Safeguarding and looked after children

Just under two-thirds (64%) of social workers feel that they do not have sufficient time to work effectively with the children and young people that are on their workload. Identified causes for this included levels of paperwork; time spent recording information electronically; and sheer volume of work.

These are findings from a survey of over 4,000 social work practitioners, conducted by the Ipsos Social Research Institute and Employee Relationship Management Division on behalf of Ofsted. The survey is issued alongside a report on the views of over 1,500 third sector organisations which provide services for children and young people across most local authorities in England.

This 2010 survey on safeguarding and looked after children paints the national picture of social work practitioners' and third sector organisations' views for the first time.

Suggested solutions for the workload issue included increased staffing and more effective caseload management. Many respondents felt that induction programmes had not been effective in preparing individuals for their role.

There were positive responses on training and levels of line management support received by social work practitioners, with two thirds (66%) agreeing that there is sufficient training offered by the local authority, and 85% agreeing that they are able to raise concerns about their workload. However, it appears that managers may not be as equipped to address specific concerns since fewer social work practitioners (56%) feel that any concerns they have raised have been dealt with satisfactorily.

Finally, there were issues about internal communication and information sharing, as well as between local authorities and partners. Just over a third (36%) of social work practitioners feel they have a say in the running of the service. Only one in two feel that their local authority communicates the relevant issues raised in serious case reviews and policy and procedure updates.

The third sector survey covered a very wide range of organisations, from large national bodies to small local community based organisations.

There were positive responses about the safeguarding training available to third sector organisations. Among organisations who stated that training was available (57% of all those surveyed), over three quarters are receiving the training free of charge and approximately 7 out of 10 feel that it is of a high standard.

However, 33% of third sector organisations do not know whether safeguarding training is available to them. One in five do not feel the local authority ensures that their organisation has a good understanding of local arrangements for safeguarding and services for looked after children and young people. Just over a third of those who have made child protection referrals do not feel that they were kept informed of the outcome.

• Read the Ofsted press release
• Download the social work practitioners' report (PDF)
• Download the third sector organisations' report (PDF)

Technical Details

Both surveys were conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Ofsted and were carried out between February and April 2010. The social work practitioners' survey included 129 local authorities across England where 4,141 responses were received from practitioners. The third sector organisations survey involved those representing the interests of, or providing services for children and young people in 115 local authorities in England, where 1,613 responses were collated.