Children's social workers will receive a £13 million boost to help pay for Information and Communication Technology (ICT), through funding announced today by Children's Minister Parmjit Dhanda.
The money is aimed at helping the social care workforce change and adapt to new ways of working and to keep in step with developing technologies. Advances in technology are already having an impact on the social care sector and this capital grant will help employers invest in the latest mobile ICT, including laptops and Personal Digital Assistants.
Government is tackling the problems faced by the sector through the Options for Excellence review, undertaken jointly by the Department for Education and Skills and Department of Health. The review informs policy developments relating to England's social care workforce in the short, medium and long term and highlighted a need for extra money for ICT.
Children's Minister Parmjit Dhanda said:
"Supplying social workers with mobile technology will result in significant time savings, allowing more flexibility. This will ultimately result in social workers spending more time having face to face meetings with the people they are there to support - society's most vulnerable children.
"Our vision for a modern, integrated social care workforce was set out in Every Child Matters, this £13 million grant will help the sector to continue adopting new and better ways of working."
Guidance on spending the capital grant will be sent to Directors of Children's Services at the end of March, to coincide with the publication of the Children's Workforce Strategy Update - Spring 2007
The conditions of the grant are explicit on the subject of security - any mobile devices will need to have the appropriate security capabilities, and staff training must address this issue. The uploading or downloading of case data will be subject to the physical and programme security requirements applicable to the data concerned.
NOTES TO EDITORS
The funding will be allocated to Local Authorities in line with the children's formula and will be weighted according to population and other factors.
Options for Excellence was a review of the social care workforce by the Department of Health (DH) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to identify priority areas for change to develop a proud, professional and successful children's workforce by 2020. The Government is tackling the problems facing the social care workforce through the Options for Excellence review which has reflected on the long-term trends and is informing policy development for England's social care workforce over short, medium and long term timescales.
The aim of the Children's Workforce Strategy (CWS) Update - Spring 2007 is to provide an update of what the Government with its partners have achieved over the past 12 months against the commitments that the Department set in the Children's Workforce Strategy: Government Response, which was published in February 2006.
Parmjit Dhanda announced the capital grant at the Integrated Children's Services National Conference in London today (28 March).