The Narey recommendations

Summary of recommendations
1. Universities are sovereign bodies and it is entirely appropriate and justifiable, not least
in terms of student choice, that social work degree courses vary. But there needs to be a
concise, single document drafted, drawing on the advice of the College of Social Work,
academics and, particularly, employers, which offers in a single publication, a GMC style
summary of what a newly qualified children’s social worker needs to understand.

Such a document should cover not only factual issues but those which are best described as
philosophical or attitudinal. I recommend that the Chief Social Worker For Children take
the lead in drafting such a document. To provide a foundation for that work I suggest she
needs first to draft a definition of children’s social work satisfactory to the College of
Social Work, employers and Ministers.

2. Agreement needs to be reached with universities to ensure that the minimum UCAS
requirement of 240 points for A-level students is not breached save in exceptional
circumstances.

3. The calibre of students entering through Access courses and with qualifications other
than A levels needs to be audited at individual Institution level.

I recommend that the College of Social Work provide that assurance as part of a radically
more rigorous endorsement process.

4. The Department for Education should consider whether the role of HCPC in regulating
the social work profession, including prescribing standards of proficiency and approving
HEI social work courses, duplicates the role of the College of Social Work, and, if so,
whether those duties should be transferred to the College.

5. The College of Social Work endorsement scheme needs to be compulsory for all
institutions offering the social work degree. An HEI unwilling to agree to the endorsement
process should not be allowed to train social workers.

6. The College needs radically to increase the rigour of the endorsement scheme. Teaching
should be observed; entry standards scrutinised; the extent to which course sizes might
inhibit individual student development probed; the curriculum examined; and the rigour
of examinations and other forms of student assessment audited.

7. The endorsement process needs also to include an evaluation of the quality of practice
placements. Universities which fail to provide every student with at least one statutory
placement (or an alternative which is genuinely comparable and accepted by employers as
comparable) should not receive endorsement.

8. The Education Support Grant should be distributed only to universities which can
demonstrate the quality of their placements, including providing every student with
statutory experience, or an alternative experience which is genuinely comparable.
 
9. The College must be willing to fail institutions, temporarily or permanently, and to
publicise such failings.

10. The College needs to recruit a more senior cross section of assessors, particularly from
the ranks of employers, to secure the credibility of the endorsement process. This will
almost certainly necessitate an increased level of compensation.

11. If the College membership is unwilling to agree to this more robust role for the
College, an alternative assessor of the quality of social work education at individual HEIs
will need to be found.

12. In further revisions to the allocation of bursaries and in the light of the financial need
further to reduce expenditure, postgraduate study should be protected.

13. Step Up should be funded for a fourth year and beyond as a now proven way of
bringing high calibre graduates into children’s social work.

14. Entry to Step Up should be open only to those of the intellectual calibre sufficient to
obtain, currently, an Upper Second Degree. But where that ability can be demonstrated to
the satisfaction of the employer, possession of an Upper Second or First should not be
mandatory.

15. Frontline should seek to recruit individuals, the majority of whom are likely to stay in
social work for a considerable time. In evaluating the initiative, the proportion of Frontline
graduates remaining in practice should be an important measure of success.

16. Universities should be encouraged to develop degrees for those intending to work in
children’s social work. Such degrees would build on a first year common to all social
workers, with a second and third year focussing exclusively on children and related
issues.

17. The requirement that social workers have placements in contrasting service settings
(typically, one with children and one with adults) should be relaxed to allow those intent
on a career in children’s social work to spend all 170 days of placement in a children’s
setting.

18. Ministers should consider whether they agree there is a case for introducing a work
based, non-graduate qualification for those in children’s social care. Such a qualification,
while providing an alternative to the undergraduate degree, could provide a measure of
professional autonomy including, under appropriate supervision, the management of
cases