Someone who has never been a social worker and has his fingers in so many govt funded pots that have rewritten social work into a task focused job rather than a broad profession based on knowledge across life course. Inevitable but no less sad to see. https://twitter.com/joshmacalister/status/1349977413120389121

Frontline is built to narrow the knowledge of children’s social work by focussing on pushing an elitist line. Sure, the social workers produced take the opportunities offered. I don’t blame them. But social work’s strength should be it’s breadth and fast tracking removed that

Frontline has showed to have little interest in recruiting across diverse groups. It creates fellowships and graduates promoting narrowness of thought and insularity. It has been pushed hard by govt who wants to remove social work from its theoretical base.

Few social work leaders outside academia have courage to challenge the fast track mentality of pushing narrowing knowledge in faster time within social work. It suits LAs to have ‘practice ready’ CP workers ASAP but does it suit families to have social workers with narrower bases

Of course, Frontline and Think Ahead in mental health have the money to create PR teams and tell their students not to be honest about experiences. I have heard from many afraid to speak up. It saddens me. They get rewarded with govt contracts but values should be at heart of it

Values and social justice to make social work a diverse profession. Make Frontline available only to people from black and minority backgrounds? I’d be more inclined to be sympathetic. Open spaces exclusively for care leavers and social care workers? Sure.

But that’s not what it does or aims to do

Saying this, I wish him well because I want the best outcomes for children and young people but it saddens me that Frontline and Think Ahead have positioned themselves as the voices of social work when, in fact, they are the voices of Frontline and Think Ahead.

And necessary tweet to say this is no criticism at all of social workers who qualify via these routes. Good luck to them and honestly they are welcome. I’d have taken the better funded route if it had been an option. But we can challenge the politics behind it