Children’s Social Care
Workforce Development Strategy
Jan 2013- April 2016
Strategic Drivers for Workforce Development Planning 3
Driver - Project WISE 3
Driver - Local Safeguarding Children’s Board - Learning from Serious Case Reviews 3
Driver - Children and Young People’s Plan 4
Driver – Munro Recommendations 4
Wider Workforce Development Priority Themes for 2013-14 6
1. Observation of Practice in Social Work 6
2. Children’s Trust Joint Induction 6
3. Multi-Agency Training 6
4. Personal Development Plans 6
5. Management Development 6
6. Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) 7
7. Step Up to Social Work DFE Scheme (LBBD Lead Borough) 7
9. Practice Placements and Practice Education 7
10. Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) 8
11. Charging for Non Attendance of Training 8
Action Plan and Monitoring 9
Annex A 20
Strategic Drivers for Workforce Development Planning
The children’s workforce development strategy is very much a working document that sets out our current and future actions to improve the knowledge and skills of the children’s workforce development in the LB of Barking and Dagenham. The plan is driven by the following strategic drivers:
· Children and Young People Plan
· Munro recommendations for Social Work
· New Ofsted Framework for inspections of LA’s
· Project WISE (see definition below)
· Safeguarding Children’s Board (LBBD)
· Social work transformation plans to improve the services to children, young people and families in the Borough.
The strategy is a `live’ document which is refreshed and updated every 6 months as actions are implemented and new priorities identified.
Driver - Project WISE
The WISE Plan (Workforce to transform social care, Inclusion practice for Green Paper, Sufficient suitable school places, Early Intervention services) is the strategic driver for our programme and project management strands. The WISE plan highlights progress from projects SAFE and SURE and directs the current strategy. Lessons learned from Serious Case Reviews and Ofsted inspections will be threaded into our development plans as set out below. The WISE Plan is comprised of several work strands under the headings below that are led on by Divisional Directors in Children’s Services.
· Workforce to transform social care
· Inclusion practice for Green Paper
· Sufficient SUITABLE school places
· Early Intervention Services
Driver - Local Safeguarding Children’s Board - Learning from Serious Case Reviews
The learning we have established from our local serious case reviews, reflects the Ofsted National findings e.g. need to improve information sharing, the quality of analysis and assessment, value challenge, supervision and scrutiny. Working with resistant families featured high as a development need across the workforce, this was highlighted at the SCR Briefings through consultation with staff in all agencies. Although the Borough has made improvements in working together with the introduction of Multi Agency Locality Teams, there is still further work required to strengthen the understanding of different roles and responsibilities and the contribution they make in the outcomes for children, young people and their families/carers. A training needs analysis has been undertaken and the following activities have been implemented as follows:
1. Practitioner Forums: have been developed for multi-agency practitioners to revisit learning from SCR’s locally and nationally. Reviewing local SCR action plans to identify if lessons are embedded and being sustained in Barking and Dagenham. There are two forums which meet 6 – 8 weekly, membership is reflective of the Safeguarding Children Board partnerships and are developing as communities of good practice. Work has been undertaken to initiate the development of the Core Group Standards, a Neglect Toolkit and Child in Need Strategy to support practitioners to work more effectively with children and their families.
2. Neglect: This is an issue for some of our practitioners who find it difficult to articulate their concerns and provide the most appropriate level of intervention. Working with this type of abuse can be paralysing for practitioners when referrals to social care are not accepted and there is difficulty in engaging the parents or evoking any sustainable changes. A tool to support practitioners to work with Neglect alongside CAF is being piloted in B&D. Training for multi-agency practitioners on the 6 domains of Neglect is being provided as part of the Children’s Workforce Development Programme. In addition the B&DSCB Annual Conference will be based on the Neglect of Neglect and the impact for children.
3. Strengthening Families Framework: The Borough has been implementing this model of conducting Child Protection Conferences for more than 12 months now. Training is being rolled out to the Children’s Workforce and social workers have been trained in Chairing Skills for core groups. To support the change in practice and the implementation of this work Core Group Standards have been developed to provide guidelines, documentation and consistency for all practitioners’ who attend CP conferences. The SFF is being threaded into all training courses to ensure consistency in approach by all agencies working with children and their families.
Driver - Children and Young People’s Plan
The Children’s and Young People Plan (CYPP) states our workforce priority is to ensure that all staff across the partnership has the knowledge, skills and commitment to do the job we ask of them.
The Children’s Trust also agreed two strategic objectives to enact through the CYPP in order to achieve our vision. These strategic objectives are:
- Excellent, high quality and effective universal services; and
- Meeting the needs of vulnerable families - putting families at the heart of what we do.
The five top partnership priorities for the Plan are:
1. Ensure children and young people in our borough are safe
2. Narrowing the gap - raise attainment and realise aspiration for every child
3. Improve health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on tackling obesity and poor sexual health
4. Improve support and fully integrate services for vulnerable children, young people and families (particularly children in care and children with disabilities)
5. Challenging child poverty - preventing poor children becoming poor adults
Priorities for 2013-2016
The Children’s Trust priority for ensuring children and young people are safe will remain a key focus and our objectives are to continue to deliver further improvements in the following areas:
1. strengthening multi-agency practices to protect children
2. improving safeguarding outcomes of looked after children;
3. reducing the risk and impact of domestic violence, parental mental health and ensure families are supported using a Think Family approach and
4. Further reduce the number of first time entrants and reduce the number of victims of youth violence with a particular focus on gangs and child sexual exploitation.
In addition to the above CYPP priorities, the plan also highlights the focus for workforce development, in that we will ensure that all staff across the partnership has the knowledge, skills and commitment to do the job we ask of them. In relation to Integrated Working we will ensure we work together and recognise all our responsibilities to share information.
