Nursery World - Children and Social Work Act, Part 4: Social Work

In the final part of this series, Ann Marie Christian sets out the changes to social work from an early years perspective, and looks at the controversies

Social workers work with children and their families to help improve outcomes in their lives. They help to protect vulnerable adults and children from harm or support people to live independently. Where a child meets the threshold for social work intervention, they assess the child’s needs and whether their parents/caregivers can prioritise these over their own in order for the child to thrive and be safe.

In theory, settings will have frequent contact with social workers, sharing an early intervention, child in need and child protection agenda. This may be via referrals about children in their setting, and via multi-agency meetings about specific children, such as for Education Health Care plans. Yet social workers are under pressure, which is leading caseloads to mount, meaning settings can be hard-pressed to make regular contact with them.

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