Notes from SWEN meeting 1 April 2015
The morning meeting was attended by 41 people with representatives from 13 LAs
(Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Enfield, Greenwich, Harrow, Havering, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets & Wandsworth) & Kids company. 11 HEIs were represented (Brunel, Kingston & St George’s, Greenwich, Goldsmiths, Havering College, London Met, London Southbank, Middlesex, Royal Holloway, UEL, University of West London.)
1. Update from Skills for Care
Ali Rusbridge gave an update on recent developments – most of which were in the March social work briefing - if people were not receiving the briefing they should send a request to be added onto it to Past briefings can be found here: http://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Social-work/Social-work-briefings/Social-work-briefings.aspx
§ Skills for Care have been given the contract from DfE for supporting employers in child and family services to embed the Children’s Knowledge and Skills Statement. (KSS) E-mails with what this will cover have been sent. Skills for Care will not be operating the portal.
§ Funding for Adults ASYE has been agreed – system for allocation not yet finalised but will be adjusted following feedback from employers. DfE have confirmed that ASYE funding is there for next year too.
§ Social work education in England - report available on research into number of social work students enrolled, attrition and destination.
§ 360 degree professional development feedback tool – the new surveys for strategic managers and PSWs now includes Care Act readiness questions
§ 1.6 million funding for mental health fast-track – Think Ahead
§ Community led models of social work being piloted in 4 areas – none in London
§ Role and capabilities of social work in Drugs and Alcohol services guide published.
§ PCF review has started and the College of Social Work is looking for service users with knowledge of the PCF to be involved in the review.
The Department of Health published its response to the consultation on the knowledge and skills required for social work with adults on13th March. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/adult-social-work-knowledge-and-skills
Lyn Romeo the Chief Social Worker for adults has written a blog about the importance of the KSS for adults here http://tinyurl.com/lgjqcea
The KSS includes the expected changes to ASYE to ensure consistency. Alix Walton and Jane Lindsay reported back on the decisions made by the working group that have worked on developing national consistency for ASYE. All materials are now available here: http://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Social-work/The-assessed-and-supported-year-in-employment-Adults/The-assessed-and-supported-year-in-employment-(ASYE).aspx
Key points they stressed were
§ Assessment process – the requirements are a minimum and you can do more but you need to be incorporating everything that is in the KSS and the suggestion is that using the paperwork that has been developed will be the easiest option
§ Initial feedback to the changes has been very positive and much of it reflects practice in London
§ The record of support and progressive assessment is ‘owned’ by the assessor but the critical reflection log is owned by the NQSW. Both enable progression to be seen far more clearly and have brought previous documents together into the 2
§ Moderation is in stages – internal moderation followed by partnership external moderation (much as now but with greater guidance on who should be involved and how it should be done) There will be an additional national external moderation. As this is England wide, samples will be asked for to QA nationwide.
§ Moderation guidance will be given for both and external will use the same questions as for internal moderation
§ The College of Social Work (TCSW) will be doing a validation or endorsement of all ASYE programmes
§ This is in the KSS for adults but DfE suggest that Children’s services could use this if desired as they want best practice to be followed
Ali added that the assessment paperwork has been branded and copyrighted to avoid changes being made as this would be against the aim of consistency. There have been requests for a version to be developed which is matched to the Children’s KSS in the way the existing paperwork is mapped to adults KSS. This is being considered
Ali suggested that HEIs look at how the critical reflection log related to the PDPs that students leave university with – to ensure continuity. HEIs agreed to discuss this in their pm meeting
2. Table discussions about the KSS
Now both Children’s and Adults KSS have been launched and are available for all social workers CPD not just assessment of ASYE, people were asked to discuss plans for using the KSS in pre and post qualifying education and to develop social worker’s practice. The summary of these discussions is here:
It was agreed to invite TCSW to the next meeting to give an update on the PCF review
3. Update from HEI group
Jane Lindsay gave an update from the HEI group:
a) Readiness for direct practice – it was felt that not enough was known by employers about what HEIs were doing so each HEI will prepare 2 summary slides and these will be presented at the next SWEN
b) Share practice learning paperwork – now used across London and some SE of England HEIs. The change control process for the paperwork will take place after the SWEN meeting. Everyone was invited to submit suggested changes in advance and each HEI should have been consulting with their employer stakeholder group (some were unaware of this so it was agreed to flag this up more next year.) The agreed amendments will be ready in April to give HEIs time to make the necessary changes. The new versions will be uploaded onto the Skills for Care website.
4. Table discussions about preparing social workers for the Care Act implementation
As the Care Act has come into force, tables discussed – how their social workers were being prepared and what were the issues / what are HEIs doing / need to do?
The summary of these discussions is here:
Although the discussion focused on the Care Act it was agreed that this wasn’t just relevant for adult services workers – Children’s workers also needed to know what it covered and equally adults workers needed to understand the Children and Families Act 2014
5. Teaching partnerships
In London 3 applied for early adopter status – SW London with Kingston & Royal Holloway, Middlesex with Enfield and 3 SE London boroughs with Goldsmiths. Only SE London –led by Greenwich with Lewisham and Southwark have got through the first stage (there are only 8 across the country)
The SEL partnership summarised the main elements of their bid:
§ Led by Director of services
§ Clear university aims (new approaches, more rigorous entry etc)
§ Workforce planning and development of career pathways and roles such as teaching consultants
§ Embedding the KSS and PQ framework
§ Key theme of bridging practice, theory and research gap – 2 way knowledge transfer
It is expected that after the initial early adopters have piloted new approaches, there will be invitation for more teaching partnerships to be developed. SE London agreed to let the SWEN know how things progressed.
The general feeling of the meeting was that there was a real need for career pathway/progression linked to CPD. However many felt that with all the changes bringing in stricter entrance and fast track schemes, it was also essential to ensure that people who do not have academic skills but who are potentially good social workers with the right values and ability to reflect critically are supported to develop their careers / reach academic standards as needed.
Ali will ask Cheryl Wall (from the Skills for Care central team) to come to a future SWEN to talk about teaching partnerships as she sits on the relevant working group
6. Notices and general information exchange
§ People were reminded that TCSW are advertising for endorsers.
§ Ali thanked Sue Conn for her involvement in the SWEN – she has now left Harrow
§ Everyone was asked to ensure that they sent details of any new people they wanted to be added to the SWEN invites or to receive the social work briefings and also to inform us of anyone leaving so lists can be kept up to date.
§ Paul Lawrence suggested Children’s leads may wish to discuss together the JUC SWEC letter re: the DfE KSS assessment contract
7. Dates for future meetings & topics for future SWENs
§ Weds 24th June
§ Weds 4th Nov
As Lyn Romeo will be attending on June 24th, it was suggested that she be asked to cover:
§ How she and Isabel Trowler as Children’s Chief Social Worker work together
§ Direction of travel re: KSS testing (adults) and licence to practice
§ How much the agenda may be impacted by any change of government
§ Funding of social work education and CPD
§ Adult social work practice issues (such as implementing Care Act, unblocking reliance on institutional provision of e.g. learning disability)
§ PCF review - TCSW will be asked if they can do an update too
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