Practitioner opinion is split over non-social work qualified staff carrying out child in need assessments, a poll has found.
Under 2023 reforms to the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance, staff other than social workers can take on child in need assessments, under the oversight of a social work-qualified manager or practice supervisor.
This approach is currently being tested by the 10 families first for children pathfinder areas, where assessments and cases have been allocated to a range of staff, as part of the development of family help teams. These are responsible for targeted early help and child in need services and include social workers, family support staff and practitioners from disciplines such as substance misuse or domestic abuse.
Under the government’s children’s social care reforms, family help will be extended nationwide in 2025-26, though it will be up to individual councils to decide how far they do – or do not – ring-fence child in need assessments and cases for social workers.
Divided opinion
A Community Care poll with 800 votes found practitioners were divided on having non-social work qualified staff carry out child in need assessments.
Almost half of respondents (46%) said having non-social work qualified staff carry out child in need assessments carried “too much risk for children”.
This chimes with concerns raised by the British Association of Social Workers and Ofsted about the 2023 Working Together changes after they were announced.
Another 43% agreed “in principle” with the idea, but said the staff would need “appropriate training and supervision” for this to work.
Only 11% fully backed the idea, saying that many alternatively qualified staff were “highly skilled” and it would free up social workers’ time.
Practitioners have ‘experience, but lack knowledge’
One social worker, in the comments of a related article, called the idea “dangerous”, adding that the practitioners would have “experience, but lack the knowledge”.
“It’s a short-term, cost-effective measure that will bear huge costs in the long term, not to mention the human cost and impact that could well be catastrophic.”
However, Tahin responded by saying that there should be less “assumed knowledge”, from having a social work qualification, and “more promotion of experience”.
What do you think of alternatively qualified staff carrying out child in need assessments and holding these cases?
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Why link assessments to risk ? Most families want help with their challenging circumstances with only a small minority requiring an investigation. If non qualified colleagues can form helping relationships ( which I’m sure they can) – this new model moves us on from families experiencing 3 or 4 social workers every 18 months created by the ‘churn’ in qualified / agency social workers which undermines trust, confidence and family led support. I’m all in favour !
Great response! I was trying to think of how I could convey the same message …so in effect, if more people are ‘on the ground’ offering ‘early help’ at a reduced cost to services then this is positive. It supports the early help notion by allowing families the opportunity to ask for support instead of being stigmatised and blamed and risking having their children taken away. One of the main problems in s.17 is that, aside from being voluntary (not gonna delve too much into that voluntary aspect) it automatically causes issues due to the nature of the investigation. It needs to be inquisitorial allowing for families to seek help begore beibg condemned. Case law even suggests that just because someone has a drink or drug problem doesn’t exclude them from trying to be a good parent…with the appropriate support .. and which should be available without judgment.
I think its important to acknowledge the role of a social worker.
How is it legally defined? supervisory or supportive?
If its the former then there could be conflicting approaches about issues such as interventions such as child protection measures
I am a manager in an early help team where we work with cases that are often child in need in other authorities. I have learned that alternatively qualified staff are able to write high quality assessments with complex families. Training, induction, social work oversight and an unwavering focus on quality enable this. Many of my staff have been highly qualified in other fields – IDVAs, family therapy, masters in psychology for example
Myself being an ex social work manager in a Youth Offending team, I fully endorse the above. I managed a team of 18 once, who were a mixture of Police, Probation, Drugs, Health and education workers. (Not forgetting qualified social workers) We were a pilot for referral orders, so together, with a volunteer organiser, I was better placed than most to compare the trust, and level of supervision necessary. After six months I trusted all of them. Yes there was a level of trust hierarchy, but that was not dictated by qualification. In some cases, looking at other teams within, too much trust was placed in the CQSW.
Hi, I’m a children’s practitioner of 20 years experience, and put myself on lots of training to keep up with changes in the service. I get so frustrated when people say that it would be dangerous for unqualified workers to carry out assessments etc, when I see lots of SW’s coming in with no experience, and some even on a power trip when they get the degree! We all know it’s different in the real world!!
I’m lucky in my team that we all work together and make use of the different skills we have, and it takes pressure of the SW’s.