ASYE fictional case study: Roy p.1

Assessed & Supported Year in Employment

Fictional case study

Case study: Roy

Roy is employed by Aldingley Council as a newly qualified social worker in the Long

Term Childcare Team. He has been enrolled on the ASYE programme as part of his

probation. There is an index of Roy’s evidence on page 2.

Setting up Roy’s ASYE

Roy has been working for Aldingley for

about six weeks and has met with

Sarah, his assessor and supervisor,

once a week during this time. Their first

meeting included Roy’s line manager,

Liam, and in it they drew up the learning

agreement [evidence 1] for the ASYE

year.

They also discussed and recorded the

different roles and responsibilities of

Liam as line manager, Sarah, the

assessor, and Roy himself. Sarah

outlined her expectations for the year,

suggesting that Roy provides her with

evidence in advance of the meetings

that they could use as the basis for their

discussions.

Sarah checked with Roy that he

understood the briefing that he had

received about the ASYE, which

included information about the

Professional Capabilities Framework

and the importance of seeing it as a

year-long and holistic process of

assessment.

Roy was initially allocated six cases

when he joined the Long Term Childcare

Team. Liam explained to Roy that he

would be allocated more cases as he

established his role in the team and that

these cases would increase in

complexity as Roy became more

confident.

In advance of his meeting with Sarah,

Roy provided Sarah with two

documents:

summary of work undertaken and

feedback from a colleague in the

Long Term Care Team [evidence 2]

reflective account. [evidence 3]

The meeting

Sarah was able to give Roy positive

feedback on his work so far. She

identified how he had already

undertaken some work that shows he is

able to take the learning from his

qualifying course, put it into practice and

demonstrate potential for development.

Sarah took the opportunity to explore

with Roy how he could develop his

evidence gathering skills. They focused

on the feedback that Roy had received

from Holly and pulled out elements that

could be used as evidence of

achievement. Roy suggested that he

might be able to use Holly’s feedback as

contributing to evidence of his work in

the Intervention and Skills domain.

Sarah felt that it was a good place to

start as it did show that he could

communicate appropriately with service

users and professionals and had some

key communication skills that he might

need to become more conscious of in

order to recognise that he was using

them.

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Roy and Sarah also had a useful

discussion about recognising evidence

in various pieces of work in order that

progressive development of capability

can be charted over the year, without

adding additional burden to both Roy’s

and Sarah’s workload. By the end of the

meeting Roy and Sarah had reached an

agreement that Roy would review his

evidence for this meeting and identify

how this could contribute to his overall

assessment.

Roy would also use the case summary

that he was preparing from one of his

cases and reflect on this to identify the

development of his capabilities against

the ASYE domains. Sarah and Roy

would discuss this summary and Roy’s

reflections on it in their next supervision

meeting. Sarah reassured him that while

it may not meet all of the domains, it

was likely to demonstrate evidence

against a number of them because

critical reflection is central to the

development of professional practice.

Roy also asked if he could video some

of his work if he got permission from the

service user involved, so that he could

reflect on this work with his supervisor

and potentially use it as part of his

evidence of achievement. Sarah agreed

to find out if the authority has any

guidance on the implications this might

have, for example maintaining

confidentiality and upholding service

user rights. Roy also undertook to ask

about this when meeting the Practice

Educator Coordinator next week as part

of his induction, and report back to

Sarah.

Sarah told Roy that he had made a

good start and she felt that he could

manage this work alongside his

responsibilities in the team. She agreed

to feed this back to Liam. Sarah also

explained to Roy that she would discuss

with the ASYE coordinator the work that

Roy submits for consideration, so that

she can be confident that the

judgements she is making about Roy’s

capability are accurate, valid and robust.

Index of evidence to go with this case study

Page

1. Learning agreement 3

2. Summary of work & colleague’s feedback 9

3. Reflective account 11

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Evidence 1: Learning agreement

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Evidence 2: Summary of work & colleague’s feedback

Summary of work

In the past five weeks I have completed my induction with the council. This involved

attending a series of training sessions for council staff on policy and procedures,

meeting with colleagues from HR, Finance and Corporate Services.

I have attended two team meetings in the Long Term Childcare team and one at the

Referral and Assessment Team to meet colleagues there and get an understanding of

what they do.

I have also spent time orienting myself in the team: I have had an office induction from

the team administrator and am logged on to all relevant systems. I have completed

online training so that I can use the case recording and administration systems, and

understand the information protection requirements of my role.

I have also attended the council’s multi-agency safeguarding training, which was run in

my second week at work. Liam my manager nominated me for the training; this was a

helpful induction to the way that things are done in Aldingley, allowing me to explore

how procedures become a reality and I was able to network with other people from

education, social care and health.

