Consultation closing date: 9 October 2014
Your comments must reach us by that date
Knowledge and Skills for Child and Family Social Work – Response Form
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/ Name: Anne Fox
/ Please tick if you are responding on behalf of your organisation.
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/ Name of Organisation (if applicable): The Communication Trust
/ Address: 8 Wakley Street, London, EC1V 7QE
Which answer best describes you as a respondent?
/ Local authority /
/ Social Worker /
/ LA representative bodies
/ Young person /
/ University/FE Provider / /
/ Voluntary and Community Sector
/ Other employers of social workers (private, voluntary and independent) /
/ Other
/ Please Specify:
The Communication Trust is a coalition of nearly 50 voluntary and community organisations with expertise in speech, language and communication. We harness our collective expertise to support the children's workforce and commissioners to meet the speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) of all children and young people, particularly those with SLCN.
We do this by raising awareness, providing information and workforce development opportunities, influencing policy, promoting best practice among the children's workforce and commissioning work from our members. The Trust is advised by specialist advisors and works with a broader network of partners.
The Trust, which is partner of the Department for Education, was set up in 2007 by children's charities Afasic and I CAN, with BT and Council for Disabled Children.
1. Is there anything else that should be included in the statement which sets out what a child and family social worker needs to know and be able to do?
/ X/ Yes /
/ No /
/ Not Sure
/ Comments:
The Communication Trust welcomes the introduction of a statement of knowledge and skills for child and family social work. We feel however, that it is essential, if this statement is to be robust and effective in providing an outline of what a child and family social worker needs to know and be able to do on a daily basis, that it includes a clear focus on the crucial role of children and young people’s language and communication.
We would strongly recommend that the current section 2 of the statement is amended to recognise the importance for social workers of understanding language and communication development. We would therefore suggest it reads as follows; "Critically evaluate theory and research findings and demonstrate informed use of: typical age related physical, cognitive, social, emotional, behavioural andcommunication and language development....".
We would also recommend that special educational needs is included in relation to the interaction between the environment and genetic factors, “the impact of ill-health, special educational needs and disability...”
We would also suggest that the term ‘cognitive abilities’is used instead of IQ.
The Munro review of child protection published by the Department in 2011 and referenced strongly in Sir Martin Narey's recent report on which this consultation is based, highlighted explicitly the challenge many child and family social workers face in communicating with children and being able to adapt their practice accordingly-
"This review has heard that social workers sometimes feel inadequately trained to communicate with children. They may work with children of very varied ages, ethnicities, communication abilities and needs who require an equally varied range of skills in the social worker"[1]
It is important that everyone who works with children and young people has the appropriate skills and knowledge to be able to:
• promote speech, language and communication development;
• identify those children who are experiencing difficulties; and
• support children and young people who have speech, language and
communication needs
For social workers, working with particularly vulnerable children and young people this is absolutely essential.
Speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) include difficulties with speech, in understanding what is said to them, expressing thoughts, wishes and needs effectively and/or using appropriate social communication skills and are remarkably common -10% of all children and young people are likely to have long-term and persistent SLCN. Evidence also shows that SLCN are particularly prevalent, but often under-identified, in groups of children and young people who may be likely to require the support of a social worker. For example, in areas of social disadvantage[2], children who are looked after[3], children who are excluded from school[4] and children and young people in the youth justice system[5], [6].
It is well evidenced that children living in areas of social deprivation are more likely to have speech, language and communication needs, with upwards of 50% of children in these areas starting school with delayed language. Children from low income families lag behind by nearly one year in vocabulary at school entry, with gaps in language
much larger than gaps inother cognitive skills[7]. Whilst child and family social workers will be working with families from all backgrounds, it is important that the workforce is aware of the links between social deprivation and children's language development and the possible reasons behind this.
Language ability can also impact significantly on behavioural and emotional development; even in early development, language levels directly impact on self-regulation skills of children and therefore on their behaviour.[8] We know many children with SLCN have significant behavioural difficulties, some of which mask underlying impairments in language.[9] Others are withdrawn, which means they’re less likely to start conversations, are more likely to play alone and research suggests they’re less liked by others in their class. These social, emotional and behavioural components can impact significantly on children and young people, meaning poorer long term social outcomes[10].For child and family social workers, being able to recognise the links between language development and behavioural and emotional development is vital to building a comprehensive understanding picture of the child's needs.
This means child and family social workers are likely to encounter children struggling with this aspect of their development frequently and it's essential they feel confident to adapt their practice to engage meaningfully with these children and their families and support them to access appropriate support.
