Cash 'will fail to solve social care crisis'

The public-sector union welcomed the announcement along with the government's implementation of 15 recommendations by its social work taskforce but said it did nothing to keep social workers from spending up to 80 per cent of their time behind desks.

Some of the government's recommendations include creating a national college for social work and changing the structure of the profession to keep more experienced staff on the front line.

Unison national officer for social workers Helga Pile said there were no solutions to restoring public confidence in social work but that the funding was a step closer to helping the service get back on track.

"The government's commitment to providing new funding for health checks is particularly welcome," she said.

"Health checks are vital to bridge the gap in understanding between managers and staff working on the front line.

"However, the government has missed an opportunity to tackle the heavy burden of paperwork that social workers have to deal with. Social workers want to be out in the community helping families, not stuck behind their desks filling in forms."

Providing funding for a new IT system will help, said Ms Pile, but social workers also need backup to help them do their jobs and free up their time.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls unveiled the fresh package of funding and reforms as he insisted that child protection services had made "great" progress in the year since the Baby P tragedy.

He confirmed that in future published executive summaries of serious case reviews would be "fuller" but stopped short of bowing to demands for the results to be issued in full.

Child safety campaigners have complained that these summaries are often inadequate but Mr Balls insisted they must be kept secret to protect children's anonymity.

Lord Laming's major report, published a year ago, made 58 recommendations for how to bring about a "step change" in protecting children from harm, all of which were accepted in full by the government.