Could this be the change social care and social work has been waiting for?

A string of high-profile government appointments and policy announcements in the King's Speech have prompted hopes that social work and social care will be higher up the political agenda under Labour.

A former social worker has been appointed as minster for children's social care. Janet Daby will have a closer focus on social care in her new role, with other responsibilities such as SEND and early years provision moving to the Department for Education.

Daby, who was appointed in early July, has been MP for Lewisham East since 2018. Her new responsibilities include heading up children's social care, addressing longstanding workforce pressures, improving local authority provision, family hubs and parenting support, and overseeing all children in care and children in need.

She also has responsibility for child protection, and in a new development will take on the care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children - previously overseen by the Home Office. 

She will develop ‘child unique identifiers’ - a policy in the Labour manifesto aimed at preventing children from "falling through the cracks". Children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza recently advocated for the wider use of child NHS numbers to aid data sharing between health, education, and child protection services.

Daby's appointment followed the announcement in the King's Speech of new legislation to strengthen the child protection system, launch a Children's Wellbeing Bill to keep children "safe, happy and rooted in their communities" and the introduction of registers of children not being educated in school.

This was welcomed by the Association of Directors of Children's Services, with president Andy Smith saying: "While a register in and of itself will not keep children safe it will help to establish how many children are being educated other than in school, and to identify children who may be vulnerable to harm."

There were also pledges to introduce fair pay for adult social care staff under the Employment Rights Bill, and reform the much-delayed Mental Health Act 1983. UNISON boss Christina McAnea said: “After years of government neglect, the fair pay agreement is the first sign things are set to change."

However, the first fiscal bombshell was dropped by chancellor Rachel Reeves, as she announced welfare and social care cuts which she said was needed to plug a £22 billion 'black hole' left by the Tories.

Other high-profile appointments to the new cabinet include Stephen Kinnock, who became minister for social care. The Labour MP for Aberafan Maestag has personal experience as a carer having lost his mother MEP Glennys Kinnock to Alzheimer's Disease in 2023.

His brief includes reforms to the adult social care, and addressing workforce pay and conditions.

Both areas will also fall under the remit of Wes Streeting, new health and social care secretary, and Bridget Phillipson, who as education secretary will have oversight for children's social care.

Social care does not feature in Labour's five missions, set out during the election campaign, and was not mentioned by Streeting in his opening statement. But manifesto pledges did include establishing a fair pay agreement, and adult social care charging reforms, and strengthening regulation of the children's care sector.

Other newly elected Labour MPs also expected to raise the profile of issues central to social work and social care include:

• Alison Hume – screenwriter and disability rights activist
• Nesil Caliskan – former labour leader at the Local Government Association
• Marie Tidball – nationally renowned disability rights campaigner and legal researcher
• Torsten Bell – chief executive of the Resolution Foundation thinktank

Following the landslide election victory BASW called on the new government to place social workers “at the forefront of its plans”.

BASW chief executive Ruth Allen said: “The problems our profession and society face run deep and require bold and immediate actions to address. It really is time to get it right.

“From better resourcing of social work and funding of social care, to measures that alleviate poverty, reform mental health provision, protect human rights, and much more, ministers must hit the ground running, and BASW will be working hard to influence and hold them to account.”

SWU general secretary John McGowan added: “Social work has been at the sharp end of poor political choices that have plunged our profession into a recruitment and retention crisis and led to a decline in working conditions, while simultaneously increasing demand on services as communities become worse off.

“We hear from members everyday about the toll this is taking, and the buck stops at those in power with the responsibility to fix it. This is the strong case we’ll be making to the new government over the days, weeks and months ahead.”