Qualified social workers should be given more of a voice during Ofsted inspections, argues social work expert Professor Eileen Munro.

In her first report into children's services in England, she said there needed to be more time for front line social workers to critically reflect on cases.

"There's a lot of scope for using more sources of information. The time frame that's most important is the child's journey from needing help to receiving help. At the moment, we don't have information about that or feedback from the front-line or service users," she told Community Care.

Munro admitted that the move for social workers to be given more time to reflect on their cases would be a cultural shift as opposed to them being allocated a set amount of time factored into caseloads.

"It's not something you do in a designated half hour or specific period of time you set aside. The crucial point is that the critical value of reflection is acknowledged and that local authorities make space for it. It's about how social workers approach a case. I think of it as putting oxygen into the system," she added.

The report also acknowledged the integrated children's system (ICS) and Munro revealed that she and her panel would look into IT issues as their review progressed, as they were well aware that many local authorities had invested in expensive systems that they now wanted to get out of.

"Computers themselves don't solve any problems, so rather than focusing on replacing ICS, we're looking at how computer technology fits into helping social workers do their jobs," added Munro.