The Government has at last taken the right
decision to abandon its attempt to locate social work regulation within the
Department for Education. It will now
create an independent body to take
over regulation of social workers from the Health and Care Professions Council.
One puzzle is why it has taken so long for
ministers to realise that creating a regulator controlled by central government
was exactly the wrong thing to do. Another is why the Chief Social Worker for
Children, Isabelle Trowler, maintained earlier this year that a government
controlled regulator was ‘essential’.
If children’s social workers are to have
any confidence at all in professional regulation it has to be absolutely clear
that the system of regulation is free from interference by politicians and
civil servants. Anything less is
unacceptable.
I struggle to see why the Chief Social
Worker for Children apparently failed to see that. It seems that helping
ministers to impose unacceptable and damaging government policies on children’s
social work has now become central to her role. Thank goodness that on this
occasion it hasn’t worked and that sense has prevailed.
