The former Transport Secretary and Schools Minister was speaking at the University on a night focussed on the Frontline Programme, an initiative – being led academically by Bedfordshire – which is often described as a ‘teach first’ for social work, recruiting, training and developing outstanding graduates to be social workers.

Lord Adonis, who is the Chair of the Frontline board, told a public audience of academics, students and staff how Frontline has the support of all three UK political parties in recruiting the next generation of social work leaders.

The former head of Tony Blair’s policy unit said: “A successful society needs a very strong and successful private sector, but it also needs a very strong, successful public sector.

“If we can pull reform off (convincing graduates that social work is prestigious and rewarding) then the health of our society will be dramatically improved and big social challenges will be much easier to deal with.”

In partnership with the University, the Frontline initiative offers a work-based route into children’s social work that aims to attract people who might not have otherwise considered a career in the profession.

Lord Adonis added: “Social work has very high vacancy rates, big challenges of recruitment and alarming rates of turnover. These severely damage our capacity to tackle this big social problem of dysfunctional families and vulnerable children.

“But with the right solution, potentially Frontline, you can get really big progress in five or six years.”

And Josh McAllister, Frontline Chief Executive, told the audience this reform is desperately needed.

“Only six per cent of children in care get into university. One-in-four of the current prison population were children in care. One-in-ten children, seeking support from a social worker, have been excluded from school.”

He added: “We want to make social work in the top 10 most attractive occupations for graduates (currently 14^th).We want to create graduates with the right mix of academic skills and personal qualities, and resilience, to build a relationship with families in very difficult circumstances.

“It’s an incredibly demanding job and needs the best people in this country to do it.”

Professor Donald Forrester, Professor of Social Work Research, commented: “Frontline will be a fundamentally different way of supplying social work education.

“It offers a programme which will deliver the types of graduates that are fantastic practitioners and rethink how we deliver social work practices.”

Editor notes

• To watch the event in full, where Lord Adonis focusses on his role in improving the Education sector, please visit new.livestream.com/uob/lordadonis
• The academic programme is being led by Professor Donald Forrester, Professor of Social Work Research and Director of the Tilda Goldberg Centre, with support from Professor Michael Preston-Shoot, Executive Dean of Health and Social Sciences, and Professor of Social Work at the University of Bedfordshire.
• The University will lead a consortium that includes the Institute of Psychiatry and the Institute of Family Therapy. The consortium will deliver a 13-month post-graduate qualification in social work and the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE), leading to a Masters. The University’s Tilda Goldberg Centre* will provide expert teaching from leading social work experts.
• For more on the University’s work with Frontline and to organise an interview with one of the academics, or for further quotes from the academics on the night, please contact the press office on 01582 743499.
• For more on Frontline visit www.thefrontline.org.uk