Most social workers believe Josh MacAlister’s appointment as children’s minister will not help the implementation of current reforms to social care, a poll has found.
During the government’s recent reshuffle, MacAlister replaced former social worker Janet Daby as the minister for children and families, taking on responsibility for social care.
He is now tasked with delivering reforms based on the recommendations from his 2021-22 Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, commissioned by the previous government.
These include establishing multidisciplinary family help services, to improve support for families with complex needs, multi-agency child protection teams, to enhance the quality of safeguarding practice, and forming regional care co-operatives, to improve the commissioning of care placements.
MacAlister sets out stall for children's minister role
In a speech at the Labour Party conference, MacAlister set out his stall for his new ministerial role, saying he wanted to give all children in care a choice of where and with whom they lived, through a significant uptick in foster care recruitment.He said he also wanted the "obsession" of the care system to be that young people left it with at least two loving relationships, but added that a key priority was preventing children from entering it in the first place, through much improved support for family networks to enable them to look after children safely.
They either believed he would have no effect (42%), on the grounds that only frontline practitioners and leaders can deliver change, or that he’d hinder the process because he lacked Daby’s understanding of the profession (42%).
Unlike his predecessor, MacAlister did not work as a social worker, though he founded and previously led the charity Frontline, whose fast-track programme has been training graduates to work in child protection social work since 2014.
Only 16% of respondents thought he would have a positive impact due to him previously having led the care review.
‘This is not in children’s best interests’
MacAlister's appointment drew a mixed responses from practitioners commenting on the related article.Diane Godfr said: “I feel this is not in the best interests of children. This person has no experience of social work - he’s an entrepreneur. I feel like quitting. I’m not happy with this decision at all.”
Jonathan Stanley said MacAlister’s new ministerial role removed “any accountability” from the government to scrutinise the care reforms.
“The government has dealt with the review and legislation as though there is consensus,” he added.
“Both are contested strongly. The appointment is a signal that no matter the scrutiny, the government will bulldoze onwards.”
‘He has worked hard in the sector’
However, another practitioner, Linda, believed MacAlister’s background was unfairly criticised.“He was a teacher. His father was a social worker. He was invited by the government to lead on the development of the front line,” she said.
“He has clearly worked hard in the sector whether he was a social worker or not.”
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