Children’s Social Care
Assessed Year in Employment
Newly Qualified Social Worker
Name
Work-Base
Mentor
Date commenced
Completion Date
Supported and coordinated by the:
Workforce Development Unit
Mill House
North Street
York
YO10 4HU
Index
CONTENT / PAGE- Introduction
- Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF)
- National Level Capabilities
- Guidance for staff and managers
Timescale of progression process
How to register for progression and access University modules – WDU
ASYE Progression Moderation / 20
20
21
21
- Assessed and Supported Year in Employment – Engaged
- Learning Agreement: Information and Notes
- Proformas
Manager’s Report
Direct Observations
Moderation Panel / Quality Assurance - Holistic assessment against the PCF Assessment Report
Candidate Process Evaluation Proforma / 27
28
32
38
42
47
- Appendix
Appeals Process
Study Leave
Further Resources
Notes / 48
49
49
49
50
51
1
Directorate for Adult, Children and Education
A message to the Newly Qualified Social Worker
We are very pleased that you have decided to join City of York Council as a Social Worker. We want only the best professionally qualified practitioners working with the children and young people we support; therefore, we encourage the recruitment, support and retention ofexpert social workers. Our involvement in the Newly Qualified Social Work (NQSW) /Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme demonstrates our commitment to supporting you, one of our most valuable assets.
We recognise the value of good social work and the potential for a positive and life changing impact on the lives of people we support. We hope that by joining this programme you will build on the skills and knowledge that you bring and we want to support you withthe resources and management support required to develop youto your full potential. Your contribution is vitally important to the lives of people we support.
The NQSW/ASYE process aims to:
- Clarify what is expected from you
- Define the responsibilities of colleagues that work with and support you
- Establish a more consistent baseline of experiences, abilities and expertise for those who work in Children’s Social Care
- Give greater assurances to managers around what NQSW/ASYE needs to achieve to deliver the best possible service to the families we support.
We hope that you will find this programme accessible, clear and effective, and that you will take up the many opportunities that will be provided to you to meet your development needs.
Purpose of this handbook
The Skills for Care Newly Qualified Social Worker (ASYE) programme is a 12 month support package for NQSWs who take up the social work role.
This City of York Council NQSW/ASYE handbook pulls together the key tools and summarises the main elements of the scheme to assist NQSWs and their line managers to understand what is involved, and what both the new Social Worker and the service can gain from participating in the scheme.
We know that the role of a Social Worker is complex and can often be extremely demanding, as well as rewarding. The role involves making crucial decisions to best support the needs of people we support and their families. For this reason, this structured programme aims to support NQSWs to develop the skills and confidence needed to meet the demands of the role.
It is designed to ensure that the NQSW can have access to the best possible supervision, training and development opportunities to broaden and deepen the skills and knowledge that an NQSW will bring from their training.
This handbook sets out the key features of the programme, but should be read and used alongside other comprehensive documents produced by Skills for Care
The National Context
The NQSW programme began in September 2008 after Lord Laming called for a national progression route for social workers(The Protection of Children in England: a Progress Report March 2009) and the Social Work Task Force has recently published recommendations for advancing the training and development of the Social Work Profession. One of the fifteen proposals in their final report (‘Building a Safe, Confident Future’ Nov 2009) was that there should be an assessed and supported year in employment to provide a structured induction and foundation first year. This proposed national reform programme will take a number of years to implement, but will build on current initiatives like the NQSW pilot.
For this reason the guidance in this handbook will be updated and revised in accordance with future national developments.
Main structure of the programme
The NQSW guidance sets out a detailed framework that helps the service to provide systematic and focused support to the Newly Qualified and newly appointed Social Worker, and helps the service to get the best out of the worker.
It is underpinned by the notion of continual assessment and focused on the specialist areas of knowledge, values and skills relevant to the role. It provides an understanding of what a Social Worker should know, and do, by the end of their first year of employment.
Social Worker professional development and progression based on the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF)
The intention of this guidance is to provide direction and a route to acquire evidence throughout the progression process of “the development of practitioners’ ability to manage complexity, risk, ambiguity and increasingly autonomous decision making across a range of situations” (The College of Social Work, progression between levels). As the stages are progressive and overlapping,practitioners do not need to provide detailed evidence for every capability, only those that the process deems relevant to their level.
