The Standards for Employers of Social Workers in England have been updated recently, and UNISON has revised our members’ and branch guides.
The standards set out the minimum level of support that employers in England should provide for their social workers.
They cover areas such as workload management, supervision, work environment, continuing professional develpment and tools to do the job.
The standards relate to all registered social workers and apply to all employers of social workers.
The revised standards can be found online: Standards for Employers of Social Workers in England.
The local.gov.uk site also includes a new guide to carrying out the organisational health-check that forms part of Standard 1.
Guide for employers: delivering the social work health check [PDF]
The updated UNISON guides can be ordered via our online catalogue – or by emailing stockorders@unison.co.uk – quoting the stock number (3108 for the branch guide and 3107 for the members’ guide).
Alternatively, they can be downloaded by clicking on the links below
Up to standard? UNSION branch guide [PDF]
Up to standard? UNISON members’ guide [PDF]
A 2013 survey of nearly 2,200 social workers by the group responsible for the standards found that only 4% of social workers said their employer had carried out a review of how well it met the standards.
While more employers have adopted the standards in the intervening year, there is still a long way to go