, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Do you know that, Albert?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Social Care Wales's 2022 report suggests a vacancy rate in social work teams of approximately 17 per cent, and this figure includes all roles, not just qualified social workers. This is collated and shared with us on an annual basis, and we've explored and…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
And that's absolutely what we want, is the better outcomes for young people, but we don't think a cap is a feasible way of doing this. And as I said, I think the nursing situation is different, and we want to approach it in a way that ensures we've got the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
The reason we rejected that recommendation is the request to legislate a cap on case loads. We don't really feel that social work compares in the same way to nursing, because activities within a nursing environment and a social work environment aren't really…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
The other thing I'd just like to mention as well is, through Social Care Wales, we've got this 'grow your own' scheme, which supports paid employment and funded social work training. There were estimated about 140 'grow your own' students for 2023-24 within…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Did you want to answer?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Yes. I think it's important to say that it will take the whole of the social work course before we see those people actually arriving.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Well, that's definitely a clear theme, I think, amongst young people about the fact that changes to the social worker destroy any relationship that's been built up, and I think you did have quite distressing descriptions of how social workers left without…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Well, I think we're very keen to look at all the experiences that young people have. So, as I've said before, young people have talked to us about their experiences before they came into care and before they became care experienced, and things that they think…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Oh, absolutely, yes.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
I think it's really important that we really take on board what they feel and, obviously, I assume that the young people that spoke to you felt that they did want this as a protected characteristic, but we've had young people speaking to us who felt…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
I think it would depend on what conclusion we reached when we've had the further discussions with the young people.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Well, as you know, the Equality Act is outside our legislative competence, so anything we did on this would be lobbying, as you say. But we are aware that there are different views about this. We have been told by care-experienced children—some…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
—a five-year period in terms of actual time. There is only a set time that you can bring legislation. And every Government brings forward its programme for government, and that's what you work to, and that's what we're doing. I don't know, Albert, whether you…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
No, what I'm saying is that there is a set time during which you can deliver legislation—
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Albert has just said what we're doing about the practice framework, and that has nothing to do with—. We don't have to have a law to do that. There's a huge amount that can be done without law, but obviously I do understand the fact that the committee wants…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Albert, yes. I'm sorry—
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
I wouldn't say it was just, 'Oh, it's just the communication hasn't been right.' I think it's caused more reflection than that, but I think it did reinforce the fact that we do need to communicate more. But in a way, I suppose it was the choice of the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Well, thank you very much, Ken, for that question. And it was certainly not my intention to suggest that eliminating profit is the only thing that is going to deliver radical reform. And I'm absolutely clear that that is not the case. That is just one of the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Yes, because I think to say that we've rejected 22 is not correct.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Thank you, Laura, for that. I don't think that I have to really reiterate that I have listened to children ever since I've had this job, and I've listened to children basically all my life, so, I'm not going to get into a position of having to defend that…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
We've reflected hugely on what's the committee said, and I can absolutely assure you that your work on this has made us look at all our work again. And certainly—. No, I would have said it has made us reflect on it all, and we have—. I mean, I think what I…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
I want to assure all the care-experienced young people who are here and who are listening in to the session of the absolute commitment of the Welsh Government to transform children's services in Wales. I want to pay tribute, really, to their courage in…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
That evidence was very powerful, very important evidence, and the lived experience of care-experienced children and young people is at the heart of everything that we're planning to do. That's why we worked very closely with Voices from Care to organise the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Services for care experienced children: exploring radical reform - Ministerial scrutiny session
Thank you very much for the question. First, firmly, to place on the record, I welcome this report. It shares our ambition to transform children's services in Wales, and it aligns with our children and young people's plan. We share your passion and young…
