Training of Children and Families Social Workers - Children, Schools and Families Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by Warren Carratt, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  This report has been compiled by the Workforce Strategy, Planning & Development Manager, Director of Locality Services and Director of Targeted Services within the Children & Young People's Service of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. There are currently 143 qualified Social Workers employed in Children & Young People's Services in Rotherham, located throughout seven Locality Teams, Fostering and Adoption Services, Disability Services and Children's Residential Care. Rotherham's last reported vacancy rate for Social Care was 9.89%, with a turnover rate of 10.3% in 2008. Rotherham is home to in the region of 69,000 children and young people, and Rotherham's statistical neighbours are Doncaster, Redcar and Cleveland, Wigan, Barnsley, Tameside, Hartlepool, St Helens, Wakefield, Dudley and Telford and Wrekin.

1.  Whilst entry routes to social work do have flexibility, there is a University requirement for applicants to demonstrate evidence of experience in a related field, in the very least dealing with people. In regards to mature entrants to the field of social work, Rotherham currently employ social workers in the following age groups:


Age
>30
21 to 30
31 to 40
41 to 50

Total employees
59
29
27
28


There are no reported issues in Rotherham with mature entrants, re-entrants and people considering a career change accessing the social work field, though it is common for entrants of all ages to have a very limited conception of the role of social work and the broader Children & Young People's Service provision. Anecdotal evidence suggests this may be related to a lack of readily accessible information in the public domain, and that this—combined with the requirement for previous experience of working in a related field before being able to access social work training—could potentially hinder mature entrants and people wanting a career change.

  2.  The profile of social work nationally is considered to be the biggest debilitating factor for any entrants joining the profession, as negative publicity and reports of many staff leaving the profession re-enforces the image that social work is a high-pressured, thankless job, particularly when linked to remuneration and compared with other professions in Health and Education, where the public and media profile is much higher.

  3.  Rotherham has been running the "Grow Your Own" social work programme for the last two years, where staff have either been funded to attain the Bachelor's degree, or post-graduates have been funded through the MA route. During the roll out of "Grow Your Own", 100% of the students have been 25 or over, with an age range of 27 years-50 years.

  4.  The consensus in Rotherham is that the three year bachelor's degree is the right format and level for initial social work training. With the role of social work existing now in a "one children's workforce", the level of qualification reflects the qualification level requirement of Health colleagues (omitting Health Visitors who require a higher level of qualification than a three year bachelor's degree).

  5.  Feedback from students undertaking the MA route to social work cites the intense nature of the programme and the amount of work needed in a relatively short time as barriers to successful completion. However, the main area of concern for social work in Rotherham is the new "Combined Degree" being offered by local provider Sheffield Hallam University. Staff at Rotherham feel that a combined course diminishes the importance and identity of both social work and learning disability nursing, and there is little guidance for the structure of the practice learning opportunities, in particular relation to where responsibility for coordinating these placements sits.

  6.  Current proposals for a probationary year for newly qualified social workers with a protected caseload have been well received by teams, though there is the potential side effect of this putting more undue pressure on existing, experienced workers, as only a third of the usual caseload would be assumed by the newly qualified Social Worker. It may be appropriate to have a formalised "buddying" system for new starters, where they have a formal and recognised relationship with a more experienced worker. Beyond supporting the new member of staff, the organisation can also ensure that any workforce skills at risk from staff retirement could be sustained more effectively.

  7.  At present, there is no evidence in Rotherham to suggest that the generic social work degree is not fit for purpose, although many staff at Rotherham believe a specific Children and Young People route would be beneficial. Evidence shows that there is an extremely high correlation between final practice learning placements and first employment post. Serious consideration would need to be given to ensure links between the availability of practice learning opportunities within children's services and the recruitment needs of this service are running parallel, to avoid any future shortfalls, though this is an issue which should be managed by the nominated workforce planning lead within the Local Authority. Practice learning teachers have become—by the very nature of social work at the moment and the national shortage thereof—short in supply, and even with an honorarium scheme in operation, it is difficult for staff to balance students with their own caseloads. One area in which this could be remedied is by changing the nature of how existing social workers see students ie not as a drain on resources, but as an added resource to the social work team, and recommendations are made in point 12 of this report as to how this change could be achieved.

