First Annual Report of the Principal Child and Family Social Worker
1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015
Purpose of the report
This report describes and analyses the work of the Principal Child and Family Social
Worker since the introduction of the role in Calderdale on 1st April 2014.
Introduction
The role of Principal Social Worker was first set out in the Munro Review of Child
Protection in 2011. Recommendation 14 stated that, “Local authorities should
designate a Principal Child and Family Social Worker, who is a senior manager with
lead responsibility for practice in the local authority and who is still actively involved
in frontline practice and who can report the views and experiences of the front line to
all levels of management”.
A recent national survey carried out by the College of Social Work found that 141
local authorities/trusts had a PSW role, and the responsibilities varied according to
the interpretation and needs of the employing authority. However, there were
common themes relating to quality assurance, learning and development, practice
supervision and consultancy, recruitment and retention. The survey also identified
that some form of leadership function for social work practice was common and
embedded in the role e.g. acting as a social work representative within management,
achieving practice improvement.
The role of Principal Child and Family Social Worker in Calderdale, is set at team
manager level and is currently a stand - alone post. The responsibilities of the post
are very similar to those identified in the national survey but also reflect local needs
and priorities for the service.
Accountability
The post currently reports to the Head of Early Intervention and Safeguarding,
Calderdale Children and Young People’s Services. The designation of the role within
Calderdale means that the responsibility and accountability for the quality of social
work practice is organisationally defined and visibly supported.
A degree of independence is required of the role in order to provide challenge within
the organisation. Effectiveness is then supported by having a direct line of access to
the Head of Service.
The regional and national networks of PCFSWs also provide information to the Chief
Social Worker (Isabelle Trowler) and regular consultations are held in respect of
issues such as social worker health checks, workload, employer standards, practice
and learning developments.
Scope of the role
In April 2014, a workplan was established in conjunction with the Head of Service to
determine the key priorities of the role. They were as follows:
a) The introduction of systemic social work practice
The Safe, Successful Families project involves the introduction of systemic practice
to social work teams and remains the key responsibility to date. The project is
overseen by a fortnightly held implementation group drawing representation from a
wide range of staff across children’s services. This is an enormous, transformational
project. It includes significant change to the structure of the locality teams, a service
wide training programme and changes to a multitude of work processes for both
social work and administrative staff. The different responsibilities associated with this
are diverse involving training and commissioning, consultation, evaluation, HR
issues and many different organisational tasks associated with the change. Latterly,
supervision of two of the practice managers who are working in systemic practice
test pods has been added. Equally, the communication and consultation required
with different stakeholders including staff, elected members, partner agencies and
service users has been significant.
To date we have trained 30 staff and this will have increased to 90 by the end of July
2015. A preference exercise is underway and all locality teams will be established
as systemic pods by 1st June.
The response so far is positive but it is recognised that it is very early days in the
transformation and that the change will take time to be fully embedded, with social
work practice fully embracing the principles of systemic practice
b) Coordination of support to social work practice
Since coming into post, the drive for improvement in practice has been clearly
evident at all levels of the organisation with emphasis on performance targets and
learning from audits.
Some processes were taking place in relative isolation and the last year has seen
processes moving closer together. Since October the IT training has been combined
with information on practice, and links to procedures. This has been purposeful in
providing social workers with the rationale for IT processes leading to deeper
learning. Changes to processes and procedures are more coordinated and a range
of communication strategies used to ensure that the workforce is aware.
The work on chronologies has not had the impact yet that would have been expected
but only a small group has so far benefitted from the training. Feedback would
suggest greater awareness of the expectations regarding chronologies but this has
not comprehensively transferred to practice.
Responsibility for on-line practice procedures, practice standards and practice tools
has ensured that issues raised by both social workers and senior managers can be
incorporated more quickly into practice.
Joint training with the CASS (IT) team has already reaped some benefits with clearer
understanding by both of the needs of the respective services to ensure high quality
IT systems.
Work with social workers and admin teams on the online Strengths and Difficulties
Questionnaire has yet to significantly improve results, but the training is due to start
in earnest in May 2015.
Facilitation of reflective sessions on specific cases has helped to move on complex
cases with new plans being made.
Contribution has been made to the service’s case auditing programme as well as
feedback to the respective services for further learning. Contribution to the multiagency auditing programme has also been made particularly in respect of repeat
referrals and work with adults and children’s services.
There is now routine reporting on practice observations, and increased expectation
around this activity. The quality however, fluctuates and the value of this activity is
still not fully realised.
Consultation with young people about social work services has taken place routinely
and this has been communicated back to staff at different levels of the organisation.
The very practical pointers offered by the children and young people about their
views on practice have been helpful and the response of staff to this has been
encouraging.
c) Learning and Development
In conjunction with the Workforce Development team, a bespoke and varied learning
and development programme for social workers including courses, briefings,
webinars and lectures has been produced. Team development days have also been
supported. More diverse opportunities such as a reflective walk have been offered,
and currently the development of a book club to discuss social work ideas is being
promoted in order to cater for different learning styles.
