Is it really such a bad thing that there aren’t “enough” social workers? After all, as Parkinson’s Law of Social Work states that social problems increase to occupy the total number of social workers available to deal with them Yes, that was me being facetious, but the point remains that we don’t need huge numbers of social

The verdict of a journalist who knows more than most about the social care system: My experience of many social workers is that they are overworked, highly stressed and very defensive. Many are also highly committed. They are up against a system that condemns them when they are seen to be too zealous—and condemns them again when they fail to remove children to a place of safety. They are als...

Foreign social workers who are trained to deal with children are to be fast-tracked into Britain under plans to halt an escalating recruitment crisis, the Observer has learnt. The migration advisory committee, which guides the government over skilled workers from outside the European Union, will make the recommendation to the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, this month. Social services departments ac...

Looks like another stunning victory for social services. As ever, I say that if the problem was merely that social workers were untrained/over-worked/retarded or whatever, these horrors stories would occur pretty much at random. Ditto, with cases of social workers persecuting the innocent. On the contrary, the figures only tilt one way. Social workers have totally assimilated the cultural Marxist ...

The recruitment of children's social workers continues to face devastating consequences, six months after the court judgement.

A task force set up to investigate the state of social work in Britain after the murder of Baby P under the very noses of social workers has come up with some wholly predictable and pointless recommendations. Basically, they suggest more pay and higher status for social workers. Yes, really. The reason Baby P wasn't helped, apparently, is that social workers - as well as, presumably, the poli...

Spending time on the frontline is what matters, children's secretary tells profession Child protection managers should spend less time in offices and more time supporting overworked social workers on the frontline, the children's secretary Ed Balls said today. Many social workers dealing with complex child abuse cases in England were too inexperienced and it was unacceptable for them not...

The training of social workers needs to be transformed to better prepare them for their "vital job", the children's secretary says.

Social workers should visit children in care at least once a month according to a report.

You will be aware that in the weeks leading up to Christmas the Sun newspaper has managed to whip up a massive campaign against social workers blaming the individual social worker for the death of...