‘Home Growing’ our Workforce

CCS Adoption

What

In 2010 as part of the Adoption Reform Agenda, CCS made a strong commitment to grow and strengthen its workforce and looked at ways of achieving this through ‘home growing’ our workforce. This made sound economic sense but also provided an opportunity for the Agency to contribute to workforce development, and the already projected identified gap nationally in the Social Work profession.

How

CCS already had proven positive working relationships with the city’s two Universities (UWE & Bristol University), having offered Student Social Work placements in the past; however these had not previously been used as potential recruitment opportunities. Wanting to offer something more sustainable, we met with Bristol University and began discussions about how we could proactively work together.

A CCS Team Manager, who already held a Practice Educator qualification subsequently became one of the members of the Universities Admissions Board, and was able to focus on offering placements to students who were undertaking the 2-year MA Social Work course. This meant we were identifying individuals who were already at degree level, bringing with them a range of diverse skills and experience, often in the ‘social and public care’ professions.

In the period from 2011 – 2014 we offered social work placements to a total of seven students, and once qualified, went on to offer three of these permanent fulltime posts and one a sessional post.

Benefits

  • As an organisation we have reduced risk by employing individuals we already knew. Workers we had observed and assessed in placement, therefore knowing their strengths, vulnerabilities and potential.
  • The workers felt more skilled and valued as new staff, working in an environment with processes and systems that were familiar to them and with colleagues they knew and trusted. They were offered extra training as a newly qualified social worker and given the opportunity to co-work assessments; learning a lot working with different social workers and you can find you own style.

Being a student and then an employee at CCS

“As a student I was able to learn about all aspects of the job with a high level of guidance and supervision. I had the time to do research around specific areas of adoption, which you do not always have as a full timeworker. I appreciated it being a gradual introduction to the role and the work and I also appreciated being able to work with a lot of different colleagues who all had their own styles and from whom I could learn.

It was advantageous that I knew the team before starting paid employment, I knew the team dynamics and I had positive relationships with colleagues. I was aware of what the work entailed and I knew that I would be able to work as part of the team”.

“Having had a placement with CCS as a student I knew it would be a great place to develop my social work skills and get the support and opportunities to do this.

CCS is committed to innovative partnership working. Therefore having the opportunity to work for a consortium of local authorities through CCS enabled me to bring my experience of working within local authorities and voluntary agencies together, to develop concurrency and early permanence options locally.

Having been a student on placement at CCS I knew what investment CCS put into its staff and how it encouraged personal growth and development. It is therefore an ideal agency in which to practice social work as I can benefit from over a century of experience in the adoption field whilst also being encouraged to keep up-to-date with new knowledge and to develop my own skills and expertise.”

Potential issues for Scale

  • CCS already had a good relationship with Bristol University so if VAAs don’t have that it may take time to build up.
  • CSS also had a suitable member of staff with a Practice Educator qualification who could sit on the Universities Admissions Board. VAAs may need to look at other ways of identifying suitable students e.g. relying on the university.