information for practice

Changing Lives, the report of the 21st Century Social Work Review, set out a compelling and challenging vision for the future direction of social work services. In the Executive’s immediate response to the report, Ministers welcomed the findings of the review, accepted all 13 recommendations and gave a commitment to act upon them. This implementation plan sets out proposals to do that. The aspirations of Changing Lives represent major cultural change and will be achieved only by a concerted effort at national and local levels over an extended period. Implementation will therefore be both a collaborative
process, with a strong emphasis on shared learning, and a progressive
process, where plans for the next stage build upon the successes of the one before. A process which recognises that there is no one blueprint for future services that meets every need in every circumstance. This plan sets out the processes we intend to put in place to support a five year change programme. It also sets out detailed milestones and funding proposals for the first two years of that programme. New funding of £15M will be available for the first two years – £4M for the remainder of this year to get work underway, building to £11M next year. Further funding will follow in the subsequent three financial years, building on the early foundations of the change programme. The scale of the final three years’ funding will be influenced by progress with the change programme and the extent of engagement of organisations in transforming the delivery of services.