Memorandum submitted by Antoinette Dawson
I am currently a Front Line Manager, and manage
a team of qualified social workers (nine) also one unqualified
social worker and three admin/children's advisors; we assess children
in need and their families. We investigate all allegations of
abuse to children and we assess families when they request a service.
We safeguard children; initiate care proceedings when necessary
and we initiate Child Protection Case Conferences. We also age
assess young asylum seekers. We receive approximately 3,000 referrals
a year, however since Baby P came to the public's notice this
has increased dramatically; I do not have the current figures.
I have been a fully qualified social worker for 20
years; I was a social worker for 14 years before becoming a manager.
I have a CQSW; Practice Teacher Award; Counselling Skills Certificate;
Advanced Award in Social Work and a Master of Arts in Social Work.
1. ENTRY ROUTES
TO THE
PROFESSION
It has been my observation that we have had
less mature entrants in recent years; they are mainly graduates
and students taking Masters. Mature students may find the level
of entry academically too high in that they would need to undertake
a pre-course period of study before undertaking social work. It
is necessary for students to be academically fit to undertake
the course and to go on to practice social work. In the authority
I work for we currently sponsor one unqualified person employed
by the authority a year in order that they can undertake the social
work course. I have an excellent unqualified social worker in
my team respected by all the qualified social workers in the team
for her practice and commitment to the profession, she has "held
the hand" of many newly qualified social workers when they
first come to the office, and her practice is excellent.
Although there will be many unqualified social workers
who would be able to complete the course and go onto be excellent
social workers, there needs to be a comprehensive review of each
unqualified social worker before sponsoring them onto a social
work course. This can be achieved by "putting them on notice"
once they apply within the work place, making sure they have a
good all round experience and a full assessment at the end of
this period. At the moment the manager submits a referral form
for the board to consider. I think it would be better if the person
applying was stretched into the role of social worker under supervision
and monitored and then not only the historic information can be
assessed but also their performance during the period of assessment.
2. STRUCTURE
OF TRAINING
I do think the three year bachelor's degree
and the two year masters is the right format for entry into social
work.
However, I think the way we recruit social workers
into the profession needs to change. I have been thinking for
some time that formal training at University is not sufficient
to equip social workers for the stressful and difficult job we
undertake. It would be my view that Employers need to recruit
in partnership with the University at the entry point for social
workers. Employers will then nominate how ever many students they
can, and sponsor their placements, with a view to employing them
at the end of their study, provided they have fulfilled the standard
both set out by the University and Employer. This way it would
integrate the student within the local authority at the earliest
possible opportunity. The employer would have a commitment to
making sure that each student had a good all round experience
with social care before actually becoming a fully qualified social
worker. Student social workers would need to state at the onset
what type of social work they wanted to pursue, and the down side
would be that their experience in other areas would be severely
limited. Employers would be committed to increasing the amount
of placement time available and would have a vested interest in
their development. We currently provide bursary placements; this
is recruitment in the last year of study whereby we offer a student
a post and pay for their last years fee's and the student agrees
to stay with the local authority for two years, or pay the fee's
back. This is a really good scheme; we have had exceptional newly
qualified social workers via this route. I don't see any reason
why this cannot be extended. The structure of how this might happen
clearly needs more thought and the details of the partnership
must clearly state the responsibilities and commitments for both
employers and university, and the balance between academic work
and placement also needs to be clearly stated. We also need to
examine whether we need to train in excess of what an employer
can sponsor as there is a drop out rate in social work training.
This would be a complete change in culture of recruiting, and
there are obstacles, but I think can be a way forward that would
enhance the social work training and help newly qualified social
workers come to the workplace with a fuller understanding of the
profession and the work that is required.
