Press Release

Looked-after Children report – GSCC response

20 April 2009

Commenting on the Looked-after Children report from the Children, Schools and Families Committee, Mike Wardle, Chief Executive of the General Social Care Council (GSCC), said:

"Those who work in social care have a crucially important role to play in ensuring that all looked-after children get the help and support they need to give them the best possible start in life.

We share the aspirations of the select committee - and indeed of the workforce itself – to ensure that the skills and knowledge of children's workers are significantly improved and that their practice and their conduct is of the highest quality. We believe that extending registration to residential care workers, which will require them to gain qualifications and keep their training up to date, will help to drive up standards.

We also support the committee's call for social workers time to be freed up so they can undertake preventative work with families. Getting the right mix of social workers and support staff will help to ensure that social work skills are used where they are most needed and children get the support they need.

It is also absolutely crucial that newly qualified social workers are provided with training and support to ensure they can successfully use their skills and knowledge in practice and we welcome the government's investment in the newly qualified social workers framework.

These, and other issues raised in the report, will be looked at by the Social Work Taskforce and we are contributing to this."