School safeguarding leads supervised by social workers

Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 22 June, 2022

A government-funded pilot in which social workers supervise safeguarding leads in schools could be rolled out nationally.

The scheme aims to reduce unnecessary referrals to social services from designated safety leads (DSLs) and is being tested in Greater Manchester by the What Works for Children’s Social Care (WWCSC) unit.

It’s part of £12.6 million funding from the Department for Education which includes placing more than 140 social workers in schools in a separate pilot.

Together, the two projects point to increased thinking among policymakers around the benefits of having closer connections between social workers and schools.

Speaking at the BASW conference, Anum Farid, programmes manager at the WWCSC, said: “Often for designated safety leads (DSL) the first response is to call children’s services.

“As a social worker, you receive so much training to take on your role, whereas as a DSL you have one day training and they are dealing with the same issues.

“That understanding of the threshold and where to take a concern is something DSLs don’t always know.

“Through that supervision [by social workers] they can understand the thresholds. It is about learning what kind of factors are leading to this and what kind of support may aid it better, rather than calling up services and thinking this child needs to be removed.

“What are the different avenues to go through to support that child and their family?”

Farid confirmed the outcomes of the two pilots were being closely scrutinised by government and if successful could provide a template for being extended nationally.

Bridget Robb, former chief executive of BASW, said better communication between the two sectors was welcomed but warned against buck-passing within an under-funded system.

“What I am wary of in this is the blame game: social workers blaming the schools for referring inappropriately and schools feeling unsupported by social workers because they don’t get the response they expect.

“We know we are going into a dire situation of poverty which is going to magnify to an unknown extent the challenges we face.

“Schools are on their knees, social workers are on their knees and the government thinks it will all be okay.”

See feature in the July/August edition of PSW