Social work news

• Inspectors criticise oversight of social work practice at Home Office age assessment service

  20-08-2025 15:08
  
  Inspectors have criticised the oversight of social work practice at the Home Office’s age assessment service for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
  Inadequate quality assurance risked undermining the National Age Assessment Board’s (NAAB) ambition to be a “centre of excellence” for practice in this area, warned the report from Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, David Bolt.
  The report also raised concerns about the NAAB recruiting social workers wi
  
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• Local government pay: inflation exceeds 3.2% deal for fourth month in a row

  20-08-2025 13:17
  
  The annual rate of inflation has exceeded the 2025-26 local government pay rise for a fourth month in a row.
  Prices rose by 3.8% in the year to July 2025, according to the government’s preferred consumer prices index (CPI) measure, reported the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today.
  The CPI rate was 3.6% in June, 3.4% in May and 3.5% in April, compared with the 3.2% increase in pay agreed for council staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland this year.
  Last month, the Bank of
  
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