Quality Control in Child Care

Correspondence to June Thoburn, School of Ecnomics and Social Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TS Summary This article takes as its starting point recent evidence aboutpoor practice in child care social work. It identifies a largenumber of mechanisms for ensuring quality control, and considerswhy they appear to be having so little effect. The writer suggeststhat because of the complexity of cases and the need for direction,and also because of disagreements about what is ‘quality’in child care, bureaucratic or procedural mechanisms have seriouslimitations as the major means for ensuring good practice. Shefocuses on the statutory review as the solution most frequentlysuggested but concludes that too much is being expected of it. Whilst accepting the need for procedural, inspectorial, judicial,and political checks and for more appropriate resources forfamily support, she suggests that the main remedy for poor practicemust lie in professional mechanisms. These include increasedspecialization, more time, improved training, and consultation.The weight of evidence and the intractable nature of the problemmay call for drastic measures, such as the introduction of theApproved social worker(child care).