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How to find ‘Knowledge at The College’


A unique resource to support and promote good practice, called ‘Knowledge at The College,’ forms part of the launch of The College of Social Work on January 3. Knowledge at The College is a bespoke


service for individual social workers with a practice problem to which they want answers from expert practitioners. It is the place to go if you want a view on a practice


dilemma, to ask a question about how to apply a legal or policy framework, or guidance on the latest research findings to inform your practice. Social workers who are members of


The College will be able to pose their own questions and browse answers to previous questions. To access Knowledge at The College,


log in via our website www.tcsw.org.uk


New standards stress academic ability The new standards were drawn


Tougher entry standards for the social work degree have been published by The College of Social Work. From 2013 entry onwards,


applicants will need to demonstrate written and verbal communication skills, undergo both individual and group interviews, and have 240 UCAS points or equivalent evidence of academic ability.


Self-directed support (SDS) still denies people adequate control over their services, claims personalisation pioneer Simon Duffy in a new progress report. ‘Many people find that they


are nominally included within a system of SDS, but that they then lack meaningful control,’ Duffy says in the report. ‘The system still treats people as service users, not as citizens.’


Social care is braced for further cuts after the government announced a further reduction in local authority ‘spending power’ of 3.3% this April. Despite the promise of £1 billion extra money from the NHS, social care funding is estimated to have fallen by precisely this sum in 2011-12. The government continues to insist that the funding gap can be closed without damaging front-line


up by the Social Work Reform Board following concerns about the academic ability of some students. ‘I recognise how important it is


to demonstrate both academic and interpersonal skills and to have a passion for social work,’ said social work MA student Cath Sims. ‘If we hope to increase the profile of our profession, we need to increase the profile of our students.’


Personalisation must hand over control Commenting on the report,


social worker Chris Russell pointed out that social work education emphasises citizenship and the values which underpin it. ‘Social work seems ideally placed


to reflect on this point and continue to try to reform systems so that people are treated as citizens, not simply as users of services,’ he said. www.centreforwelfarereform.org More on page 16


Social care braced for further cuts


services, by sharing services and cutting out waste. ‘I don’t think the “radical


transformation of services” that is being asked of local government will happen easily or seamlessly,’ said social worker Angelica Gutierrez, a spokesperson for The College of Social Work. ‘We will still need a good number of qualified, highly skilled front line workers and that does not come cheap.’


Government overhauls ‘painfully


slow’ adoptive parent assessments Assessment of prospective adoptive parents is to be overhauled because the current process is ‘painfully slow, repetitive and ineffective,’ according to children’s minister Tim Loughton. The government has appointed an expert panel


to develop a new approach to recruiting, training and assessing adoptive parents as part of a wider reform programme to increase the rate of adoptions and speed them up. ‘Dedicated social workers are spending too long filling out forms instead of making sound, common- sense judgements about someone’s suitability to adopt,’ Loughton said. A new national assessment form will be based


on a ‘concise but robust’ analysis of prospective adopters’ capacity to care. The expert group will be led by the government’s adoption adviser Martin Narey and is due to report in March with a view to implementation later this year. A green paper with proposals for wider reform is expected in the spring. More on page 12


Why adults need social workers Social care sector leaders will gather at an invitation-


only summit on February 3 to hear why social workers’ skills are vital to the support of vulnerable adults. The summit, organised by The College of Social


Work, will draw on the findings of a series of consultation events which set out to define the unique and important role of social workers with adults. Attended by senior Department of Health officials, the summit will feed into the social care White Paper expected in the spring. The paper will address workforce issues in the context of the quality and funding of adult social care, following the Dilnot review. More on page 16


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