天美传媒

The former Transport Secretary and Schools Minister was speaking at the 天美传媒 on a night focussed on the Frontline Programme, an initiative 鈥� being led academically by Bedfordshire 鈥� which is often described as a 鈥榯each first鈥� for social work, recruiting, training and developing outstanding graduates to be social workers.

Lord Adonis, who is the Chair of the Frontline board, told a public audience of academics, students and staff how Frontline has the support of all three UK political parties in recruiting the next generation of social work leaders.

The former head of Tony Blair鈥檚 policy unit said: 鈥淎 successful society needs a very strong and successful private sector, but it also needs a very strong, successful public sector.

鈥淚f we can pull reform off (convincing graduates that social work is prestigious and rewarding) then the health of our society will be dramatically improved and big social challenges will be much easier to deal with.鈥�

In partnership with the 天美传媒, the Frontline initiative offers a work-based route into children鈥檚 social work that aims to attract people who might not have otherwise considered a career in the profession.

Lord Adonis added: 鈥淪ocial work has very high vacancy rates, big challenges of recruitment and alarming rates of turnover. These severely damage our capacity to tackle this big social problem of dysfunctional families and vulnerable children.

鈥淏ut with the right solution, potentially Frontline, you can get really big progress in five or six years.鈥�

And Josh McAllister, Frontline Chief Executive, told the audience this reform is desperately needed.

鈥淥nly six per cent of children in care get into university. One-in-four of the current prison population were children in care. One-in-ten children, seeking support from a social worker, have been excluded from school.鈥�

He added: 鈥淲e want to make social work in the top 10 most attractive occupations for graduates (currently 14^th).We want to create graduates with the right mix of academic skills and personal qualities, and resilience, to build a relationship with families in very difficult circumstances.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an incredibly demanding job and needs the best people in this country to do it.鈥�

Professor Donald Forrester, Professor of Social Work Research, commented: 鈥淔rontline will be a fundamentally different way of supplying social work education.

鈥淚t offers a programme which will deliver the types of graduates that are fantastic practitioners and rethink how we deliver social work practices.鈥�

Editor notes

• To watch the event in full, where Lord Adonis focusses on his role in improving the Education sector, please visit
• The academic programme is being led by Professor Donald Forrester, Professor of Social Work Research and Director of the Tilda Goldberg Centre, with support from Professor Michael Preston-Shoot, Executive Dean of Health and Social Sciences, and Professor of Social Work at the 天美传媒.
• The 天美传媒 will lead a consortium that includes the Institute of Psychiatry and the Institute of Family Therapy. The consortium will deliver a 13-month post-graduate qualification in social work and the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE), leading to a Masters. The 天美传媒鈥檚 Tilda Goldberg Centre* will provide expert teaching from leading social work experts.
• For more on the 天美传媒鈥檚 work with Frontline and to organise an interview with one of the academics, or for further quotes from the academics on the night, please contact the press office on 01582 743499.
• For more on Frontline visit