Chief Social Worker for Children & Families in England Evaluation

The below information is intended to inform social workers and others with an interest in this area about the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families in England, Isabelle Trowler, and her track record since she was appointed by Michael Gove in 2013. It is also hoped that the information can help to inform people in making decisions around her ongoing suitability for the role, and the value and purpose of the Chief Social Worker role generally.

Worsening social worker conditions

The circumstances for social workers have declined based on almost every available metric since Trowler took her post in 2013:

• Children and family social worker vacancies have increased from 3,610 (14%) to 6,522 (16.7%) – currently the highest they have been for 5 years (link).
• The number of posts held by agency social workers has increased from 12% to 15.5% (link).
• Social workers regularly rank their working conditions as some of the worst in the country (link, link, link).
• Turnover rates have also increased, with more social workers leaving the profession in 2021 than any previous year (link).
• Social worker pay has remained stagnant and is failing to keep up with the cost of living and inflation. Poor pay is now the most cited reason for social workers leaving their jobs (link).
• The circumstances of social work students have also dramatically decreased during her tenure, with restrictions introduced on bursaries, no bursary increase since 2014, and reports of students having to work nights during placements and even attend foodbanks to get through courses (link).

Failed initiatives

It is difficult to find any innovation Trowler has spearheaded while in post that has not been an abject failure. Some notable examples include:

• The National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) which Trowler championed. Trowler defended an initial £2m contract given to KPMG to develop NAAS by denigrating the social workforce, in 2015 claiming there was “low level skill and knowledge across the hierarchy,” 
• The NAAS was shut down in 2022 after wasting at least £24m (approx.. £15,000 per participant) that could have been spent on child and families’ development in England during this time (link).
• The NAAS has consistently failed to meet any of its own targets (link).
• This is despite offering incentives to social workers for up to £1000 to undertake the assessment (link).
• Even of those who undertook it only a third found it helpful, and 57% were not in frontline practice roles (link).
• The NAAS was found to be biased based on ethnicity (link).
• Flaws were found by the National Audit Office in the way that a multi-million pound contract was awarded to Trowler’s previous firm, Morning Lane, in relation to the NAAS (link).
• The NAAS was widely criticised from its inception, including by Unison, Social Work Union, JUCSWEC and ADCS. BASW also resisted it, and only 10% of BASW members supported it (link).
• Despite this failure, the Care Review, that Trowler was a part of, recently announced a new five year Early Career Framework that would essentially replicate the NAAS (link). This shows a lack of learning, reflection and humility.
• Frontline
• Trowler has been a consistent supporter of Frontline. A separate page has been set up to cover the failures of Frontline, available here.
• Innovation Programme.
• Trowler was a major supporter of the Innovation Programme, and involved in decisions that awarded hundreds of millions to various projects, including those with links to Trowler like Frontline and Morning Lane.
• The most recent evaluation of these innovations found that without sustainable long term baseline funding for services, even when successful these innovations were unlikely to be sustainable (link).

Close government ties

Trowler has worked hard throughout her time in the CSW role to bring the profession closer to the government. While some of her initiatives have been implemented, thankfully through campaigning by organisations like BASW, many others were halted. What these examples do highlight though is that the social work profession should not have to constantly be defending itself against the Chief Social Worker, and instead should be relying on them to advocate for and defend the profession.

• Trowler was, until Prof. Eileen Munro withdrew her support, the prime spokesperson for the ‘exemption clauses’ in the 2016/17 Children and Social Work Bill which would have allowed Local Authorities to seek exemptions from statutory duties for up to six years. (link)
• Trowler originally supported a version of the KSS for Practice Leaders that required social workers to “demonstrate optimistic behaviour, and positive relationships and attitudes” towards politicians (link).
• Trowler supported Statutory Instrument 445, introduced during the Covid-19 lockdown to remove several legal safeguards for children in care. After a successful legal challenge launched by the charity Article 39, the consultation process behind that instrument that included Trowler, was found to have been unlawful (link).
• Trowler supported original proposals for Social Work England to be an executive body under the Department for Education, directly answerable to the Minister for Education (link).

Motion on future role

On 17th June 2022 he British Association of Social Workers (BASW) passed a motion at their AGM calling out the Chief Social Worker in England for creating "consideration concern amongst social workers", and that "the role has been used to advocate for government policy and reforms within the profession, while ignoring the concerns raised by many with the profession". The motion called for the following:

1. The process for revising the Chief Social Worker/Chief Social Care Officer roles, and the selection of any future Chief Social Worker/Chief Social Care Officer, should involve collaboration and consultation with the social work profession, including a central role for BASW as the single biggest representative body of social workers in the UK.

1. There should be an explicit maximum term that any Chief Social Worker/Chief Social Care Officer should serve of six years, in order to ensure their independence from Government policy agendas, and their representation of the social work profession, is maintained.