Social Work Health Check
Dear all,
Its that time again where we offer the opportunity for all social workers working within Cornwall Children's Services, to share your voice and views about your role and the work, as well as how it feels to work for Cornwall Children and Family Services. It is important that you have what you need to do your job well, and taking part in this annual Health Check survey will help us to ensure we meet the standards as set out by the Local Government Association.
Your responses help us identify strengths as well as areas we need to improve.
Reflecting on last year objectives we have achieved the following:
1. Work with Facilities Management has increased the ease of access to desk space for SW’s in offices, with more suitable space and equipment for hybrid working.
2. Our ongoing drive to reduce bureaucracy has led to further simplifications to Child Plans; the re-working the Graded Care Profile neglect tool; and improving the workflow for social work advice for Education Health and Care plans.
3. Supervision remains one of our top 5 priorities as a service, and new systems, namely Power BI allows for live updates on caseloads and supervision. There has been a big focus on supervision in 2023, which has seen an increase in the frequency and quality of supervision with all staff as evidenced in Power Bi, which has allowed increased scrutiny through management levels. Most managers and supervisors have attended either the full supervision training, or a refresher course, and 5 managers/PSW's have enrolled on the National Pathways managers programme to support new and aspiring managers. We will continue to focus on improving the frequency, quality, influence and recording of supervision.
4. The Advanced Practitioners Network has now merged with the Managers network, and attendance through 2023 has increased. Reflective discussions have been held around numerous subject areas such as the Stable Homes strategy, Working Together 2023, and Action Learning sets have proved successful safe spaces to reflect and gain support from their peers.
5. We have successfully recruited 14 international Social workers over the last 12 months, with 6 more due to arrive before the end of 2023. This has bolstered much needed staffing shortages, in turn supporting our children and families. This has also offered us a wealth of learning around cultural practice, and supporting a more diverse workforce. On writing, we have no Manager vacancies across the service.
6. Working in partnership with consultancy Mahogany Inclusion Partners, experts in diversity, inclusion and racial equity, has led to deeper conversations and understanding around race, inclusivity and anti racist practice. We now have a suite of training and development opportunities for all staff supporting us in our journey towards becoming an actively anti racist service.
The survey this year is similar to previous ones, as it will help to compare your views. We continue to be interested in what you think about the issues that face social work as a profession nationally, as well as more local influences.
First we need to know a little bit about your role, and what part of the organisation you work in. This will not identify individuals, but help our understanding of how things may work differently across the Service.
Thank you for taking part in this, your contribution helps form developments for the forthcoming year to support Social work staff achieve their potential.
The questionnaire closes on 10 December 2023.
Tracey Davey
Principal Child and Family Social Worker