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The Early Professional Development (EPD) programme was launched by the Children's Workforce Development Council (CWDC) in September 2009 following consultation with employers and staff from 45 organisations in England which provided child and family social work services. It was planned to build on the Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) programme by enabling employers to continue to support social workers in their second and third years of employment. The aims of the EPD programme were to: improve the recruitment and retention of child and family social workers; improve training and development opportunities for social workers working with children and families during their second and third years of employment; improve social workers' practice; and promote and improve effective supervision. This report concerns the implementation of the EPD pilot programme (2009-11). It assesses the extent to which it achieved its objectives with the first cohort of social workers. The report includes a summary of the policy and practice context; summative findings on participation in the programme, its implementation and the outcomes for participating social workers; a set of case and organisational studies to show how the programme was implemented in different organisations; and a thematic analysis of the findings concerning key elements of the programme: implementation and impact, supervision, assessing outcomes and evidencing achievement, and retention.

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The Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) programme was originally established in 2008 as a three year project involving the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) working with employers to deliver a comprehensive programme of support to newly qualified social workers (NQSWs). At the time of writing, the programme is in its fourth year. The programme was designed to ensure that NQSWs receive consistent, high quality support and that those supervising them are confident in their skills to provide support. It aimed to contribute to increasing the number of people who continue their long-term career within social work with children and families. It had the specific objectives of: helping NQSWs improve their skills, competence and confidence as child and family social workers in a systematic manner during their first year of practice; enabling employers to provide focused supervision, support and guidance; contributing towards NQSWs’ post-registration training and learning; and improving job satisfaction and promoting retention within the children’s social worker workforce. This report presents findings from the national evaluation of the first three years of the programme 2008-2011, covering three cohorts of NQSWs. It includes a summary of the policy and practice context of the NQSW programme; summative findings on participation in the programme, its implementation and the outcomes for NQSWs, making comparisons between the three cohorts; a set of organisational case studies to show how the programme was implemented in different organisations; and a thematic analysis of the findings concerning key elements of the programme: implementation and impact, supervision, assessing outcomes and evidencing achievement, and recruitment and retention of NQSWs.

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