Driver – Munro Recommendations
Appointment of a Joint Principal Social Worker across LB Barking and Dagenham and Thurrock
Barking and Dagenham have appointed a Principal social Worker across LB barking and Dagenham and Thurrock Council. The role of the children’s PSW will be to work both strategically and operationally to identify the areas to improve and act as a champion/voice for social work.
Social Work Observations of Practice (Munro recommendation - At the case level, case management analysis and improved consultation with children is encouraging learning)
Observations of visits for children who are on plans under section 47 and section 17 have been undertaken by external consultants. This action to mentor and coach social workers was in response to findings from the 2012 Ofsted inspection. The long term strategy is to introduce observations by managers for social workers a good practice model to provide ongoing mentoring and manager oversight for all staff working for B&D Assessment and Care Management teams. A personal development plan for each social workers will support development of new skills embedding existing skills and celebrate current good practice. This change in culture will also sustain the ongoing development of the supervision and appraisal process as part of the social work reforms in B&D.
CPD and Core Training Offer for Social Workers
Social workers in children’s and adults have a wide range of development activities in which to access. They range from lunchtime CPD briefings, Away Days, Practitioner Forums, Specialist Training courses delivered in house and access to external courses which meet their needs. Training needs analysis is conducted with Group and Line Managers annually to capture up to date information of what the development needs of staff are and this is then addressed via a range of commissioned learning activities. In addition action learning, mentoring, coaching approaches have been introduced to provide more intense and work relevant tutoring for social workers.
Social Work Recruitment
Recruitment of experienced social workers has been problematic for the Borough. We are finding the market buoyant with newly qualified social workers and some interest from people wishing to return to social work. We have run open day events and taken part in national recruitment fairs to promote the Borough and our package offer. Our levels of intake for newly qualified social workers has risen this year to 9 newly qualified social workers in the past 12 months either completed or starting the ASYE scheme. This is predicted to rise next year with the changes to structures of social work teams to smaller `pod teams’.
Induction for Social Workers
Apart from the mandatory Joint Induction event all newly recruited staff in Children’s Services attend as part of their induction. Social workers have a 9 day specific induction plan (see Appendix 2) to ensure they are fully supported in their first 6 months of employment (see Table 2). An electronic staff handbook which details the induction, local information on procedures, training and services, such as housing, mental health has been written to support social workers and provide managers with clear procedures for induction for new starters to their teams. In the first 9 days the plan covers:
· Getting to know your team
· Training on ICS and Oracle IT systems
· Knowing your way around the borough through site visits and shadowing opportunities
· Making yourself familiar with policies and procedures
· An introduction to your case load and reading/preparation time
· What training is available and how to enroll
· A guide to local services in B&D
Wider Workforce Development Priority Themes for 2013-14
1. Observation of Practice in Social Work
Children’s Services are responding to national drivers and are supporting social workers through the implementation of the WISE plan to implement changes within culture of social work. The Munro Review, New Ofsted Framework, Social Care Reforms and Working Together 2013 are some of the statutory guidance that is motivating the transformations in child protection. Observation of practice is part of this move to provide an action learning approach. This highlights mentoring and coaching opportunities to support workforce development. The observations, which have currently been undertaken, have provided evidence that social workers visits with children are of a satisfactory to good standard. Next steps are to look at the recording in more detail. The quality assurance audits have shown that recording has improved and more detailed assessments are common practice. Next steps are to focus on analytical writing, in particular the Analysis of Risk, this will be conducted by an external consultant using case notes to develop and progress this skill. Both one to one and small groups will be identified to partake in this area of development. Managers will also receive training which can be used in supervision and for personal development plans.
2. Children’s Trust Joint Induction
The Children’s Trust and Local Safeguarding Children Board are committed to the development of newly recruited staff and demonstrates this through the delivery of our Joint Induction programme. This induction is mandatory for new starters across the partnership and provides information about the Borough in relation to the demographic profile of the Borough, key priorities, local processes. The event is an opportunity to meet the leaders, network with other practitioners and gain an understanding of the role of Safeguarding Boards and the Children’s Trust.
3. Multi-Agency Training
A Joint LSCB and Social Work Learning and Development programme is accessible to all staff across the partnership who work with children and families. The programme is available via the LSCB website or the Social Care Training websites. An online application form is used to apply for a training course. A key to indicate the most appropriate courses for practitioners has been developed and ensures that training identified particularly for social workers is advertised to meet this criteria. Uptake for training courses has been successful with demand for courses remaining high.
4. Personal Development Plans
The use of personal development plans across the Council has not been consistent with some teams using them more than others. Within the appraisal process there is requirement for managers to identify development needs of staff and agree learning objectives which are then captured in the Oracle Appraisal system. The Council is currently planning to move to the next version of Oracle (Release 12) where there will be some flexibility in customising the competences further to support the Councils vision but also enable professions to include their respective professional capabilities/competences which appropriate. This provides us with the opportunity to enhance the appraisal process to bring it in line with the professional capability framework for social work and in turn support the development of more appropriate Personal Development Plans.
5. Management Development
A development programme for team and practice managers across complex needs and social care has been facilitated by an external consultant to assist managers to develop more reflective practice. The programme covers four key elements that are relevant to everyday areas of social care management. Modules refer to existing documentation and local procedures and introduce the integration of social work reforms such as working with the professional capabilities framework, recording and developing evidence of manager oversight in supervision. A continuation of the manager’s development programme is being developed with more skills workshops which are being organised to meet the emerging themes from each stage of implementation. Recording and analysis of risk will be the next stage to support social workers to provide the most suitable level of intervention and improve outcomes for children.