Audit agreed as social work hampered by ‘obsolete’ policies

The Child and Family Agency’s chief operations officer has conceded social workers are being bombarded by policies, some of which are “obsolete” and interfere with their capacity to make the best decisions for children in their care.

Fred McBride admitted expecting social workers to implement 60-plus policies, often delivered by email with the expectation of immediate implementation, was not sustainable and said the agency would conduct an audit “to clear the landscape”.

“I think social workers are absolutely correct. I think we need to be much clearer about what we are calling policy or a piece of professional guidance. I do think we need to reduce the number of policies that are mandatory and leave much more scope for professional judgement,” Mr McBride said. He said their director of policy and strategy was currently reviewing policies.