VCF calls for urgent action in new research ‘Voices from the front line’

The Victoria Climbié Foundation UK (VCF) is calling for urgent improvement to social work infrastructure to enable front line social workers to implement the new Children and Families Act.

VCF collaborated with HCL Social Care, a leading provider of permanent and temporary social workers to local government, to engage with social workers of all levels and experience, from whom almost 500 gave comprehensive and significant feedback. Four themes repeatedly emerged: lack of management support, not listening to front line social workers, inconsistent training and development of the workforce and poor recruitment and retention practices – particularly in the locum sector.

In its research report ‘Voices from the Front Line: Supporting our social workers in the delivery of quality services to children’, published today, VCF makes six key recommendations which would enable social workers to meet the practice demands and deadlines laid down in the Act.

Voices from the Front Line; supporting our social workers to deliver quality services to children (PDF)