Festering - a dying job??

Interesting day, speaking to an English foster carer. It seems that qualification and registration are on the way. Altogether a good thing. But lets looks at this in detail.

Qualification has been an issue in social work for a while, recognition that social work has a workforce that is woefully undertrained for the job in hand. The response was welcome; introduction of a proper degree level course combined with the introduction of central registration linked to a code of practice.

One thing that has been absent retrospective qualification, that is making those who are currently in practice go back to qualify at a higher level.

Now it seems in England the plan will be to make every foster carer qualify within two years or be barred from the profession.

So a social worker with 5 years under their belt will be deemed competent and a foster carer with 20 years will be automatically incompetent.

This kind of thing can in large part be placed at the door of the Fostering Network a national charity that pretends to represent foster carers but had historically done very little for them.

But I wonder, how many doctors, suddenly told they had to requalify all over again, would go and do it or would they just walk away.

Make them people who do not earn the kind of money that a GP earns rather put them close to benefits level income and I wonder how joined up this thinking really is.

I wonder if many people will simply walk away.

For me fostering was a way of being home when my own children needed me. They are growing up now and I could easily go off and do something else.

I am, I hope, quite good at what I do, I wonder if I am as expendible as I feel.