Mapping WLA Leadership Programmes to the Professional Capabilities Framework

1. Professionalism: Identify and behave as a professional social worker, committed to professional development
Mapped to WLA Team Manager definition.
Manage and develop yourself
Develop the confidence and authority of your staff, individually and collectively, and enable professional autonomy wherever appropriate
Maintain within the team a robust knowledge of the local ‘mixed economy of welfare’ and enable yourself and your staff to work across increasingly complex professional boundaries while maintaining social work values and professional identity.
Ensure your team plays an appropriate part in the training of new social workers and in the professional self regulation of students and current staff
PCF Elements / Further statements – from WLA competencies, 360 tool and learning outcomes. / Evidenced in WLA programme content
General programme – GP
Tailored programme (mentoring) – TP
Reducing Bureaucratic Burden (reviewing team structures) - RBB
Professional demeanour / Be a strong confident senior representative of the social work profession, being aware at all times that you are modelling social work leadership in your role.
Lead by example – being visible, reliable, demonstrating integrity and inspiring trust and respect in the staff team. / Managing yourself and others GP
Managing change GP
Managing personal/professional boundaries / Maintain professional boundaries and relationship consistently in complex challenging situation.
Adapt your management style to suit different groups showing flexibility and professional resilience.
Delegates effectively encouraging other to use authority and take responsibility for decisions and actions / Managing staff performance GP
Managing yourself and others effectively
Managing in complex/stressful environments
Planning own continuing education and training / A theme in the programmes was assisting managers to understand their own developments needs and articulate them with their line managers. Mentoring and General programme.
Also – how to feed the managers knowledge base and stay up to date with research and evidence based practice about what works in terms of interventions.
Use of self / Show awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses and receive constructive feedback.
Demonstrate strategic thinking about the bigger picture in your service/organisation.
Demonstrate professional authority and engage others in the task. / Managing yourself and others
Managing change
Mentoring - TP
Ensuring personal well-being and safety whilst being an effective sw
Promoting and safeguarding the reputation of the profession / Be responsible about having students/NQSWs in the team, supporting the practice educator’s role and creating a learning team environment using the experience/ new practice the student/NQSW can bring. Link NQSWs/students with existing skills of team members, arranging co-working opportunities where appropriate.
Encourage professional development/training and discussion of current social work issues in context of a professional attitude to GSCC registration and CPD. / Developing teams and team working - GP
Challenge of integrating research into practice
Challenging poor practice / Tackles poor performance /inappropriate behaviour constructively. Be confident to have difficult conversations with staff about their performance and tackle problems quickly and “nip them in the bud”. / Core supervision component – GP
Discussing performance with your staff
Emotional Resilience / Remains calm under pressure
Remains positive despite setbacks
Provides containing supervision where anxieties, worries and frustrationsare explored and understood – supporting the personal and emotional demands of the work.
Supporting workers to stay in role and in control of their feelings, becoming more competent practitioners. / Managing yourself and others - GP
Managing change
Core Supervision component
Processing feelings in supervision
Accountability line / Has good communication with senior managers- using organisational accountability structures.
Clearly relates the organisations objectives to the work of the team / Managing in complex and stressful environments - GP
Managing Yourself and others
Managing change
2. Values and Ethics: Apply social work ethical principles and values to guide professional practice
Mapped to WLA Team manager definition
Ensure that you and your team maintain a focus on the service user and that they are enabled to play an active part indecisions about their care
Manage the demand for services within constrained resources
Maintain within the team a robust knowledge of the local ‘mixed economy of welfare’ and enable yourself and your staff to work across increasingly complex professional boundaries while maintaining social work values and professional identity.
Ensure appropriate relationships with a variety of forms of accountability external to your team and line management
PCF Elements / Further statements from WLA competencies, 360 tool and learning outcomes / Evidenced in WLA programme content
Managing own values / Models and expects high professional social work standards / Core Supervision Component – GP
Effective Supervision - Practice Leadership in social work
Managing yourself and others
Discussing performance with your staff
Understanding and applying the ethics/values of the profession / Takes active responsibility to ensure that equality and diversity are central to service delivery.
Ethical reasoning / Communicates rationale for resources/budget allocation transparently and effectively. Deals fairly with complaints in a timely fashion.
Ethical dilemmas / See above
Manages expectations of both service users and staff realistically.
Confidentiality / Address confidentiality in supervisory relationship and case management
Person Centred approach / Involves the service user in decision making in assessment, planning and implementation. Is sensitive to service user feedback and seeks to respond to this and adapt service where possible.
Promoting partnership / Negotiates and clarifies the expectations of partnership arrangements
Legal and statutory context - understand it, apply and challenge it. / Sets the framework for assessment, managing risk and care planning within local procedures and statutory guidance.
