Review sets out plan to fix Northern Ireland's crisis in children's social care

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 21 June, 2023

A new public body needs to be created to run children’s services in Northern Ireland if a “systemic and endemic” crisis in the sector is to be tackled.

Social work teams should also consist of a greater skills mix, including more administrative support, and trainee social workers should be re-established to address recruitment problems.

These were among key recommendations in the final report of The Northern Ireland Review of Children’s Social Care Services, published today.

It comes as concern mounts over growing numbers of looked-after children, rising unmet need within families, and vacancy rates of up to 50 per cent in some social work teams.

There are currently a record 3,800 looked after children in Northern Ireland 

The 16-month review was commissioned by the Department of Health and led by Professor Ray Jones.

He said: “What has been described to me, and what I have seen, are services provided by the health and social care trusts and by voluntary and community organisations under great pressure, and it is recognised that there are longstanding serious difficulties which span all of Northern Ireland.

 “This has had the consequences of help not being available to many families who are struggling, more children having child protection plans, and increasing numbers of children and young people being removed from their families and placed in care.”

Removal from integration with health

Creation of a “arms-length body” (ALB) would radically change delivery of children’s social care, ending a 50-year integration alongside health within Northern Ireland’s health and social care trusts.

The review claims directors and other senior managers of children’s services are currently “distracted and disempowered” by being integrated within the five trusts.

It says children’s social care is “likely to be less prominent” compared to hospitals and other health services. Underlining this, the report states directors of children’s services only spend about 30 per cent of their time focused on children’s social care services.

Prof Jones said: “I am concerned that within the current arrangements, which were put in place 50 years ago, locating children’s social care services within very busy and pressurised health organisations, with big issues to tackle regarding, for example, hospitals, means despite the best will in the world it is not possible to give the dedicated and concerted attention needed to tackle the difficulties within children’s social care services and to provide the help needed by children and families.”

For this reason, the review concludes, statutory children’s social care needs to be “located within an organisation where this is the primary focus of the organisation”. 

The review suggests the ALB would have a chair, a board and a separate chief executive, with five directors of children’s services across the country.

Wider skills mix

The report says while Northern Ireland has a higher number of social workers for its child population compared to the rest of the UK, it has less of a skills mix. It recommends having larger teams consisting of a wider pool of staff, including family support workers, social work assistants and administrative assistants. There should also be other staff in multi-agency teams skilled in working with people affected by mental health issues, drug and alcohol use and domestic violence.

The report references Hampshire - where social workers are supported by personal assistants with a ratio of one PA to three workers to help input records and arrange meetings - as a good model.

It says: “Social workers are a scarce resource. It is important, therefore, that they are able to concentrate on using and deploying their core professional competencies.”

Community teams

The review notes that like elsewhere in the UK, children’s social care has become “skewed” towards child protection rather than family support work. More risk-averse practice means families who are struggling are not getting the early support they need but are instead “experiencing more intrusive and threatening investigations, monitoring and surveillance”. 

To change this, the review recommends services must “re-set the balance” by creating community-based social work teams and more early support. The current 38 Sure Start centres in Northern Ireland should also be expanded and extended to families with children aged up to ten from the current age limit of four.

Staff retention

The review says grading and banding of social workers should be reviewed and revised. Under the Agenda for Change NHS banding, many workers do not progress beyond Band 6 due to a limited number of Band 7 senior practitioner roles. It recommends social workers should progress to Band 7 after three years in practice.

It also recommends senior social workers should be renamed team managers and graded at Band 8.

Expanding entry routes

The review recommends reintroducing the trainee social worker qualification, ended to cut costs. It says: “This ‘grow your own’ strategy is likely to help build a more stable and experienced workforce as these social workers of the future already have their local identities and are embedded with their families in the local communities where they are likely to remain.”

Part-time qualification routes should also be explored.

Other recommendations

• Foster carers should be paid
• Additional respite care for children with a disability should be provided
• Multi-agency teams and services should be further developed 
• IT systems should be compared and the best performing adopted country-wide
• An independent parent-led advocacy organisation should be created for families engaged with children's social services
• A trusted named person should be identified for young people in care and those leaving the care system

Different direction to England

The review warns against mandatory reporting of concerns about children, saying this risks drawing more families into the child protection net and overwhelming the system. The Westminster government has adopted mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse following the recommendation of the Independent Review into Child Sexual Abuse.

It also warns against more experienced social workers being deployed solely on child protection work as recommended by England’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. The Northern Ireland review claims “this could drive an impetus to more defensive practice prioritised over help for children and families in difficulty”.

Political vacuum

The review noted the risk of the report being “just another review, with little or no impact”, particularly in the absence of a functioning executive in Northern Ireland since the collapse of power sharing.

It says: “The political vacuum has and is creating a strategic desert. This review may just sink into the sands. It has had little political attention. It may get no political commitment. By the time Northern Ireland’s politicians start governing again this Review will be in the past.”

To avoid this, it calls for an immediate consultation on the recommendations, with action taken within six months, backed by an annual conference attended by young people to track progress.

Social work response

The review was welcomed by BASW Northern Ireland.

Chair Orlaith McGibbon said: “Social workers are highly qualified and extremely skilled professionals, but under current arrangements, they spend too much of their time on tasks which could be undertaken by non-social work colleagues. This is a poor use of social workers’ time and an inefficient way to allocate valuable resources.

“The overwhelming majority of social workers support an increase in non-social work staff to support their teams. BASW NI urges the Department of Health to respond to the views of social workers and introduce additional family support workers, social work assistants, behavioural support workers and administrative support staff where they are needed.”

Government response

Peter May, permanent secretary at the Department for Health, said: “We fully accept that change is necessary if we are to meet the ever-increasing demand for children’s services in Northern Ireland and ensure that children and families get the help they need, when they need it. 

“The other key recommendations from this review will require significant service changes, and in some cases cut across a number of government departments. Therefore, these are decisions that will need to be considered by a Minister and an Executive.

“In the meantime, my department will undertake a public consultation on the organisational and service changes recommended, and make the necessary preparations for an incoming Minister.”

The government has already pledged to end reliance on costly agency workers by the end of this month, to help address workforce issues, a target it says it is on course to hit.