Back to the Future of Social Work: Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the Post Qualifying Curriculum in England and Wales

The first social work course to focus on children's mental health in the UK began in 1929 at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The subsequent child guidance movement spawned the genesis of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) where social workers held a pivotal and much-respected role among multi-disciplinary teams. This role has been undermined in recent years. Post qualifying social work education and training needs to recognise and reflect the potential social work contribution to modern CAMH services to enable social workers in England and Wales to engage and contribute to supporting the increasing numbers of troubled young people. This paper sets out a rationale, knowledge base and outline content for ways in which the post qualifying social work curriculum can be developed to equip social workers with the necessary skills to engage purposively in this area.