Care Act Implementation |
Introduction
The majority of the Care Act 2014 came into effect in April 2015. Social work or social workers are mentioned 70 times in the Care Act guidance. We have an important role in delivering and in providing professional support for a range of duties including: first contact, complex assessments, care and support planning, assessing capacity, advocacy and safeguarding.
Just over one year on from the implementation of the majority of the Act it is important to understand what difference it has made to social work practice, what has worked well, or worked poorly and which areas most need to be strengthened. It is also important to get an understanding of the context in which people are working, which includes resources or lack of them and the impact of other Government reforms. We have left space for people to comment throughout the survey on the reality of practice for you, so please add your comments so we know what is important to you.
Some evaluation and research is already being undertaken or planned, for example the Local Government Association stocktakes with Directors in adult services, a National Audit Office report and some research by "In Control". None of these have looked specifically at the social work role in implementation. It is important to understand what difference the Care Act is making to social work practice and what practitioners' experiences of implementation are.
Just over one year on from the implementation of the majority of the Act it is important to understand what difference it has made to social work practice, what has worked well, or worked poorly and which areas most need to be strengthened. It is also important to get an understanding of the context in which people are working, which includes resources or lack of them and the impact of other Government reforms. We have left space for people to comment throughout the survey on the reality of practice for you, so please add your comments so we know what is important to you.
Some evaluation and research is already being undertaken or planned, for example the Local Government Association stocktakes with Directors in adult services, a National Audit Office report and some research by "In Control". None of these have looked specifically at the social work role in implementation. It is important to understand what difference the Care Act is making to social work practice and what practitioners' experiences of implementation are.
We want to use this questionaire not only to capture a snap shot of experiences, but to inform further levels of analysis. The next stage will be to undertake some more in depth face to face or telephone interviews. We are hoping that you will agree to participate further. You can sign up to be on the contact list for more in depth work by emailing the subject 'Care Act Survey’ to england@basw.co.uk. We will be using the overall findings for a number of purposes,including:
a) to inform the sector and Government b) to share learning c) to campaign about issues that emerge from the research.
The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete. Your responses will be fully confidential. Please complete by June 21st. 2016
Thank you. Joe Godden, Professional Officer, on behalf of the BASW England Social Work with Adults Reference Group.