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Social workers in Cape Town now need a police escort to make a home visit
Twenty-seven social services staff have been hijacked in the Western Cape this year. In Khayelitsha visits are now by appointment only, with law enforcement alongside.
Today's edition
Today's briefing
Seven briefings, one a day, all free. Pick the ones you want.
The Week Ahead
What's landing in social work this week. The stories, the calendar, the angle to come back to on Friday.
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Tools, AI and the tech reshaping social work practice, through a practitioner's eyes.
Subscribe to The Tech Watch →The Skills Desk
One technique a week. Practical craft for assessment, recording and court work.
Subscribe to The Skills Desk →The ISW Notebook
From the frontline of independent social work. Practice updates, the business of being an ISW, the report-writing clinic.
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The argument that ran through this week. One position, no hedging. The opinion you hold or push back on at the weekend.
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For students, NQSWs and ASYE candidates. The week's pieces worth your time, picked for the people just starting out.
Subscribe to The NQSW Survival Guide →Self Care Sundays
Sunday-evening reading for the social workers who care too much. Slower-tempo, quiet, a companion for the end of the week.
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Social Work England asks whether CPD should move to a three-year cycle
The regulator is asking social workers about a longer CPD cycle, how impact should be shown and whether records should be externally moderated, ahead of a consultation in January.
Social Work England delays Direct Debit payments after a fault at its payment provider
An email to registrants says the £61 instalment due on Friday will be taken on Monday 5 October. Some social workers say theirs has already gone out and fear paying twice.
Councils told kinship carers should not need a court order to get help
Rewritten statutory guidance took effect on Friday with six National Kinship Standards and a legal duty to consult families before a council publishes its kinship local offer.
Children in need are 29 points behind on reading at 11, and the gap has not moved in six years
46% of children in need met the key stage 2 reading standard last year, the same as in 2018/19. A new survey says what teachers think is missing: a steady adult to read with.
Drug and alcohol services told to put referrals from children's social care first
Rewritten government guidance says adult treatment services should prioritise families referred by children's services, and that social workers must plan contact when a parent goes into rehab.
Care workers are getting a national pension scheme. Nobody has said who will pay into it
Yvette Cooper announced the first national collective pension scheme for adult social care. Providers and councils welcomed it and asked the same question: who funds the employer contributions?
A year into the full agency rules, fifteen years in a Welsh council still counts for nothing
The experience threshold for agency social workers in England's children's services excludes practice outside England by definition. Regulations are due from 2028, and the consultation is the chance to change it.
Referrals to Scotland's social care regulator rose 15.5% in a year, and open cases by a third
The SSSC's third fitness to practise snapshot: 5,584 referrals, 2,437 open cases, 139 removals, 1.4 per cent of registrants under investigation, and a register that shrank by 2,285.
Think Ahead to close in August 2027 after the government ended its funding
The fast-track route into mental health social work trained 1,270 specialists in twelve years. DHSC stopped funding it from the 2026 cohort, and the charity will shut once the last trainees qualify.
A boy of 16 moved to an adult prison spent over 22 hours a day in his cell, Ombudsman finds
Victoria's Ombudsman found the justice department did not properly weigh a child's human rights before he was moved from youth detention to a maximum-security adult prison, where the conditions bordered on solitary.
What the Ranulph Fiennes case tells us about who must apply for a DoLS
The care home asks for the authorisation and the council decides it. What the law says about attorneys, and why a finding made under the old acid test cannot simply be read across.
Burnham will change the pension triple lock from 2030 to pay for free adult social care
The Prime Minister told Labour's conference the triple lock holds until the election and then changes, with the savings going to a national care service. What he said, what he left out, and the questions for adult social workers.
Glasgow pauses fire and rehire threat as social work unions warn managers face pay cuts
The council has paused its threat to fire and rehire more than 23,000 staff. SASW and SWU say the pay deal behind it would cut pay for social work team leaders and managers, and put statutory services at risk.
Most safeguarding partnerships buy 40 days or fewer of independent scrutiny a year
DfE research on the independent scrutineers every safeguarding partnership must have finds a typical budget under £20,000, uneven involvement of children, and little appetite for tighter regulation.
