In order to inform the work of this group, the Thomas Coram Research Unit (TCRU) was asked to provide, within our responsive programme of work for DfES, an overview of relevant research and data in three main areas: the effective deployment of social worker time and tasks, improving cross-professional working, and attitudes to take-up of post-qualifying qualifications. It was decided to structure the review around the following five questions:
• How do social workers spend their time?
• How should they spend their time?
• What sort of social work tasks add most value to service users?
• What promotes cross-professional working from a social work perspective?
• What information is available on the take-up of post-qualifying training by social workers?