The evidence and assessment process for each level is a requirement to achieve the level, not for when the level has been achieved. This must be supported by your line manager through appraisal procedures.
City of York Council has assigned the following headings to the PCF progression levels to locally contextualise the progression process and indicate the levels of practice competence:
Newly Qualified Social Worker: Assessed and Supported Year in Employment/ ASYE level
At this stage Social Workers should have consistently demonstrated practice in a wider range of tasks and roles, and have become more effective in their interventions, thus building their own confidence, and earning the confidence of others. They will have more experience and skills in relation to a particular setting and user group, and have demonstrated ability to work effectively in more complex situations. They will seek support in supervision appropriately, whilst starting to exercise initiative and evaluate their own practice.
Social Worker
At this stage Social Workers will progress to practice more effectively, exercising higher quality judgements, in situations of increasing complexity, risk, uncertainty and challenge. Through growing understanding they expect and anticipate, but do not pre-judge, the issues that may develop. They have greater confidence and independence (whilst accessing support when needed), and use their initiative to broaden their repertoire of responses; they have expertise in one or more areas of practice, and are familiar with local resource networks.
Senior Practitioner
At this stage Social Workers are more autonomous in their role. They demonstrate expert and effective practice in complex situations, assessing and managing higher levels of risk, striking a balance between support and control, liaising with a wide range of professionals, including more senior levels. They manage complex caseloads, and offer expert opinion within the organisation and to others. They chair a range of meetings, offer expert support to case conferences, and produce high quality assessments and reports for a range of functions. They model good practice, setting expectations for others. They start to take responsibility for and become accountable for the practice of others, mentoring newly qualified social workers, and supervising the work of junior staff. They undertake capacity-building with individuals, families, communities, user groups and voluntary organisations, and contribute their views on service provision to commissioners.
Social Worker Professional Development And Progression Based On The Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF)
The Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) was developed by the Social Work Reform Board (SWRB). It serves as a backdrop to both initial social work education, and continuing professional development after qualification. The PCF has been developed by social workers, and is owned by The College on behalf of the profession.The framework below is the one currently published on the College of Social Work website (June 2012). Please ensure that the latest version is used
Professional Capabilities Framework - Level Capabilities:
Where capability statements are in grey italicsthis indicates that they should have been met at a previous level and do not need to be met again. However, the expectation should be that social workers will maintain capability in that area of practice.
Professionalism - Identify and behave as a professional social worker, committed to professional developmentSocial Workers are members of an internationally recognised profession, a title protected in UK law. Social Workers demonstrate professional commitment by taking responsibility for their conduct, practice and learning, with support through supervision. As representatives of the social work profession they safeguard its reputation and are accountable to the professional regulator.
ASYE / Social Worker / Senior Practitioner / Experienced
Be able to meet the requirements of the professional regulator / Be able to meet the requirements of the professional regulator
Promote the profession in a growing range of contexts / Be able to meet the requirements of the professional regulator
Be able to explain the role of the social worker in a range of contexts, and uphold the reputation of the profession / Take responsibility for obtaining regular, effective supervision from a SW for effective practice, reflection and career development / Model the social work role, set expectations for others and contribute to the public face of the organisation
Make pro active use of supervision to reflect critically on practice, explore different approaches to your work, support your development across the nine capabilities and understand the boundaries of professional accountability / Maintain professionalism in the face of more challenging circumstances / Expect supervision that covers practice, organisational and management aspects of role, applying critical reflection throughout
Demonstrate professionalism in terms of presentation, demeanour, reliability, honesty and respectfulness / Manage workload independently, seeking support and suggesting solutions for workload difficulties / Model and help others to demonstrate professionalism
Demonstrate workload management skills and develop the ability to prioritise / Maintain appropriate personal/professional boundaries in more challenging circumstances. / Model and help others with effective workload management skills
Recognise and balance your own personal/professional boundaries in response to changing and more complex contexts / Make skilled use of self as part of your interventions / Model and help others to maintain professional/personal boundaries and skilled use of self
Recognise your own professional limitations, and how to seek advice / Maintain awareness of own professional limitations and knowledge gaps. Establish a network of internal and external colleagues from whom to seek advice and expertise / Maintain awareness of own professional limitations and knowledge gaps. Establish a network of internal and external colleagues from whom to seek advice and expertise
Identify your learning needs; assume responsibility for improving your practice through appropriate professional development / Identify and act on learning needs for CPD, including through supervision / Contribute to a learning environment for self, team and, colleagues Practice Educator Standards Stage 2 Domain D (see also capability 9)
Develop ways to promote wellbeing at work, identifying strategies to protect and promote your own well being and the well being of others / Routinely promote well-being at work / Recognise and seek ways to promote well-being for team and colleagues
Identify and implement strategies for responding appropriately to concerns about practice or procedures, seeking guidance if required / Raise and address issues of poor practice, internally through the organisation, and then independently if required / Promote up to date expectations about practice norms, identifying and helping resolve poor practice issues
Values and Ethics - Apply social work ethical principles and values to guide professional practice
Social Workers have an obligation to conduct themselves ethically and to engage in ethical decision-making, including through partnership with people who use their services. Social Workers are knowledgeable about the value base of their profession, its ethical standards and relevant law.