We then need to look at the capacity for each
team to be able to accommodate the student social workers. This
is a real worry, as at the moment our ability to give newly qualified
social workers the appropriate supervision and development experience
is severely limited. Although we do limit their case load, and
for the first six months they work alongside a more experienced
colleague on child protection work, and we try wherever possible
to continue doing this for as long as it is necessary. There is
also an understanding that each Section 47 enquiry will be conducted
by two people preferably with one experienced social worker and
less experiences social worker. We try and give them experience
of working on their own with less serious cases, so they can get
the feel of the work. It is a serious concern to both myself and
colleague managers that we do not feel we are giving our newly
qualified social workers the quality of supervision they deserve.
Government and local government need to seriously think about
how to invest in this area, and build capacity in this area which
so far in my experience has been neglected. It is no good coming
out with guidelines and policies on supporting and supervising
newly qualified social workers, if the manager has barely enough
time to make sure the business end of the service is running correctly
it is not that we don't want too; I personally love supervising
newly qualified social workers, it is extremely rewarding, but
I simply don't have the time to do it properly and serious child
protection investigations nearly always overtake my good intentions.
A continual downloading of more and more work onto front line
managers will only result in managers leaving the profession;
there is generally a lack of morale with Front Line managers feeling
overwhelmed by the amount of work that they are now being asked
to undertake. A front line manager earns at the top of the grade
£36,000. This is a long way behind a head of a school for
instance, and carries more responsibility in my view. Although
it is not only pay that is having an effect on managers, working
conditions is also having an effect on managers feeling that they
need to leave.
3. QUALITY
The quality and suitability of placements could
be addressed by my discussions above. However, a practice teacher/supervising
social worker should receive appropriate remuneration; making
sure there is appropriate back fill to cover for the teaching
within the team would also help. Social Workers who do supervise
must have the appropriate experience to fulfil this role, and
a qualification. I also think that resources for back filling
for social workers in this area needs to be "ring fenced"
so that it does not go off in other directions. We need to have
managers/teachers with each work place in order to organise learning
throughout the whole of the workforce; this is my personal view,
and maybe expensive, but it would enhance the social work practice,
as workplace training/meetings could be organised; identify learning
needs. I have personally tried to complete this role within my
own workplace, but the demand of the business has meant that I
have only had pockets of success. However what was apparent was
the absolute need for this to take place; to encourage workers
to continually develop; reflective practice to take place, and
organising social workers thoughts on training.
It would be my observation that the quality has slightly
improved due to the degree-level of qualification. However, we
have benefited from Bursary workers in my team; I realise that
my authority are "creaming off" the best of the social
workers within that year. The managers who take part in this recruitment
are experienced managers and excellent practitioners in their
own right.
4. SUPPLY OF
INITIAL TRAINING
It would be my observation that there is effective
input from Children's Workforce Development and they are active
in making sure that newly qualified social workers have a good
induction. They are also active in developing good working partnerships
within the University in our area. What appears to be lacking
in my view is their inability to stress the need for an increase
in capacity of the environment that would support student social
workers placements. It is of real concern for managers when we
are told that we have to accommodate so many students and there
is no discussion as to whether we have the capacity to undertake
the training of students, we are just told to find practice teachers
amongst our social workers and then tell them they must do it.
I cannot stress enough the amount of work involved in making sure
that a student social worker receives a good placement.
5. POST QUALIFYING
TRAINING AND
CAREER PATHS
It is difficult to know how to answer the question
on take-up of post-qualifying training. We certainly have a good
package in place for social workers, organised by our Workforce
Development Team in conjunction with the University. There is
reluctance within social work to complete the course due to the
amount of work they have to complete in their own time. Although
they receive study leave this is nowhere near enough. I would
like to give more time to social workers to complete their study
work, but my team is always stretched, and you have to balance
out the needs of the service and the need for more time off the
social workers. In my authority you gain an extra two increments
once you have completed the Child Care Award; this is an improvement,
as my own personal experience was entirely different, therefore
I fully support more pay for post qualifying awards. The Level
One Post Qualifying award is difficult to promote as social workers
see that they will still have to use their own time, and are reluctant
to do so; this is also linked to Level 3 status so they too will
gain more money. However, it would be my view that the work is
so stressful and there is a need for social workers to relax and
enjoy their life away from social work, you can understand their
reluctance to undertake this award. We need to build capacity
so that this can take place; we could also build retention into
the Post Qualifying Awards as well so both parties gain from entering
into this arrangement. Once again front line managers play a significant
role in supervising a social worker undertaking their PQ, which
also goes unrecognised.
