Community Care
A report finds care-experienced children and young people value positive relationships with their social workers, but too often the system leaves them feeling like ‘cases’, says Linda Briheim-Crookall, Head of Policy and Practice Development for Voices Improving Care Team.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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)
Young person in care, 8-11yrsI wish I could have the same social worker because I have had more than five and they keep asking me the same questions.
Young person in care, 8-11yrsJust want all the social workers gone from my life.
The local authority used their Bright Spots findings to rethink their pledge and to change the de-personalising language used by professionals.
The language being used of ‘contact’ and ‘placement’ encouraged children to be seen as the objects of intervention. Children wrote about wanting to be seen as individuals.
The language being used of ‘contact’ and ‘placement’ encouraged children to be seen as the objects of intervention. Children wrote about wanting to be seen as
individuals.
The language of the pledge was changed to making a promise to their children in care that included:
Development OfficerWe’re much more mindful of how children feel … that is part of our conversation in a way that I don’t think it was.
Development OfficerIt’s all about trusted adults where people feel safe…and that’s become part of our everyday language.
The change in language reflects the cultural change that has occurred within the LA, with children’s voices valued and a focus on developing relationships.
The change in language is visible in many of the LA’s policy documents. It was also used by all those interviewed in this LA.
Recruitment drive to attract ASYE (Assessed and Supported Year in Employment) social workers, using mentoring, virtual academy to support them as well as investing in management training.
Like in many other local authorities, only 30% of children in care (11-18yrs) reported that they had the same social worker over the past 12 months.
North Somerset prioritised recruitment and retention as well as recognising the talent of social workers in order to achieve greater stability for their children in care. They made sure there was a focus on recruitment for the Children Looked After team and not just for Child Protection teams. They implemented Succession planning and made an explicit commitment to grow and invest in every layer of their workforce.
They focused on over-recruiting ASYE (Assessed and Supported Year in Employment) Social workers and growing their own workforce through a focused drive to build on relationships with Local Higher Education Institutions, Step Up and Frontline.
AYSE are well supported through a virtual academy which brings them together monthly to learn as a group and undertake bespoke training, which they can then use to evidence their learning in their AYSE portfolios. Management training has been provided through the Apprenticeship Levy this supports the development of the Teams. Practice educators welcome a range of students across all teams and this underpins the learning culture and directly assists recruitment.
North Somerset also ensure all Newly Qualified Social Workers have a mentor allocated to them. When risk is identified and or becomes more complex, North Somerset may introduce an experienced consultant to support worker and hold some of the risk and provide experience and the knowledge – so less experienced worker can stay with the child or young person .
Average case loads for social workers is 16 children.
Teams are more stable and the use of agency staff has been reduced – in 2017/18 they had 39 agency workers, in 2018/19 it was only 6.
In 2020 55% of 11-18 year olds reported that they had the same worker, an increase of 25%. This was significantly higher than the local authority average of 34%. In the same period trust in social workers also increased by 11% for the same age group.
Staff feedback shows that they value opportunities to progress and the supportive working environment from both their teams and managers.
