Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help protect social workers from facing violence at work.

Social workers make a real, positive difference to the outcomes of children and families every day. It is with thanks to their work that many children go on to thrive. The government is dedicated to ensuring there is an excellent child and family social worker for everyone who needs one.

Local authorities are responsible for the delivery of children’s social care and to determine the appropriate practice model and staffing levels to ensure high quality assessment and support for all children who need them. Ofsted inspect local authorities to ensure that children’s services meet the needs of the local population. The health and safety of social workers is primarily a matter for their employer. For child and family social workers, this is the relevant local authority. It is the responsibility of the local authority to ensure that working practices and processes are safe for their workers.

The standards for employers of social workers in England have been developed by the sector and set out the shared core expectations of employers which will enable social workers in all employment settings to work effectively and safely. The standards can be found at: https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/workforce-and-hr-support/social-workers/standards-employers-social-workers-england-3.

Over the current spending review period, the department will continue to invest more than £50 million every year on recruiting, training, and developing child and family social workers to ensure the workforce has the capacity, skills, and knowledge to do their job and to support and protect vulnerable children.

In addition, the reforms set out in our children's social care strategy, Stable Homes, Built on Love, will boost social worker supply, provide more support earlier in their careers and help improve working conditions to encourage social workers to stay in practice for longer, and make sure they feel valued.