Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Frontline in improving retention rates among children’s social workers.
Frontline participants are more likely to enter child and family social work than those qualifying through university based social work courses. Frontline select these high performing graduates for their aptitude to perform challenging child protection social work roles, and for their leadership potential. The first cohort of Frontline participants completed the programme in 2016. We have commissioned an independent evaluation of Frontline to assess long-term impacts.[1][2]
[1] Frontline Impact report 2018, p9: “87% of Frontline participants remain in children’s social work 6 months after completing the programme.”
https://thefrontline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Frontline-Impact-Report-2018.pdf.
[2] Skills for Care analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data, social work education 2018, p2: “Around 74% of qualifiers in 2016/17 were employed as social workers within six months of graduation.”