Professional accountability / Communicates about different roles and responsibilities and demonstrates and awareness of different professional identities in working with and making decisions with other agencies or within integrated teams.
3. Diversity: Recognise diversity and apply anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive principles in practice.
Mapped to WLA Team Manager definition.
Enable an effective and mutually supportive team
Ensure that you and your team maintain a focus on the service user and that they are enabled to play an active part indecisions about their care
PCF elements / Further statements from WLA competencies, 360 tool and learning outcomes / Evidenced in WLA programme content
Understanding difference in self and others / Acknowledging and respecting difference is integral to supervisory relationship with individual staff and team. Address in supervision contract – including how to resolve differences, and impact of different learning styles. Acknowledge power relationships in supervision. Also in statutory work – CP and legal orders etc.
Involves everyone in team taking account of complimentary strengths and skills. / Effective supervision and leadership
Managing performance of staff
Transition from practice to supervisor
Respecting difference / Acknowledging and considering impact of difference on the assessment, planning and intervention processes. Adapt these aspects. / Complex care planning
Supervising assessments
Supervision and risk management.
Repertoire of personal presentation / Adjusts presentation to various audiences
Challenging discrimination and oppressions / These are discussed in supervision and cultural assumptions are explored and challenged with staff. / 3 day supervision course
Challenging cultural assumptions (not colluding) / Challenge staff and service users – as above.
4. Rights, Justice and Economic well being: Advance human rights, promote social justice and economic well being
Mapped to WLA Team manager definition
Ensure that you and your team maintain a focus on the service user and that they are enabled to play an active part in decisions about their care
Ensure appropriate relationships with a variety of forms of accountability external to your team and line management
PCF elements / Further statements from WLA competencies, 360 tool and learning outcomes / Evidenced in WLA programmes content
Legislative framework / Sets the framework for assessment, managing risk and care planning within local procedures and statutory guidance. / Core supervision components - GP
Understanding the impact of poverty
Promoting economic well-being access to benefits, education and work
Empowerment and advocacy
Practicing from a rights perspective
Social Justice
Challenging practice and policy / Apply different models of evidence based/knowledge informed practice
Use research literacy in the management of complex child care cases
Use research as a reflective tool in supervision to promote better analysis including risk
Understand some of the barriers to using research. / The Challenge of integrating research into managing practice
5. Knowledge: Apply knowledge of social sciences, law and social work practice theory.
Mapped to WLA Team Manager definition.
Ensure robust assessment of need and risk of children, particularly those about whom there are CP concerns or those otherwise at risk and who are, or may need to be, looked after.
Ensure appropriate safeguarding of children including forensic skill with challenging families
Enable appropriate care planning, management and review for each case
Ensure that the team is aware of relevant local, regional and national agendas
PCF elements / Further statement from WLA competencies, 360 tool and learning outcomes / Evidenced in WLA programmes content
Social Sciences / Theories of organisations
Theories of change
Theories of management and leadership / Managing change
Managing in complex organisations
Law / Understand how legislation and guidance inform the care planning process and timescales.
Develop a body of experience in court. Use authority and skills in the court arena.
Demonstrate an awareness of legal developments and the impact on work with families, courts and lawyers - eg PLO -and support your team to work effectively within the legal context. / Managing Care Planning of Complex LAC cases - GP
Social work practice theories and methods / Knowledge of a range of theories and methods and applying them appropriately to different situations -involving views and problem solving skills of service users. Take account of how effective these are and the research evidence to support them. Consider the skills and knowledge of different staff in relation to appropriate allocation of work.

Systems approaches
Critical reflection
Child development
Attachment – consider the need for children to attach to a primary carer, to achieve emotional permanence, and to develop resilience either within their immediate or extended family, or in other permanent care.
Disorganised Attachment
Domestic violence
Parental mental health
Substance misuse

Creates a learning environment in team. Team members learn from each other – use of group learning in team meeting. Prioritise time to share learning in team meeting, discuss problems collectively.
Seeks out relevant research information, materials related to work of team, encourages reading, case presentation.
Uses regular case audits – develop feedback loops
Ensures staff have appropriate knowledge and supports updating of this with formal CD development plan. Discussed in supervision and at appraisal. / 3 day core supervision sessions
Keeping up to date and feeding knowledge of busy TMs was a key issues raised in the gen prog. Not always accessing what is available – CC inform, RiP
Challenge of using research in practice
Learning from SCRs
Duncan/Reder assessment/risk model
Understanding disorganised attachment
Managing care Planning of complex LAC cases
Many managers have shared tools with teams – see Bulletin
Policy / Contribute to policy development in your organisation /locally, regionally and nationally. / Peer Support
Understanding and accessing other expertise / Seek outside consultation/expertise in complex cases or if stuck. Judge when more expert skills required. Be open to this – negotiate funding if necessary. / Processing feelings and unconscious material in supervision – GP
Managing care planning in complex LAC cases
Developing teams and team working
6. Critical reflection and analysis: Apply critical reflection and analysis to inform and provide a rationale for professional decision-making
Ensure effective supervision and mentoring that challenges, supports and develops staff
Ensure the development of each member of your staff team
Develop the confidence and authority of your staff, individually and collectively, and enable professional autonomy wherever appropriate
Ensure that senior managers are informed about (and enabled to resolve) critical incidents and other relevant issues and problems, including issues of resource management.
