Comment on social work teaching partnerships funding

Nicola Curley, Chair of the ADCS Workforce Policy Committee, said:

“As the number of children and families in need of our help and support continues to grow so too does our need for social workers who can make a difference in their lives. We are therefore disappointed to learn that funding for teaching partnerships will no longer continue. Coupled with the ending of the Pathways programme for social work leadership development, this sends an unhelpful message to the sector. The range of government reforms across children’s services are predicated on having a sufficiently skilled and experienced workforce and taking funding away from workforce training and development at a time when we need to be looking at what more we can do to encourage well suited people into the profession, and retain our current workforce is counterproductive. We would welcome the opportunity to work with the Department for Education on what comes next.

“Each local authority faces its own challenges with recruiting and retaining a skilled and permanent social work workforce who can make a difference in the lives of the children and families they work with. ADCS continues to call for a national recruitment and retention campaign, funded by the Department for Education, which would undoubtedly help with this.”

ENDS

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