A Latvian children's home spent as little as 55 cents a child on breakfast, Ombudsperson finds
Latvia's Ombudsperson found the lowest budget her office has recorded at a home in Latgale, and staff who barely spoke the children's language. It lands amid her push to rebuild the country's orphan's courts.
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The first cold visit of the year, and the coat I nearly wrote down
The heating went on at Maisie's on the first of October. At a family's house the same morning it was off, and the children were in their coats. On a cold house, a cold parent, and the sentence she nearly wrote.
The transformative power of listening
A psychiatrist with more than 50 years of practice on why being listened to is not a step towards the help a social worker gives, but part of the help itself.
Every day is everything, and what permanence means decades later
Adopted in Watford at nine months old and now 58, The Hidden Voice on what made a family, what her records still cannot tell her, and what she would ask of a social worker writing a later-life letter today.
I wrote the warning down in the right box, and then I carried on
There is a box on the visit form for risk, about the width of Ellie's thumb. This week she went back and read everything she had put in it.
Everybody in the office knew the name, and the file was one click away
Maisie has never opened a file she had no reason to open. She has typed the name, though. On curiosity dressed up as professionalism, and the list she would never want to be on.
The words in the file
The Oxford serious case review found no wicked people. It found words. Those phrases have gone from our recording, and the ones that replaced them do the same work. One small habit that costs nothing.
I am three years past the peak
The time we spend with children peaks at 39 and then falls away. For men, the years of three hours a day run from about 33 to 45. What that means for the orders we write, and for our own evenings.
A grandmother rang me five times last month and I wrote the word persistent
An inquiry found that a family's warnings had been heard as a parenting dispute, and Ellie recognised the filing system. On the adjective that outlives the decision, and why the person who keeps ringing is usually the only one who has not given up. Cares Too Much Club.
I found out this week there is a pause button, and it is not for the likes of me
A headteacher was taken out of her own school by ambulance on day two of an inspection and the inspectors stopped. Maisie went and read the policy. They can stop, it covers us too, and every line of it is written about leaders. On the week of the laminating.
Eight years is the sanction
A social worker was cleared of everything this month, eight and a half years after the events. Nobody decided he deserved that wait. Three things a regulator could do about time, none of which need legislation.
Keep the tape
Councils are setting AI note takers to delete the recording of a visit after 30 days. When a mother in the witness box says she never said it, the court has nothing to listen to. Three things a director could do this week, none of which need a working party.
I would have asked for anonymity too
Three social workers have asked the Sara Sharif inquest not to let the press name them. Every answer Sara's family is owed will still be given. What a name in a headline adds is not accountability, and I have watched what it takes away.
The Monday morning I got dressed, picked up my keys and could not stand up
About once every couple of months there is a morning where Ellie Carter gets as far as the edge of the bed, lanyard on, keys in hand, and cannot stand up. Three minutes nobody sees. On what it is, what it is not, and what a manager might notice by eleven. Cares Too Much Club.
I am embarrassed to say this, but I think I am burned out after all
Three weeks of working through it, and now Maisie is on the sick for the first time in her career, typing this at 3am. On the two years before the day you go off, the sister who said her name in that voice, and why the system marked the wrong lesson as correct every time.
Resilience has become something my employer expects of me and nobody asks what I am carrying
Three years with one family, then several weeks in court hearing the evidence, then back to the desk. A children's social worker on the difference between case supervision and somewhere to put what the work does to you, and why resilience has become the organisation's word for absorbing it alone.
Building and testing hypotheses in assessment
How to build competing hypotheses in a social work assessment and test them against evidence, rather than gathering information to confirm the first explanation you reached.
Assessment interviews that get past rehearsed answers
Parents have usually answered your questions before you ask them. How to run assessment interviews that reach specifics, sequence and detail instead of the polished version.
When your records are requested by the court or the police
What to do when a court orders disclosure of social work records or the police ask for them. Who decides, what the law allows, section 98, PD12G and the practitioner's part in getting it right.
Pre-proceedings and the letter before proceedings explained
What the pre-proceedings stage is for, how long it should last, what the letter must say since section 31ZA, the free legal advice it unlocks for parents, and what to record.
Regulation 24 explained, when a relative or friend becomes a temporary foster carer
The 16 week temporary approval of a connected person, the checks that must come first, the one eight week extension, and what happens to the child and the carer when the time runs out.
