Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, outlines plan for a shake-up of social care amid claims the profession is failing to make people take responsibility for their actions
Social workers are abdicating their responsibility by viewing individuals as "victims" of injustice rather than making them stand on their own two feet, according to Michael Gove.
In a speech today, he will suggest that many social workers are not up to the job, saying the system of training is more orientated towards allowing families to secure access to benefits "rather than helping them to change their own approach to life".
Social work is a demanding and "noble" vocation and requires a degree of professionalism on a par with the medical, teaching or legal professions, he says.
Mr Gove will outline plans to raise standards nationally by adopting rigorous working practices seen in Hackney, east London, where social workers set families clear expectations to improve their behaviour.
The approach has resulted in a third of social workers and managers in the borough being told to "move on", he says, although sources in the Department for Education insisted last night they were not looking at a similar number being removed from the profession nationally.
The comments - in a speech to the NSPCC today - come amid concerns over social services failings in high profile child deaths such as Baby Peter in Haringey, north London, and Daniel Pelka in Coventry.
Social workers were also criticised over "missed opportunities" to stop the sexual abuse of young girls in towns and cities such as Rochdale and Oxford.
The Coalition is now overhauling the system by appointing Isabelle Trowler, former head of social care in Hackney, as new Chief Social Worker to challenge the profession.
Sir Martin Narey, former chief executive of Barnardo's, is also reviewing the education and training of social workers.
Speaking today, Mr Gove will say that "great practice is too often undermined by dogma" in the social services sector.
“In too many cases, social work training involves idealistic students being told that the individuals with whom they will work have been disempowered by society," he says.
"They will be encouraged to see these individuals as victims of social injustice whose fate is overwhelmingly decreed by the economic forces and inherent inequalities which scar our society.
“This analysis is, sadly as widespread as it is pernicious. It robs individuals of the power of agency and breaks the link between an individual’s actions and the consequences.
"It risks explaining away substance abuse, domestic violence and personal irresponsibility, rather than doing away with them."
A new national training scheme - Frontline - that sets a higher bar for the profession has resulted in 4,000 people making applications to become social workers in the last six weeks alone, Mr Gove says.
Mr Gove will say that previous approaches to training are robbing families of a "proper sense of responsibility" and produces social workers who "abdicate their own".
"They see their job as securing the family’s access to services provided by others, rather than helping them to change their own approach to life," he says.
"Instead of working with individuals to get them to recognise harmful patterns of behaviour, and improve their own lives, some social workers acquiesce in or make excuses for these wrong choices."
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