Social Workers urge care review to avoid ‘blame culture’

The Case for Change was published last week, laying out the priorities of review chair Josh MacAlister in reforming children’s social care in England. The report hails social workers as social care’s “greatest asset” but adds that in practitioners’ day-to-day work “process continues to dominate over direct work with families, and decision making and risk assessment are too often underpinned by a lack of knowledge”. “In many cases, social workers have not acquired the knowledge to properly identify and assess risk,” it states. The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has urged MacAlister to “avoid re-iterating a government ‘blame culture’” around the workforce. Read more.