm that her Department still intends to respond to the review before the end of the year? The current system is clearly not working for either social workers or the children they are supporting. While we are content to support these measures today, we will continue to press the new ministerial team to bring forward their plans for reform with urgency.