SOCW 3019: SOCW 6058: Reflecting on Social Work: Identity and Relationships

1. Macro – 21st Century enlightenment 2. Mezzo – Social Work Reform Board, Munro

Review, the College of Social Work & Cuts3. Micro – Managing uncertainty, change and

complexity (practice) in the above contextMethods:

Watching, listening, reflecting, critiquing and talkingThis powerpoint with live links is on Blackboard

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=AC7ANGMy0yo&vq=large

Building a safe and confident future: One year on – progress report, Social Work Reform Board, December, 2010 http://www.education.gov.uk/swrb/a0074231/what-does-the-social-work-reform-board-do

EmployersADASSADCSCAFCASSChildren EnglandLGALGIDLGEMindNHS ConfederationSOLACE

Service usersA National VoicePrincess Royal Trust for CarersShaping Our Lives

Professional RegulatorsGSCCHPC

ProfessionAspectBASWCollege of Social WorkUnison

EducatorsAssociation of SW ProfessorsSWAPJUC-SWECUniversities UK

GovernmentBISDfEDH

Delivery orgsCQCCWDCHEFCEOfstedQAASCIESkills for Care

Background to reforms• 2008 – concerns about quality of social work practice and education

• 2009 Government Task Force to clarify problems and make recommendations. SWTF final report makes 15 recommendations

• Social work reform board ( SWRB) – and working groups

• Dec 2012 – One year On report with proposals for implementation

• January – March 31st consulting and testing out proposals

Social Workers’ Reference Group Service users and carers

Employers’ Reference Group

Professional standards

CPD

Assessed & Supported Year in Employment

Licence to practise Career structure Frontline

Managers

Calibre of entrants Curriculum Education

regulation Practice learning

Employers’ standards

Supervision Supply & demand Workloads Partnerships

Career development working group

Education working group

Employers’ standard Working group

The National Reform Programme recommended by the Social Work Task Force

Building a Safe and Confident Future: One Year On

• Progress report published December 2010• Detailed proposals in 5 key areas

– Professional Capabilities Framework– Standards for employers & supervision framework– Social work education– Continuing Professional Development Principles – Effective partnership working between employers

and HEIs

Professional capabilities framework• Currently no single comprehensive set of expectations of social workers at each stage of their career

• Framework proposes nine capabilities that are relevant regardless of level of experience

• Links to:•Entry requirements, levels of placement, qualification•AYSE and CPD•Performance appraisal/pay and grading structures

• Forms the main stages of national social work career structure

• Capabilities agreed, elements under development

What are the eight employer standards?

• Social work accountability framework• Effective workforce planning• Transparent systems for workload management• Tools and resources for effective practice, minimising risk• Regular and appropriate supervision• Opportunities for CPD• Support professional registration• Effective partnerships for social work education

New coherent and effective CPD framework

• Simple, accessible, portable

• Based on PCF to provide consistent/standardised learning objectives

• A hybrid approach with an academic core and non academic learning from range of activities (accredited and non-accredited)

• National recording system through performance appraisal

• Opens up new thinking about responsibility and entitlement

• Four principles unpin the proposals – for further discussion

What are the four principles?

CPD should:

• Support social workers to maintain and develop minimum standards for re-registration

• Encourage and motive social workers to improve practice through a wide range of learning opportunities, based on analysis of individual needs, ambition, career stage and learning style

• Be underpinned by annual appraisal cycle and recording

• Be simple to access, value for money and with opportunities for qualification and accreditation

Other

Partnerships

Public Understanding

Employers Standards & Supervision Framework

Regulation of education

Frontline Management

CPD

Professional Capabilities Framework

College of SW

Calibre of entrants

Curriculum & Delivery

Practice Placements

ASYE

Licence to Practise

Supply & Demand

Bursaries consultationHPC consultation

Transfer of functions from GSCC-HPC

2nd Interim Munro report Munro Final Report

Interim Allen report Tickell reportHealth & Social Care Bill first reading

Transition to College?

2nd Reform Board Report?

Review of current activity and decision on any future Reform Board action required

Review of current activity & decision required

NJC consultation

Development & testing of supply & demand model

Expectation that all HEIs are using guidance by 12/13 academic year

Expectation that all HEIs will use new framework by 13/14 academic year

Impact from 12/13 academic year

In place for all 15/16 graduate cohort

All employers to have adopted employers’ standards

Local activity funded by

CWDC/SfC and NSASC

Testing & feedback on OYO proposals

Sector-badged guidance

Draft framework for testing

Transfer to College? and public consultation Sector-badged

curriculum framework

Key:

Development milestone

Review point

Ownership milestone

Implementation milestone

Other

Publication

Sector-badged guidance

Transition to College?

Curriculum framework review and development

Testing & feedback on OYO proposals

Development of draft ASYE capability statements

Working up of assessment models

Decision on model options

Activity by owners to promote and monitor uptake

Testing of assessment models

Phased transition from NQSW to ASYE to begin

Report to Board on early adopters’ experiences

Early adoption & feedback on OYO proposals

Transition to new ownership arrangements

Full draft

framework

Development work

Transition to

College?

Testing & feedback on OYO principles

Testing & feedback on OYO proposals & further development

New model

of CPDTransition to

College?

Development work

Model developedAll employers feeding into supply and demand model

Transition to owner

Adopted by all partnerships

Transition to College?