  8.  Whilst the content of training qualifications seems to be appropriate, it is Rotherham's view that the "balance of knowledge, skills, values and experience", whilst ideally the correct ones are actually aspirational in the current climate and context.

  9.  There is no clear or anecdotal evidence that the shift to degree level qualification has improved the calibre of recruits or the effectiveness of newly qualified social workers.

  10.  Higher education institutions are far more likely to offer social work qualifications if they have strong relationships with Local Authorities in the surrounding regional area which ensure that practice learning placements can be found. The experience of these placements should also be at the heart of whether a university chooses to offer this type of qualification, though it is unclear if this is an influence or not. Modifications need to be made to the way in which universities offer and arrange placements to Local Authorities, as at present this is something which severely limits long-term planning, which perpetuates an environment when last minute arrangements have to be made regularly, the result of which seriously jeopardises the holistic placement experience.

  11.  The CWDC provide workshops and toolkits to support effective workforce planning, though these methods are based on the assumption that an interest in social work is out there. There is little evidence at present to suggest that the CWDC, DCSF and DIUS will jointly support a national campaign to raise the profile of social work as a profession, and this is something that is paramount to the success of future social workers opting into the vocation. Evidence demonstrates how a well thought out and widely advertised campaign can improve the status of a profession, as teaching has benefited in recent years from this kind of national investment and stimulus.

  12.  The quality of post-qualifying training can be assured by Local Authorities maintaining strong links with both internal staff and external providers, and ensuring that robust evaluation methods are in place to link outcomes from post-qualifying training to the business needs of the Local Authority. One recommendation would be to have post-qualification routes running parallel to one another but in different specialist areas eg one for World Class Practitioner, another for World Class Leader of a service. As social work managers are often drawn from experienced social work practitioners, it makes sense to have the distinction between the two career paths as early on as possible, and provide the appropriate and equally accredited training for either option. In regard to point 7 of this report, it could be part of a social workers commitment to achieving post-qualification status to agree to demonstrate their own competency by becoming a practice teacher. This could be tied into a University's assessment criteria, and would therefore ensure that social workers are continuing to develop post-qualifying whilst also feeding this back into the future of the profession, at a local level. A national directive on this would avoid agreements having to be informally on an ad-hoc basis between Local Authorities and FE providers.

  13.  Newly qualified social workers will continue to develop if they have a clear and achievable career pathway available to them and they know how and when movement along this pathway can be made. The two greatest problems Local Authorities face is finding the resource to fund further, accredited post-qualification study for existing social workers, and then ensuring that these skills are retained within the Authority. It is not uncommon for Social Workers to develop through either initial qualification or even post qualification, and then take these skills to other Authorities where the recruitment issues are not as severe or the remuneration is more enhanced. Budgetary pressures being what they are, this is something that is very difficult to remedy by remuneration alone, and as long as newly qualified social workers leave Rotherham for other Local Authorities, the situation of social worker shortage becomes a self-perpetuating issue.

  14.  Employers support the development of social workers as effectively as possible, though again this is something that is placed at greater risk with the advent of the One Children's Workforce and the push towards integration. With the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families declaring that social workers should be educated to Master level once in post, it is difficult for employers to commit to fund this type of training in a fair, equitable and progressive way without either sacrificing development of other areas of the children's workforce, or by having a drip-drip programme for developing social workers which equates to taking the best part of a century to get all staff through this level of qualification. This also has to be balanced with the needs of front-line services, and any and all development of social workers—if accredited—should have a large amount of work based assessment included to ensure that workloads are not overloaded exponentially.

  15.  Rotherham has a clear commitment to the importance of supervision for all front line workers in C&YPS, and have put in place a joint [along with the PCT] Supervision Policy as part of the role out of Children's Trust requirements. The specific supervision of social workers is seen as a key task, but its integrity and reliability is challenged in times of extreme pressure, both from a public perception and resource point of view.

April 2009







 
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