Ensure appropriate relationships with a variety of forms of accountability external to your team and line management
Manage the demand for services within constrained resources
Ensure robust assessment of need and risk of children, particularly those about whom there are CP concerns or those otherwise at risk and who are, or may need to be, looked after.
Ensure appropriate safeguarding of children including forensic skill with challenging families
Enable appropriate care planning, management and review for each case
PCF Elements / Further statements from WLA competencies, 360 tool and learning outcomes / Evidenced in WLA programme content.
Use critical thinking / Apply critical thinking to different work situations – case supervision and decision making, staff management, service development. Explore issues considering motivation of subjects, options and implications of decisions
Identifies critical information about risk - conveys this to staff and to senior managers
Critically evaluates risks, strengths and protective factors. Makes a judgement s with staff about the due weight to give to these
Factors
Assists and guides staff to analyse their assessments, interventions and plans in supervision.
Demonstrates effective sw judgement / Core Supervision component
Esp Supervision of assessments
Supervision and risk management
Messages from Serious Case Reviews
In-built action learning (Learning Implementation Meetings) GP
Action Learning Sets (TP)
Use multiple sources of knowledge and evidence / Use a range of knowledge/evidence – theory, research, practice knowledge, observation etc, but consider relevance of the knowledge and evidence used and have a developed mental framework for analysing and deciding what is important, so there is clarity of thinking and decision making
Understand the different roles research literacy can play in the process of managing practice with complex child care cases, and in promoting cpd with staff / Core supervision component
Research in practice sessions
Reder/Duncan model seminar
Mentoring - TP
Team structures programme - RBB
Apply creativity and curiosity / Help workers explore their thinking in assessment by an inquisitive and questioning style. Using relevant tools/models to make sense of information and aid analysis. Support creative approaches/interventions if well argued and supported by evidence / Core Supervision component – GP
Tools egs – Problem Solving Supervision Cycle – Kolb
From Information to Intelligence – Morrison.
Creating hypotheses / Support staff to do this in assessments in formal and informal supervision – using questioning/checking out style / Core Supervision component - GP
Rationale for judgements and decisions / Make clear, transparent, evidenced decisions that you can communicate well to others
Develop frameworks to support confident decision making
Work with complexity in analysing information and communicating clearly your recommendations to families, the organisation and partner agencies
Able to manage uncertainty when working with families and help create safe decision making in the team. / Ditto
Learning from Serious Case Reviews - GP
Adult learning theory / Consider different learning styles of the staff in your team and be able to negotiate and adjust your style of management/supervision accordingly / Effective supervision and leadership – GP
Making the transition from practitioner to effective supervisor
The challenge of integrating research into managing practice
Discussing Performance with your staff
Mentoring and ALS - TP
7 Interventions and skills: use of judgement and authority to intervene with individuals, families and communities to promote independence, provide support and prevent harm, neglect and abuse.
Mapped to the WLA Team Manager definition
Develop in the team a robust understanding of relevant research and what works, to ensure that interventions are as effective as possible.
Ensure robust assessment of need and risk of children, particularly those about whom there are CP concerns or those otherwise at risk and who are, or may need to be, looked after.
Ensure appropriate safeguarding of children including forensic skill with challenging families
Enable appropriate care planning, management and review for each case
Develop the confidence and authority of your staff, individually and collectively, and enable professional autonomy wherever appropriate
Ensure strong IT skills for yourself and your team that enable electronic case recording and performance management.
Ensure effective supervision and mentoring that challenges, supports and develops staff
PCF elements / Further statements from WLA competencies, 360 tool and learning outcomes / Evidenced in WLA programmes content
Communication / Uses a range of communication styles to suit different audiences
Your decision making is transparent and well communicated.
Disseminating information to team about the organisation and profession. / Core Supervision component
Discussing performance with your staff
Managing yourself and others
Managing change
Building relationships / Has a positive relationship with service users. Uses service user feedback to improve team performance.
Builds relationships with key partners and clarifies roles and accountability. Actively promotes multi agency working. Is an effective negotiator. Manages resource expectations and demands transparently.
Assessment and planning / Use of research in practice to assist team to know what interventions work in a range of situations with service users.
Core supervision component – supervision tools and models – vulnerability/resilience matrix, attachment research in relation to care planning for children