Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to improve cultural literacy among (a) social workers and (b) other members of children’s social services staff.

The importance of cultural literacy in social workers is ensured by the professional standards that social workers must meet (post-qualification standards, which set out expectations for children and family social workers, and the education and training standards that training providers must meet).

The Social Work England Professional Standards set out what a social worker in England must know, understand and be able to do. Professional standards, and the education and training standards which training providers must meet, ensure the importance of cultural literacy in social workers.

The department continues to champion the improvement of equality and diversity among social workers through supporting the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of social workers. While individual local authorities will take decisions about CPD provision, the department funds leadership programmes such as the Practice Supervisor Development Programme and Practice Leader Development programme. These programmes cover equality and diversity issues, and provide tools and resources for leaders to develop both their own understanding and their social workers’ understanding of children and families’ perspectives and lived experiences.

In the wider children’s social services workforce, the Children’s Homes Regulations quality standards outline that the registered person in children’s homes, secure children’s homes and residential special schools provide personalised care, including taking into account ethnicity, culture and linguistic background.

Other staff in the children's social care workforce may be subject to other standards, depending on their areas of specialism.