Our employers do say they support the development
of social workers and especially newly qualified social workers.
We have just been told that we now have a new document/book to
complete and training for newly qualified social workers within
their first year. I do not know of any manager who doesn't support
what is in that document. However, where is the support for the
managers to do this? We are just told it is yet another task to
complete as part of our work.
There is very little training to help you supervise
staff once you become a manager, though I have been on a course
organised by our Workforce Development unit; Tony Morrison has
developed a very good course, this was an exceptional piece of
work and fantastic for front line managers. However, when you
have finished you come back all fired up to improve your supervision
techniques only to be browbeaten by the amount of work you have
to complete.
In my authority training is well organised and
appropriate, however once back at the Area Office; there is no
capacity to develop good practice due to the high level of work
that front line managers have to complete. We are completely target
driven by Government's meaningless targets.
I can tell you how many assessments that were
finished in 7-35 days, and you can assess my authority on that
if you like; however, it will not denote quality, you are reliant
on Front Line Managers to spot the Baby P's in and amongst everything
else that we have to do. The new ICS Forms do not tell the story;
it doesn't even cover risk we have to find places to put parenting
and risky parenting into boxes not labelled as such. They don't
read well. Is it more important that we fill the box that tells
you how many times a child brushes their teeth? Or would you like
to know whether the level of parenting is good enough and why
it isn't good and list the risk factors and the protective factors.
The Children Act 2004 is a good act, but the emphasis in my view
has shifted significantly in favour of Children in Need; changing
the name from Child Protection to Safeguarding is not just a technical
name change it is significant. Throwing the net wider will not
protect children with the current level of resources; I fully
support the preventative work with families and promotion of good
outcomes strategy outlined in the five outcomes, but it would
be my view that you have "watered" down Child Protection.
We need both, but we don't have the capacity to undertake both.
Multi-agency working is also at the heart of CA 2004, but the
responsibility is still for Children's' Social Care to undertake.
Trying to get other agencies to complete CAF's is problematic;
other professionals do not want the responsibility and will keep
making referrals to try and gain support for Children's Social
Care completing an assessment, I strongly suspect this is a lack
of confidence and a feeling that they are stretched. Many other
agencies like the Police do not work within the same thresholds
as Children's Social Care; they have different shift patterns;
difficult to organise strategy discussions at the point of emergency.
We often have to start the process and investigate leaving messages
for the Police to follow; once again down the Police resources.
6. USE OF
AGENCY WORKERS
I know this is not part of your brief, but I
want to say how dangerous this practice has become within Local
Authorities. I have social workers who are barely qualified applying
to come into my team; they have not had a permanent post anywhere.
When a LA is looking to replace a social worker who has left you
always want the most experienced social worker you can recruit.
We do not have the time to train newly qualified social workers
who are working for an agency, as there is no structure to train
them, and we need to invest in our employees. Then there are those
social workers who have worked for agencies for a number of years
and have never gone through the progression process.
It would be my view that no newly qualified social
worker should be working for an agency until they have completed
three years post qualifying with a LA under the direction of a
manager and fulfilled all the requirements within that LA.
The majority of newly qualified social workers
do this because they want or need extra money. I have had social
workers in my team working for an agency and they are not only
receiving significantly more money, they have far less experience
and fewer skills. I have had social workers who have left once
they have progressed to Level 3 and then we have had to re-employ
them on a much higher rate; unless pay is sorted out this practice
will continue.
They leave at a moments notice for more money,
and leave a pressured team to sort out caseloads; this is extremely
destructive to morale in social work in conjunction with all the
other pressures that social workers have to endure.
May 2009
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