§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what plans he has for developing the role of his Department's social work service.
§ Mr. FowlerI have written today to the local authority associations and chairmen of local authority social services committees to seek their comments on a short consultative document on this subject.
The document contains proposals for enhancing the role of the social work service—to be renamed the social services inspectorate—in ways which should contribute towards increasing the effectiveness of the personal social services. There would be greater participation in this work by staff from the field and more attention would be paid to management and efficiency.
The intention is that experts in management and financial control should join with professional social workers seconded to the central inspectorate for short periods. After consultation with the authorities concerned information would be gathered to demonstrate the most effective use of professional and other resources in local authority social services departments. Models of good practice would be developed and would include discussion of cost indicators.
There are no plans at this stage to extend the existing powers of formal inspection exercised by my Department. When formal inspections are carried out reports on them will normally be available to the public.
These proposals follow on consideration of the recommendations in the second report of the Social Services Committee, Session 1981–82, and of the discussion about the role of inspection in the Barclay report on "Social Workers: their Role and Tasks".