Much, if not all of the direct work with families and children that social workers will do is based on effective communication and relationships – the effectiveness of this work will be significantly impeded if social workers are not fully equipped to understand, recognise and support SLCN within their work. It is also important to note, that while the Communication Trust’s work focuses on children, given the nature of SLCN it is also likely that many parents working with social workers may also experience difficulties with speech, language or communication. We know that speech, language and communication needs can persist into adulthood, studies suggest that parents who have not experienced a responsive, language-rich environment, who did not achieve at school and who perhaps have poor literacy, are not in a good position to provide positive communication opportunities for their children[11]. We know too that parents who do not complete secondary education are at risk of having children with limited language skills[12]. This clearly indicates the potential for persistent, intergenerational issues with SLCN in families.
The Communication Trust has a number of resources and support information directly relevant to supporting universities to build a focus on communication and language development into their social work courses as well as materials that can support and encourage continued professional development for new and existing child and family social workers.
We urge the Department to add a requirement around understanding language and communication development to the statement of skills and also to direct providers of social work qualifying programmes to The Communication Trust and our Consortium as partners to support in developing and enhancing their courses content in this respect.
The Speech, Language and Communication Framework (SLCF)[13]sets out the skills and knowledge needed by practitioners to support the speech, language and communication development of all children and young people, whatever their role, experience or level of training.
In particular we would recommend that training providers use the SLCFto identify key skills and knowledge for social workers to support their trainees to become confident in their ability to understand and support children and young people's speech, language and communication development and needs.
Additionally, our Universally Speaking booklets outline the ages and stages of typical language development from 0-18 years[14]. These guides provide easily accessible bullet point information about age expectations for children and young people's language. Both these and the SLCF are free resources available from our website.
The Communication Trust has expertise in supporting the skills and knowledge of the children’s workforce in speech, language and communication, including developing qualifications. We would be very pleased to discuss this and anything else in this response further and also to discuss opportunities to provide more tailored support to social work qualifying programmes to incorporate a stronger focus on speech, language and communication development to their courses.
2. Are there any parts of the statement which are not set at the right level for a child and family social worker to be able to know or do, at the end of their first year of practice? If so, what are they?
/ Yes /
/ No /
/ Not Sure
/ Comments:
3. Do you agree that the statement should not prescribe particular social work theories or methodologies?
/ Yes /
/ No /
/ Not Sure
/ Comments:
Thank you for taking the time to let us have your views. We do not intend to acknowledge individual responses unless you place an 'X' in the box below.
/ Please acknowledge this reply./ x
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Here at the Department for Education we carry out our research on many different topics and consultations. As your views are valuable to us, please confirm below if you would be willing to be contacted again from time to time either for research or to send through consultation documents?
/ / Yes /
/ No
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Thank you for taking time to respond to this consultation.
Completed responses should be sent to the address shown below by 9 October 2014
Send by post to:
Social Work Team, Department for Education, Sanctuary Buildings, 20 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT.
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[1] Munro, E. (2011) The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report- A child-centred system. London. Department for Education.
[2] Locke, E., Ginsborg, J., and Peers, I. (2002) Development and Disadvantage: implications for early years. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders. 27 (1). P.3 -15.
[3]Cross, M. Lost for Words (1999) Child and Family Social Work 4(3): 249-57
[4] Clegg, J. (2004) Language and Behaviour: an exploratory study of pupils in an exclusion unit proceedings of the British Psychological Society Developmental Section Annual Conference, Leeds
[5] Bryan, K and Mackenzie, J (2008) Meeting the Speech Language and Communication Needs of Vulnerable Young People
[6] Snow, P.C. and Powell, M.B. (2005) What's the story? An exploration of narrative language abilities in male juvenile offenders Psychology, Crime and Law 11(3) 239-253
[7] Waldfogel, J. and Washbrook, E. (2010) Low income and early cognitive development in the U.K. London: Sutton Trust
[8] Vallotton, C., and Ayoub, C. (2011) Use your words: The role of language in the development of toddlers’ self-regulation. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 26 (2). p.169–181.
[9] Clegg, J. (2004) Language and behaviour: an explanatory study of pupils in an exclusion unit.
British Psychological Society Development Section Annual Conference, Leeds
[10] Arnold, D. H., Kupersmidt, J. B., Voegler-Lee, M.E., and Marshall, N. A. (2012) The association
between preschool children’s social functioning and their emergent academic skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly. 27 (3). p. 376–386.
[11] Cross, M. (2007) I CAN Talk series 4- language and social exclusion
[12]Campbell, T.F., Dollaghan, C.A., Rockett, H.E., Paradise, J.L., Feldman, H.M.,Shriberg, L.D., Sabo, D. L. and Kurs-Lasky M. (2003) Risk Factors for Speech Delay of Unknown Origin in 3 Year Old Children Child Development 74 (2) 346-357
[13] The Speech, Language and Communication Framework-
[14] Universally Speaking ages 0-5, 5-11, 11-18-