Royal College For Social Work Graduates - graduate jobs

Children's Secretary Ed Balls has spoken of a "watershed" moment as he unveiled a series of reforms aimed at transforming a demoralised social work profession in the wake of the Baby P tragedy.

Mr Balls said the recommendations of a "landmark" report by a Government appointed social work task force needed moving forward in the "speediest possible" way.

He said: "This is a watershed moment, this is a profession which in the past, too often, has not had sufficient public support, there has not been enough focus on the training of social workers and especially in their earlier years, we haven't had enough support for social workers to stay on the front line and become advanced professionals."

Under the reforms, new social workers will be guaranteed extra support for their first year of work but will then need to pass an assessment to earn a licence to practise, which they can only keep by sticking to a professional code of conduct.

Employers will be obliged to provide high quality supervision, ensure workloads are manageable and give staff time for professional development.

The report calls for social workers to be paid "fairly", in line with their skills, knowledge and level of responsibility.

There should in particular be "progression routes" to help keep high-quality, specialist social workers in frontline practice, it said.

"In contrast to other professions, social workers are not able to make progress in their careers while staying in frontline practice," the report noted.