I have been on three shadowing visits with different social workers in the team,

including one of the senior practitioners.

I have also been allocated six cases. Two of these were transfers from a social worker,

Holly, who was leaving and I met with her to discuss the cases and completed a joint

visit on one of the cases before she left. Holly has provided some feedback on the

transfer of this case to me. As this was the first case that was allocated to me I have

included this in my reflective account of my experiences so far.

Feedback

My name is Holly Clark and I am a social worker in the Long Term Care Team. Roy

accompanied me on a visit to meet one of my clients A, who is a resident in a children’s

home in Aldingley. I am leaving the Long Term Childcare Team and handing over this

and another case to Roy. Roy prepared for the visit well; we met in advance of the

meeting to discuss the case and he asked me lots of questions and gathered a

considerable amount of information about the unit and A before we went. He

demonstrated a real understanding of the issues that might be relevant to the case and

asked sensible and at times challenging questions.

During the visit itself Roy acted in an appropriate manner towards A establishing a good

rapport with him and explaining why he was meeting him and that he would be taking

over his case. Interestingly Roy asked A if he could help him understand the work of the

team and A spent a long time talking about his experiences of social workers from

Aldingley, not all good, but giving Roy tips on how he could do things right. It was

interesting to observe.

Roy observed my meeting with A to discuss his upcoming review meeting. Roy asked

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permission to be in the meeting and explained clearly that A could ask him to leave at

any point if he wanted to.

A has since given me some verbal feedback saying that he liked Roy and thought he

was a social worker he could ‘get on with’. This is high praise as A has had very bad

experiences of social workers at times.

Overall I was very impressed with Roy’s contribution to the meeting and the rapport that

he is trying to build with A. Roy has a genuine insight into the real issues of being in

care, and was able to establish an appropriate relationship with A based on his

professional role. I think he will be a real asset to the team.

HC

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Evidence 3: Reflective account

I have enjoyed my time settling in to work at the Long Term Care team. It has been

challenging to make the transition from being a student to being in full time employment

but I think I have used my time productively to achieve what I can.

In terms of my induction, I found the various training sessions useful, although it was

hard to see the relevance of some of the corporate training to my work, but I now know

who I can approach to sort out problems should they arise.

My induction to the team has been really helpful. I feel that I have a real understanding

of the work they do and the tools that they use to achieve it. I have set myself some

goals to achieve over the coming weeks to make sure that I am able to continue to

develop my IT skills. The office administrator has offered to help me set up a case

record on line so that I can get experience of recording and managing data using the

CareTrack system that they use.

I have also benefitted from spending time with the team in meetings and on an

individual basis. I was very daunted about joining an experienced team of social

workers who carry a lot of complex cases. I was allocated six cases when I joined the

team and I understand that I will be allocated additional and more complex cases as I

settle into the team and develop my capabilities. The team has been very welcoming

and have enabled me to feel part of the set up from the start. Liam had arranged a good

introduction to the team and they were well prepared for me to start, so this made things

a bit easier.

Several colleagues have made comments about it being good to have a man join the

team. I found this difficult to start with as I assumed that gender would not be an issue,

but having thought about it I can see how having male workers in a predominantly

female team adds to the diversity and brings fresh perspectives to the work that we do. I

have asked them what they think I might bring so that I can try and understand where

they are coming from.

In terms of the feedback that I have received I am pleased with the positive feedback,

and I welcome the comments that I am conducting myself in a professional manner that

is expected of me. I will use Holly’s comments to remind me that I have a good

foundation on which to build.

In my first week at Aldingley I was transferred a case from Holly because she was

leaving the team. I was anxious about picking up ‘real’ cases; although I held cases as a

student, this is a new experience for me to be accountable for my work. However I think

I am up to the task and have had very positive feedback from both Holly and Liam so far

on what I have done.

Alongside Holly, I met with the child whose case has transferred to me. I was nervous

about this meeting as it was my first case and I was still learning about what the team

does. I arranged to meet with Holly before we visited the child and I prepared a list of

questions that I wanted to ask her. Holly was really supportive in helping me to

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understand the case, what her role had been and what my role is likely to be. I thought

the meeting with the child went well and Holly provided good feedback for me.

I am getting to grips with the other cases that I have been allocated. Liam has

accompanied me on my initial visits to the families and children involved in the cases

and I have begun to make independent visits on the more straightforward cases. I have

started writing a case summary for one of my cases and Liam is supporting me with

this.

I am also enthusiastic about getting into my ASYE work. I have many ideas about how I

can present evidence and show that I am doing well in my work. I have reread the

briefing and the Standards documents and I am confident that I will be able to meet all

of the requirements of the programme.

This fictional case study is provided by Skills for Care and the Department for Education, © 2012. It can be copied for the purposes of administering the ASYE, but must not be published for sale.