Remodelling Social Work Practice

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Remodelling Social Work Practice

• Jane Parfrement
• Deputy Assistant Director
• Safeguarding and Specialist Services

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CWDC National Project

• Childrens Workforce Development Council Project
• Runs until March 2011
• 11 Local Authority Pilots- Bath NE Somerset,
  Birmingham, Derbyshire, North Tyneside, Rochdale,
  Sheffield, Shropshire, Somerset, Tower Hamlets,
  Westminster, Wirral
• Provides funding to explore alternative models
  of social work delivery
• Focus on Local Authority social workers who work
  with children, young people, their families and
  carers

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National Project Drivers

• Laming Report (2003) identified the need for
  childrens social care services to
• Have a skilled, adequate and effective workforce
• Improve the quality of supervision
• Manage the workload of Social Workers more
  effectively
• Provide strong administrative support
• Move towards more integrated models of practice
• All the projects will be testing out ways of
  achieving this using different models of delivery
• Link to CWDC website www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/socia
  l-work/remodelling

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Aims of The National Project

• Each pilot will explore ways for social workers
  and their teams to
• Organise their work practice differently
• Organise the staff teams more effectively
• Look at how they can achieve more front line
  contact with children and young people
• The project will disseminate ideas on
• New ways of working that contribute to better
  outcomes
• How to make the experienced practitioner role
  more attractive to social workers
• How far remodelling can support further
  integration of social workers into other
  childrens services and what helps this to be
  effective

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The Drivers for Derbyshire

• The geographical and demographic challenge of
  delivering services
• The integration agenda
• ICS and ICT
• Administrative and bureaucratic demands
• Recruiting, developing and retaining a skilled
  and motivated workforce
• Best use of expertise
• Financial and business sense
• An opportunity to trial and learn

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The Message From Social Workers

• There are lots of positives about ICS and
  electronic records but they tie us to the office
  and we spend too much time behind a computer
• We want to use our skills to do social work not
  admin
• We dont have enough time to spend with
  children, young people and their families
• The work balance has gone- our caseloads seem
  full of high end statutory work, its stressful
  and draining
• We would welcome the chance to work alongside
  other agencies and professionals but they dont
  always seem to understand what we do and
  partnership can sometimes feel like being
  dumped on
• We want to do the jobs we came into social work
  to do

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The Derbyshire Pilot - Remodelling social work
delivery in a rural setting

• The Derbyshire Pilot seeks to address the known
  difficulties in delivering childrens social care
  to a large rural community, improving both the
  visibility of social care, and access to it by
  the public, using the latest technology for
  mobile working and a set of outposts

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Derbyshire Dales
800 Sq kilometres 4 Market Towns 100
Villages Total population of 69,800 Child
Population of 14,600
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• Target Sites For Co-located Outposts
• Matlock
• Asbourne
• Wirksworth
• Bakewell

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Aim and Objectives

• The Business Case
• To improve access to social care for local people
• Greater knowledge of social care in the community
• Earlier engagement with children and families
• Remodelled roles for social workers , social work
  assistants, and business services staff

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Specific Objectives

• To address the social isolation of those people
  requiring social care by bringing services closer
  to them
• To raise the visibility and accessibility of
  childrens social care, particularly the social
  worker task
• To ensure recruitment and retention of
  experienced social workers and increased job
  satisfaction
• To increase direct contact time both frequency
  and duration - with children and families both
  for children in need, children subject to
  protection plans and children in care.
• To test out advanced mobile technology to
  determine the extent to which it can provide
  increased flexibility in recording practice
• To consider the role Business Services can play
  in making best use of ICT systems, and the
  general administrative support role to social
  workers.

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Specific Objectives cont

• Explore the role Social Work Assistants can play
  in undertaking routine and less complex tasks
  related to social care functions
• To build on current activity and evidence based
  practice in relation to early intervention and
  thresholds for care, particularly through the use
  of Parenting Programmes.
• To identify the specific skills a virtual
  multi-disciplinary team can bring to meet
  identified needs within the local population, and
  how these might best be used

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Staffing and the Pilot

• We are
• Recruiting experienced professionals to the
  social work posts
• Offering enhanced training and development
  opportunities to all staff involved in the pilot
• Maintaining strong supervisory and Line
  Management links
• Realigning existing teams in the district to the
  pilot
• Using CWDC funding to increase business support
  to the social work staff and recruit Social Work
  Assistants
• Recruiting to business support roles and Social
  Work Assistant roles with a clear understanding
  that they are expected to be flexible, support
  the social work task, and be directed in their
  work by social workers

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Project evaluation

• Questionnaires
• Performance data
• Interviews
• Staffing data
• Work activity studies

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The Response So Far

• Overwhelmingly positive from partner agencies
• Positive from managers across Derbyshire
• Mixed from social workers

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Questions

• Comments