Developing The College
Calling for change - the Social Work Task Force
In 2008, the government commissioned a group of social work experts called the Social Work Task Force to conduct a thorough review of social work in England.
The Social Work Task Force produced a detailed report, 'Building a safe, confident future' setting out 15 recommendations for improving and reforming social work. The recommendations support a continuing single profession. They are designed to enable social workers to benefit from high quality education and training in responding to both the needs of children and adults, but also to develop specialist skills early in and over the full course of their careers.
‘We are recommending the establishment of an independent national college of social work. This will articulate and promote the interests of good social work. It will give the profession itself, strong independent leadership; a clear voice in public debate, policy development and policy delivery and strong ownership of the standards to be upheld.’ – The final report of the Social Work Task Force 2009.
The government recognised the importance of these recommendations and, as a result, provided start up funding to enable the development of The College of Social Work.
Developing a College team
In late 2009, an independent College Development Group was established to guide the first phase of development and to oversee a major consultation involving the social work profession, people who use services and carers.In August 2010 Interim Co-Chairs Prof. Corinne May-Chahal and Maurice Bates were appointed, followed by an Interim Board of 11 highly experienced social work professionals in October 2010.
The Interim Co-Chairs and Interim Board are being supported by an Interim College team, who are working full time on marketing, communications and media activities, helping to establish The College brand and develop a future business strategy.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is supporting The College by offering additional expert advice and professional resources to the team during the set up stage.
Consulting and creating: The College consultation exercise
From May to October 2010, we ran a major consultation exercise across England, working closely with social workers, managers, people who use services and carers.
These events gave frontline social workers, students, lecturers, practitioners, managers, people who use services and carers, the opportunity to come together and talk about their aspirations and concerns for the future of social work. Throughout these events, the team listened to very honest and insightful accounts of people's professional experiences. These personal accounts reinforced the need to create a strong and independent college to guide and support social workers in every aspect and through every stage of their career.
The feedback from all of the events showed strong support for the original purpose and functions document, which was created by The Development Group and used as a basis for the consultation events.
Topline findings from our consultations with the social work profession, service users and carers.
Please visit our consultation pages, where you can read detailed reports of the topline findings from our consultation events.
FAQs about developing The College