Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consultation her Department has undertaken with (a) children, (b) social workers and (c) charities and professional organisations in the social work sector on the drafting of the Children and Social Work Bill; and if she will publish evidence of that consultation.

The measures in the Children and Social Work Bill are the result of substantial research, engagement, and consultation with the children’s social care sector and the children and young people it serves. This includes:

- published reports on social work education by Sir Martin Narey and David Croisdale-Appleby, and on local safeguarding by Alan Wood. All of these draw on extensive interviews and consultation with key organisations and practitioners;

- regular engagement with social work managers and frontline social workers by the Chief Social Worker for Children and Department for Education officials;

- policy briefing and development sessions with a range of sector organisations including NSPCC, BASW, Barnardo’s, ADCS, ADASS, Unison, LGA, individual social work employers, and the Alliance for Children in Care; and

- a series of consultation events with children in care and care leavers.

Our key policy documents – Putting Children First; Keep on Caring; and Adoption: A vision for change – provide additional supporting evidence and set out our wider reform programme for children’s social care. These can be found through the following links:

Narey review of social work education: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-the-education-of-social-workers-consistently-effective

Croisdale-Appleby review of social work education

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-work-education-review

Wood review of local safeguarding

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wood-review-of-local-safeguarding-children-boards

Putting Children First

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/putting-children-first-our-vision-for-childrens-social-care

Keep on Caring https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535899/Care-Leaver-Strategy.pdf

Adoption: A vision for Change

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/adoption-a-vision-for-change