Getting to know your social worker

Why?

Following findings in the Bright Spots survey that a high proportion of the youngest children did not know who their social worker was (44%). Additionally, there were findings around low levels of trust in social workers in this same age group. Some older children also reported having 3 or more different social workers in the last year, and not being able to contact their social worker easily.

What?

The local authority are going to develop and use one-page profiles of Social Workers to enable children to get to know them better. This will also include introduction cards for Social workers to give out to children that have their picture and contact details on. They are also going to ensure there is a planned introduction and ending with Social Workers that is led by the child/young person.
In response to some of the other findings around social workers, they are also going to:

+ Audit how many changes of Social Worker children have had as a
base line to track improvements and to better understand why.

+ Remind Social Workers of the importance of returning calls and the
impact on children when they do not.

Impact

“We expect the impact to be that our children and young people report that they know their social worker better. We intend to re-run the Bright Spots survey in 2022 and hope to see an improvement in the percentage that report they know and trust their social worker.”

(Children and Young People’s Consultation and Review Officer)