Publication of final product

Testing & feedback on OYO proposals

Final Allen report

National Career Structure

Activity by owners to promote and monitor uptake

Jan Feb Mar Spring Summer Autumn Winter 2012 2013 & beyond2011

Review of current activity

Review of current activity and decision on future Reform Board action required

Review on current position

Uptake of guidance

Uptake of framework

Building services &

membership base

Promoting OYO report

FJR interim FJR Final Report

The Munro Review of Child Protection: Interim report: The Child’s Journey, February 2011http://www.education.gov.uk/munroreview/downloads/Munrointerimreport.pdf

Munro Review

‘It’s all about relationships. We are talking about dealing with people with problems, with painful stuff. You have to know someone, trust them. They must be reliable and be there for you if you are going to be able to talk about the things you don’t want to. The things that scare you.’ Parent

Family Perspectives on safeguarding and relationships with children’s serviceThe Children’s Commissioner for England, June 2010

“In the many discussions the review has had, there has been a tendency to blame the current problems on one or two key factors ‘If only ICS was taken away….’ ‘If only Ofsted didn’t …’. Altering these individually will not rectify the problems. The underlying reality is that changing family behaviour is difficult and we are dealing with uncertainty, so that prediction and prevention of child maltreatment is necessarily a fallible process. The understandable public distress when a child dies, leading to the castigation of the workers involved, is a continuing driver of defensive practice that fails to prioritise the child’s best interests.”

The Munro Review of Child Protection: Interim report: The Child’s Journey, February 2011 P.95.Para 6.5 http://www.education.gov.uk/munroreview/downloads/Munrointerimreport.pdf

“The review has argued for the need for the child protection system to move from a compliance culture to a learning one, where all organisations locally become adaptive, learning organisations, constantly reflecting and adjusting the work environment to support professionals to use their knowledge, skills and judgment in the best interests of the child. This learning culture is needed both within and between agencies locally.”

Para 5.32, P.85

“The messages frontline workers receive about what is important have a strong influence on the way they practise and on how caseloads are prioritised. The evidence of failure to spend sufficient time with families, and especially sufficient time with children, reflects the priorities that are being disseminated in the organisation. One group of frontline workers explained how senior managers made all the right kind of comments about quality work, time for critical reflection, and for professional supervision. But they said these things in a quiet voice; they spoke loudly about the need to meet performance indicators and followed this up with emails to check that they were being met.”

Para 5.12, P.80

“This account brings out how engaging with, and understanding a child and their family, involves far more than logical reason. When social workers are talking to a child and family in their home, they are drawing on several sources of information and making swift decisions and changes as the interview progresses. Their conscious mind is paying attention to the purpose of their visit; at an intuitive level they are forming a picture of the child and family and sensing the dynamics in the room, noting evidence of anger, confusion, or anxiety. This feeds into their conscious awareness and helps shape the way the interview progresses. Their own emotional reaction is one source of information; the despair, for example, that some parents feel evokes an empathic response in others. It will be argued that previous reforms have concentrated too much on the explicit, logical aspects of reasoning and this has contributed to a skewed management framework that undervalues intuitive reasoning and emotions and thus fails to give appropriate support to those aspects.”

Para 3.6, P. 35

“Under these circumstances, the review questions whether it is realistic to expecteach frontline worker to cover such a wide range of skills and knowledge andwhether the current career structure reflects or values the time it takes to develop expertise.”

Para 3.5, P.50

The College of Social Work

• ‘to be a powerful voice for the social work profession, in discussions with the public, policy makers and the media;

• to provide strong leadership for the profession;• to work closely with people who use social work services and

carers,• ensuring that their views are incorporated into the overall

development of The College; and• to be an international centre of excellence for the social work

profession’.(The College of Social Work, 2011, Strategic Vision)

http://www.collegeofsocialwork.org/

BASW The College of Social Work

London -Haringey - Reductions are occurring in all admin positions. Lewisham - is planning to cut social work assistants working in the referrals team, and administration staff.

South East Hampshire - 180 jobs are to be axed in children’s services at Hampshire County Council in £25m cut. West Sussex County Council - Admin support in social work will be hit as 'office services' that provide admin are centrally run, and they have to find £3million over next three years, so will reduce down admin staff cover - so social workers will have to pick up the pieces.

South WestSouthampton City Council – Pay freezes, job losses and children's services IT is also set to suffer

West Midlands Birmingham - It is not yet known how many people will lose their jobs, but the council is looking to save £10m in the remodelling of children's social care in 2011-2012, increasing to £16m the year after, so job losses could easily run into hundreds.

East Midlands Notts City - Admin across the city council is being massacred reducing jobs by 50% from 1000 to 500.

Eastern Region Norfolk County Council - 470 posts going from the council's children’s services department - including frontline social workers, social care managers.

North West Manchester - The real concerns here is that with 17% of council workers facing the axe, back office staff will be hit hard, leaving social workers to spend more time on admin.

Cumbria - £32 million is set to be cut from children's services, with 300 redundancies out of a total of 611 redundancies at the council overall, coming from Children's services

Helga Pile, Unison, 25/02/11- http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2183

So it is up to the voluntary sector?

• Call centres• Reorganisation of social work, regulators,

inspection• Health and Social Care integration (Health Bill)• Deregulation but control• Less PQ, training• Workforce planning

Your turnIn the midst of the uncertainty, change and complexity outlined

earlier what strategies will you use to:• Boost your resilience• Make sure you get the support you need• Take advantage of new opportunities • Meet challenges and improve your practiceSpend 10 minutes noting your own responses and then 15

minutes sharing strategies in groups of 3.I will ask for feedback and we will compile a list together

Building supportFind fellow travellers and keep in touch through blogs such as :

http://hownottodosocialwork.blogspot.com/

Keep in touch with your peers and networks through Twitter

#socialwork@jaxrafferty

• Take care of yourself and those around you• Remember it is all about relationships• Stay true to yourself• Pace yourself• Stay open to those whom you work with and

who work with you, service users, colleagues, managers

• Watch, listen, reflect, critique and talk