Third party information and consent in case records
What you can record and share about people who are not your service user. Lawful basis versus consent, recording other people's information fairly, and what happens when files are later disclosed.
Emergency protection orders and police protection explained
The two short emergency powers under the Children Act 1989: the tests, the 72 hours and the eight days, the duty to return the child, and what parents can do when there is no appeal.
What a carer's assessment is, who can have one and what to ask for
If you look after an adult who could not manage without you, the council must assess your own needs. Who counts, what it covers, the eligibility test and what you can expect afterwards.
The court bundle explained
What the court bundle is in family proceedings, who compiles it, what Practice Direction 27A requires and what social workers must supply. Page limits, preliminary documents and deadlines explained.
Subject access requests and your case notes
What happens when a family requests their social work records, and how to write case notes that survive being read by their subject. The right of access, the social work exemption and third party data.
Recording what you observe before someone asks you to prove it
How to record observations from visits, injuries, home conditions and presentation, so they hold up as evidence. Describe, measure and locate rather than label, and know your limits on injuries.
Recording the child's voice so it reaches the judge
How to record a child's wishes, feelings and actual words so they survive the distance from living room to judgment. Exact words, context, and the difference between voice and verdict.
Recording disputed accounts when everyone tells a different story
How to record conflicting accounts in social work without becoming the judge of them. Attribution, exact words, recording the dispute itself, and keeping your file fair when stories collide.
How the family court decides contact when there has been domestic abuse
Practice Direction 12J sets the rules when abuse is alleged in a child arrangements case. The presumption of parental involvement, the unmanageable risk test, and what it means for social workers.
Recording direct work so it shows the work and not just the date
How to record direct work sessions with children so the file shows what the work was, what it produced and what it changed. Purpose, method, the child's response and where the materials go.
Do I have to let a social worker into my house
No, and that answer on its own is close to useless. What the Children Act tells the local authority to do about a refusal, why they usually do not need to come in at all, and the sentence that gets recorded permanently.
Parentification, and what eldest daughter syndrome gets right
The trend arrived as a joke with a bruise inside it, and the underlying idea has been part of social work assessment for decades. What it gets right, where it goes too wide, and the four things that make it a safeguarding matter.
Grandparents rights and social services, what actually exists
There is no such thing as grandparents' rights in England and Wales, and that phrase is why so many grandparents get bad advice. The court route, the viability assessment nobody prepares for, and what Cafcass is actually for.
The new head of family justice is the judge who rewrote the rules on domestic abuse and contact
Sir Stephen Cobb became President of the Family Division in May. He wrote the 2017 review of PD12J after Nineteen Child Homicides, and the presumption, child focused courts and delay are now his to shape.
Agency or permanent, the maths nobody actually does
The rate gap is real. The six things the day rate does not include close more of it than people expect, and the pension is the one everybody leaves out. The comparison to run, and a straight answer on the solidarity argument.
What a family group conference is, and the hour nobody tells you about
The one meeting in the whole system that is structurally yours. What private family time is, why the coordinator should not be your social worker, and who counts as your family, which is wider than you think.
The default daughter, and what being the capable one costs her
There is usually one person in a family whose phone quietly becomes the command centre. Alyssa J. Goldberg on the daughter nobody ever asked, why competence gets mistaken for consent, and what to say to her that is not thank you.
When someone on your caseload dies
There is a process for everything except how you are. What to do in the first forty eight hours, why writing your own account matters more than anything else, what to expect from a review, and the honest answer about the funeral.
Step-parent rights, and what you can actually do
By default you are nobody, and finding that out at a hospital desk is a horrible way to learn it. What section 3(5) lets you do anyway, the two routes to parental responsibility, and the permission nobody gives you.
The 55p mileage rate and what social workers are actually owed
HMRC's approved rate rose from 45p to 55p a mile in April, the first rise since 2011. If your employer still pays 45p, you can now claim tax relief on the gap. A worked example, and what counts.
Coercive control does not stop when the relationship does
The 2021 Act removed the living together requirement, so the offence now covers an ex-partner, and almost nobody knows. Where difficult co-parenting ends and control begins, what it looks like after separation, and the two things professionals get wrong.
