Social workers are warning an entire generation of children could have been left “traumatised” during the pandemic.
Charities and unions fear many of the most vulnerable children across the United Kingdom have slipped under the radar because of lockdown restrictions.
There is concern social care services will face an influx of referrals as those restrictions ease.
“The opportunities to identify where problems existed at an early stage have been absent during the pandemic,” said Alison Hulmes, director of the professional association for social workers in Wales, BASW Cymru.
She continued: “All the time that we’re not identifying support that young people need, they’re being damaged.
“There’s potentially a whole generation of children and young people who are being traumatised, not being safeguarded, and that’s simply not acceptable.”
The Welsh government said the pandemic had brought additional complexities to social work and “this will have a future impact”.
The Scottish department of health and social care said: “Workforce planning is underway to ensure that the workforce of the future is recruited, trained and supported to fulfil this role.”
The Northern Ireland Executive said: “The Department of Health has recently invested in an additional 15 places on the OU [Open University] degree in social work programme in recognition of the rising demands on the profession.”
The UK government said it recognised the “tireless” work of social workers during the pandemic, it said it had given councils in England £4.6bn “to help them meet additional demands” and was working alongside unions and the sector.
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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