Ofsted has today published a report on the ongoing impact of the
Covid-19 pandemic on children’s social care, drawing on evidence
from inspections, focus groups and interviews with inspectors.
Read ‘Children’s social care
2022: recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic’.
The report finds that the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing
staffing challenges in children’s social care, which has serious
consequences on the number of suitable children’s home places
available and the different needs staff are able to support. As a
result, some children are living in places where their needs are
not being met, and in some cases are being placed in unregistered
homes, without regulatory oversight. High numbers of agency
social workers and high caseloads are also preventing purposeful
work with children and families.
Pre-existing gaps in in-patient and community-based provision for
children with mental health needs have grown, and children’s
needs have become more complex. This leaves some children without
the right care, or placed too far from their families and
communities. In some places, services for children and their
families have not been fully reinstated or are running at a lower
capacity than pre-pandemic levels. Ofsted is concerned this could
lead to delays in identifying vulnerable children and their
needs, and families may have fewer opportunities to ask for help.
Access to therapeutic and respite services for disabled children
also continue to be limited, leaving many children and families
without the support they need.
The report also highlights the limits of home-based working for
peer support and for learning and development opportunities for
social workers and other staff. Face-to-face interaction with
colleagues is particularly important for newly qualified social
workers, who have mainly operated in pandemic conditions and have
had limited opportunities to interact with, and learn from,
experienced colleagues. Staff training continues to be mostly
online, despite concerns that it is less engaging for staff and
reduces retained learning.
The report also raises concern over the escalating cost of living
for families, which is already having an impact on children’s
services. Local authorities suggest that that greater financial
strain on families may lead to higher numbers of children in need
and child protection cases, which would further exacerbate
existing sufficiency and workforce issues.
Ofsted Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, said:
Children’s social care has been plagued by workforce challenges
for some time. But we have seen these issues accelerate in recent
years, with more social workers moving to agency contracts, and
residential workers leaving the sector entirely.
As a result, too many children, with increasingly complex needs,
are not getting the help they need. A workforce strategy and
improved support for disabled children and those with mental
health needs, and their families are more urgent than ever.
