Having been overlooked for too long, social services have now moved up the political agenda, writes Chris Smith.

"Things can only get better" was the mantra that swept New Labour to power in 1997.

Those working in local government social services had been uttering the phrase for years before that pivotal moment, though with little conviction. Theirs had been the Cinderella service in local government – which itself was largely viewed as a backwater by Whitehall.

New Labour’s watchwords of "education, education, education" meant its first term was spent focusing on standards in schools. Social services had missed out again.

Now, with the new focus on "joined-up, multi-agency working", the forgotten arm of local government is back in the loop. And its workforce is facing major changes and challenges. In 21st Century Britain, the new government vision sees social services as "enablers" who ensure quality and standards rather than providers of one-size-fits-all services.

But things couldn’t have got any worse: the perception of professionals such as housing officers, care assistants and social workers has remained low. The biggest problems were in child protection where social workers were routinely condemned for failures in high profile cases such as Jasmine Beckford who was starved and battered to death by her stepfather in 1984 while in the care of Brent social services. The pattern continued, culminating in the public outcry over the death in 2000 of Victoria Climbié.

The Laming inquiry that followed found a failure to intervene early, poor coordination and training, a failure to share information, little accountability, and frontline workers trying to cope with staff vacancies. Its recommendations led to the biggest reorganisation of children’s services in England for 30 years.

Every Child Matters, published by the government last September, demanded "that every child has the chance to fulfil their potential by reducing levels of educational failure, ill health, substance misuse, teenage pregnancy, abuse and neglect, crime and anti-social behaviour among children and young people". The most public change is the creation of a new post, director of children’s services, which will be accountable for local authority education and children’s social services.

The next stage will be new guidelines for joint working in health and education – set out in the Children Bill – that will be overseen by the new watchdog, the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Key issues, such as how school exclusions are resolved, will be under review. "It’s a whole new ball game for us. Managing children’s services will require us to up our game quite substantially. At local level, partners need to have a shared moral purpose," said Liz Railton of Essex County Council.

A new degree in social work has put the profession on a stronger footing. And pay – partly driven by the shortage in qualified staff – has also improved. Graduates starting at Tower Hamlets are being offered £30,000-a-year, including a £2000 "golden hello", rivalling top accountancy firms.

Currently in ministerial sights is care provision for the elderly, where local authorities still play a major role. Health minister Stephen Ladyman has made clear he wants little short of a revolution in the way services are commissioned and provided. He called for an "entrepreneurial leap of faith" by care providers; where once the only option for elderly people was a local authority care home, person-centred choice is now the order of the day.

Ladyman has not pulled his punches, recently quoting in a speech Einstein’s definition of madness as "continuing to do what you’ve always done and expecting something different as a result". Local authorities traditionally commission services and Ladyman warned them: "If you are paying for a service that falls short of the ideal, you are every bit as guilty of failing service users as the people who provide that service."

But to modernise care homes, other issues will need to be solved, such as the problem of recruiting care assistants, which have dogged the sector for years. "We used to be the training ground for Tesco. At least now it’s the health service," said Kina, Lady Avebury of the Coalition for Quality in Care at a recent conference.

The latest onslaught is actually welcomed, according to Andrew Cozens, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services. "Nobody has any doubt this is how services should go. The challenge is how we get from here to there. The major stumbling block is the current legal framework," he said.

After years of being left behind, local government social services are now unrecognisable compared to the situation a generation ago. And it isn’t over yet – the days of corporate government are over. Einstein, the favoured ministerial thinker, could also have been summing up the new challenges when he said: "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."

Chris Smith is deputy news editor of CareandHealth magazine.