Cap on social worker caseloads among recommendations for Welsh children’s services reforms
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
A legal cap on caseloads for children’s social workers is among a series of recommendations put forward by a Welsh parliament committee looking to "radically" reform social care.
The proposal, from Senedd's children, young people and education committee, recommends the introduction of legislation requiring councils to calculate the maximum number of caseloads a children’s care social worker can safely manage.
The committee highlights that the number of children in care in Wales was up by almost 23 per cent since 2013 while at the same time there were shortages of qualified social workers.
Local authorities must “do everything they can to keep to those caseload limits”, the report states.
It suggests rules could be based on Welsh laws for safe nursing levels.
“This would help to address the trauma caused to young people when care workers are overstretched.
“Young people told the committee their cases were passed around social workers leading to them having to tell their life story over again, feeling like they are not a priority and, in some cases, self-harming to get the attention of their social worker,” the report adds.
The report calls for 12 “radical reforms” to drive urgent and much-needed changes to the care system through 27 recommendations.
The report’s calls are drawn from an inquiry which saw the committee speak to young people from across Wales with direct experience of the care system.
Further recommendations include making care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. A similar recommendation made in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care was rejected by the UK government last year.
The Senedd committee also proposes ending the “cliff edge” by extending the support provided to care leavers by law until they reach 25 and giving care experienced people up to the age of 25 "priority need" status when homeless and the highest priority in housing allocation policies.
The report recommends making it a legal right for all care-experienced parents to receive intensive wrap-around care and access to an independent support worker if a child is placed on a child protection register in a bid to end the cycle of care.
It also calls for a legal right for all children in care to access trauma-informed mental health therapy and long-term advocacy support (from when they enter the care system.
MS Jayne Bryant, chair of the committee said: “Anybody claiming that the state is doing its corporate parenting job well should consider whether they would be happy for their own child to be cared for by that system. Whether any good parent would want that for their own child.”
Responding to the report, Sharon Lovell, chief executive of NYAS Cymru, which supported young people in giving evidence to the committee, said: “I welcome the recommendations within the committee's report and wish to thank members for directly listening and hearing the voices of children and young people.”
The report comes after Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford renewed his government’s commitment to reforming children’s social care earlier this month.