Coordination of a local social workers conference in September 2014 and a regional
conference on National Social Work Day in March 2015 have contributed to the
learning opportunities for our staff as well as raising the profile of the service.
Networks of specific staff eg Practice Supervisors, Advanced Practitioners and social
workers are now running and provide valuable opportunity for the dissemination of
information and good practice as well as encouraging a whole service ethos.
Attendance has faltered particularly in terms of the Advanced Practitioners as many
are looking toward a new role under systemic practice. The practitioner forum has
fluctuated. Attendance has been affected by the drive for many social workers during
this period to attend
Three joint development sessions have taken place between IROs and team
managers in order to foster productive working relationships, and more are planned.
Collation and dissemination of good practice is systematically carried out. The
networks also ensure that learning from reviews is feedback to staff.
Together with Kirklees, a successful bid to the Innovation Programme’s Early
Adopter scheme has been approved to support partnership with Huddersfield
University in training and supporting new social workers.
d) The social work ‘voice’ at strategic level
Membership of strategic management groups provides opportunity both to contribute
to and influence strategic issues that impact on social workers, whilst allowing for the
social work voice to be heard at a strategic level. Over time, the number of strategic
meetings has reduced in recognition of the need for emphasis on practice and
quality assurance rather than other strategic considerations. Presentations to elected
members have been made to inform them of the role and its purpose.
Quarterly visits to teams, and regular contact with individual social workers on
request ensures the authenticity of the social worker ‘voice’.
As part of the introduction of systemic social work, evaluation processes have taken
place with staff in order to assess the impact for them of the changes. A social
worker ‘temperature check’ eliciting views on the challenges faced by staff took place
in September with the findings being submitted to senior managers in the autumn.
One of the issues raised was the lack of adequate induction and there is now a
process for identifying new starters and ensuring that they attend one of my monthly
induction sessions, run in conjunction with the CASS IT team
e) Partnership working
Joint delivery of the Safeguarding Children Board’s Essential Information briefings
and support to the Board’s Safeguarding Week have helped maintain the profile of
the service alongside bespoke sessions for agencies on request such as the Family
Nurse Partnership. A key strand of the work has been to improve joint working with
adults services. Development of a network of ‘champions’ to improve collaborative
working between adults and children’s services has been established and whilst it is
very early days, the message of collaborative working is starting to filter through with
the introduction of job shadowing. Management events have been coordinated to
improve awareness of each other’s services as well as highlight the importance of a
joint approach.
After several attempts to extend the use of volunteers in families involved with
Social Care, a three month pilot has been approved in conjunction with Home Start
using Troubled Families funding.
Conclusions
1. The role is relatively new but feedback from both social workers and managers is
very positive to date. However, the key measure will ultimately be how far it
improves practice and positively impacts on the lives of children and young
people. This will be tested out in a number of ways including formal inspection
processes as well as direct feedback from the service users themselves.
However, establishing a causal link between the work of the PCFSW and altered
performance will be challenging.
2. For almost all of this first year, the service has been preoccupied by the
expectation of an Ofsted inspection and all that the process entails. The outcome
of that inspection means that future work can be more focussed on the specific
areas requiring improvement, as well as allowing for more locally determined
priorities.
3. The practice development work has really highlighted the need for ongoing
sessions due to staff changes as well as the challenges in reaching the whole
staff group at any one time. ‘Painting the Forth Bridge’ is a useful analogy here.
4. In terms of impact it would appear, and feedback would suggest, that the
coordination of processes and arrangements that support practice are more
systematic than previously. This has led to a reduction in duplication whilst
allowing for more effective communication of messages to staff.
5. Many of the initiatives are new and have not allowed sufficient time for
evaluation.
Next steps
1.Findings from the Ofsted inspection and local service plans will shape the
workplan for the coming year. However, there are already some identified priorities
specifically regarding the improvement work on permanence planning
2.There is a need to continue and evaluate the work of the first year in respect of:
a) The transition to systemic social work practice
b) The work with Adults Services to promote better collaboration and higher levels of
referrals.
3. Consultation work should continue with children and young people regarding their
experience of social work practice, but introduce more consultation with parents to
ensure that the customer perspective on practice is present
4. The audit and quality assurance work, together with the dissemination of good
practice remains a priority alongside the development of peer audits.
5.Evaluation of the volunteer project to inform future development work
6. Further embed practice changes such as the induction sessions, chronology
training, and practice observations to promote further consistency across the service.
7. Review the current networks in light of the move to systemic practice and the
changing profiles of staff and their teams
8.Review the learning and development programme for staff and specifically first line
managers with particular reference to improvements in supervision and leadership,
and contribute to the partnership work with Huddersfield University
9. Test out new communication methods with social workers to get practice
messages across to staff
Bernadette Johansen
Principal Child and Family Social Worker
22.4.15