BASW calls on government to outline direction of social work

BASW chief executive Hilton Dawson has written to education secretary Michael Gove urging him to set out his plans for social work. In a letter sent this week, Mr Dawson notes that the Department for Education has yet to publish plans on social work reform and has concentrated its focus on its manifesto pledge on schools.

“We would appreciate sight of and would ideally like to support and comment on a similar document regarding the support of social work,” he says, adding: “Our anxieties about the place of social work have been heightened by recent comments made by the president of the ADCS that independent social workers should be removed from care proceedings because they contribute to delay and undermine the role of statutory social workers.”

Mr Dawson goes on to argue that the attack on ISWs, who he describes as critical to the welfare of children, is a “classic examples that local authorities cannot be relied upon to implement necessary reductions in expenditure without fundamentally damaging vital services to children and families”. The criticism of ISWs is “wrong and we hope unacceptable to you,” he argues.