Why you cannot get an ASYE job and what actually changes the odds
Councils recruit newly qualified social workers in cohorts, not continuously, so a page full of vacancies can contain nothing for you. Why the timing fools people, the six things that change the odds, and the two faults behind most paper rejections.
Were the Sara Sharif family court judges named? Yes, and the ruling explains last week's decision
Readers asked whether the judges in Sara Sharif's family court cases stayed anonymous. They did not. The Court of Appeal's reasoning in January 2025 is also the best guide to why three council staff were refused anonymity on Friday.
Step Up, Approach, Think Ahead or university, the routes compared
Several ways to qualify and almost nobody explains the differences properly. The four things that actually separate them, the questions no website answers, and the advice the fast track programmes market too hard to give you.
How to choose a social work course, and why league tables mislead
Every approved course qualifies you, so the question is not which is best. The placement questions to ask the placement team rather than admissions, and the bursary question almost nobody knows to ask.
Every day is everything, and what permanence means decades later
Adopted in Watford at nine months old and now 58, The Hidden Voice on what made a family, what her records still cannot tell her, and what she would ask of a social worker writing a later-life letter today.
If you lose a pregnancy, what work has to give you now and from 2027
From April 2027 you and your partner get two weeks off after a pregnancy loss. Until then there is no specific leave, but there is protection. What applies now, what changes, what counts as a loss, and how to go back.
From 30 September professionals can share information about your child without asking you first
A new legal duty starts at the end of the month and nobody will explain it to you. What it changes, what it does not, the five things you are still entitled to, and what to ask your child's school and your social worker for this month.
Social services have used the word neglect about your family and this is what it means
It is a hard word to hear and it is about to be used more. What it means in law, the two words in the definition that protect you, why being poor is not neglect, the three levels you could be at, and exactly what to ask for this month.
The care leaver deaths review, explained for the person it is actually about
The review read every notification of a care leaver death in 2025. This is what it found, what changes on 30 September, what you are already entitled to, and exactly what to ask for this month.
Residential family centres explained for the parents being asked to move in
The number of centres where parents live with their child while being assessed has tripled since 2016. What the placement actually is, what is being written down and when, and the questions to ask in writing before you agree to go.
They said you were never in care and a judge has just said that might be wrong
If children's services housed you before you turned 18 and then told you that you were never looked after, a High Court decision on 29 July means the label your council used is not the final word. What to ask for, and how to ask.
Your child's youth offending team is being rebuilt and you have until September to say so
National oversight of youth justice is moving to the Ministry of Justice and the way services are funded is being rewritten. The consultation closes at 11:59pm on the 11th of September. Written for the parent or carer, not the professional.
If nobody ever asked you what family support was like, that is now official
Four government departments paid to find out what early help feels like from the inside. The clearest finding is that most families could not remember ever being asked. What the report says, and what you can ask for.
If you are raising a relative's child, you have until October to have your say
The law has never had an order designed for kinship carers. The Law Commission is proposing one, with contact written into the order and a support plan attached to it. The consultation closes on the 16th of October and they are asking people it happened to.
If you look after someone without being paid, this plan is about you
Nearly one in ten people in England is an unpaid carer and many do not call themselves one, which is the problem the plan is trying to fix. What is coming, and the six things you can already claim that almost nobody is told about.
If your child's mum or dad is in prison, this is changing
Around 193,000 children a year have a parent go to prison and nobody has systematically known who they are. A pilot now shares information so families can be offered help. What to do if you are not in a pilot area, and the one conversation that changes most.
If you adopted and it is falling apart, you are not the only one
Four in ten established adoptive families faced severe difficulty or crisis in the past year. The problem is not the matching, which parents rate highly. It is the cliff edge after the order is made. What to ask for, and why asking early is not a risk.
New rules for social care workers in Wales start today
Updated Codes of Professional Practice take effect today, replacing the 2018 versions. Shorter, plainer, and produced in easy read, British Sign Language and a version written for children and young people. What you are entitled to expect, and how to use it.
New safeguarding rules say your child should not be treated as older than they are
The main rulebook for protecting children in England has been rewritten and for the first time it names adultification bias, singling out how Black children in particular are perceived as adults. How to challenge it in writing, and what to ask for.