Middlesbrough focused attention on supporting workers and children to get to know each other better.  They created ‘about me’ sheets for both children and workers to fill in together. All children are now also given social worker contact sheets.

Why?

All children in care (age 4 to 18) are asked in the Bright Spots surveys whether they know who their social worker is.

The results from the survey in Middlesbrough showed that some children didn’t know who their social worker was.

What did they do?

Following the Bright Spots findings, meetings were held with different teams across Middlesbrough to give people an opportunity to review the Bright Spots findings and think about how they will respond.

A working group was set up to review progress in disseminating the learning from the surveys and draft an action plan. The group was led and chaired by the Quality Assurance manager and attended by a range of senior managers from across social care. One of the first tasks for the group was to draft a promise poster for young people.

One of the promises was to ensure every child knew who their social worker was and how to get in touch with them. As a starting point to keep this promise Middlesbrough have created social worker cards with contact details which every child in care will now receive.

Impact

There is now an expectation that all social workers give their children the ‘social worker card’ and ‘about me booklet’ and take more time to tell their children more about themselves. IROs, Supervising Social worker and carers will also check in with children to make sure they know who their social worker is and how to get in touch with them.

‘About Me’

To support children and workers to get to know each other better everyone has been asked to complete the newly developed ‘About me’ booklet. This is an opportunity for children and workers to ask each other more about themselves: what do they like doing to have fun and what don’t they like!

The information can be recorded on the IT system so that others can find out more about the child from their own viewpoint.