ASYE / Social Worker / Senior Practitioner / Experienced
Understand and apply the profession’s ethical principles and legislation, taking account of these in reaching decisions / Demonstrate confident application of ethical reasoning to professional practice, rights and entitlements, questioning and challenging others using a legal and human rights framework / Demonstrate confident and critical application of professional ethical principles to decision-making and practice, supporting others to do so using a legal and human rights framework
Recognise, and manage the impact of your own values on professional practice / Critically reflect on and manage the influence and impact of own and others’ values on professional practice / Model and support others to reflect on and manage the influence and impact of own values on professional practice
Recognise and manage conflicting values and ethical dilemmas to arrive at principled decisions / Recognise and manage conflicting values and ethical dilemmas, in practice, using supervision and team discussion, questioning and challenging others, including those from other professions / Provide guidance and support to analyse, reflect on and work with ethical dilemmas
Demonstrate respectful partnership work with service users and carers, eliciting and respecting their needs and views, and promoting their participation in decision-making wherever possible / Negotiate and establish boundaries to underpin partnership work with service users, carers and their networks, using transparency and honesty / Demonstrate confident application of an understanding of the benefits and limitations of partnership work, support others to do so, and promote service user and carer participation in developing service delivery
Recognise and promote individuals’ rights to autonomy and self-determination / Ensure practice is underpinned by policy, procedures and code of conduct to promote individuals’ rights to determine their own solutions, promoting problem-solving skills, whilst recognising how and when self-determination may be constrained (by the law) / Promote and advance wherever possible individual’s rights to autonomy and self-determination, providing support, guidance and challenge to others
Promote and protect the privacy of individuals within and outside their families and networks, recognising the requirements of professional accountability and information sharing / Work to protect privacy and promote trust, whilst being able to justify, explain and take appropriate action when the right to privacy is over-ridden by professional or legal requirements / Demonstrate skills in the sensitive exploration of issues of privacy and information-sharing in complex or risky situations, offering support and guidance to colleagues in managing such these dilemmas
Diversity - Recognise diversity and apply anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive principles in practice
Social Workers understand that diversity characterises and shapes human experience and is critical to the formation of identity. Diversity is multi-dimensional and includes race, disability, class, economic status, age, sexuality, gender and transgender, faith and belief. Social Workers appreciate that, as a consequence of difference, a person’s life experience may include oppression, marginalisation and alienation as well as privilege, power and acclaim, and are able to challenge appropriately.
ASYE / Social Worker / Senior Practitioner / Experienced
Identify and take account of the significance of diversity and discrimination on the lives of people, and show application of this understanding in your practice / Recognise the complexity of identity and diversity of experience, and apply this to practice / Inform, guide and model good practice in the application of understanding of identity and diversity to practice; identifying and taking up issues when principles of diversity are contravened in the organisation
Recognise oppression and discrimination by individuals or organisations and implement appropriate strategies to challenge / Recognise discriminatory practices and develop a range of approaches to appropriately challenge service users, colleagues & senior staff / Model critically reflective practice and support others to recognise and challenge discrimination, identifying and referring breaches and limitations in the ability of your own or other organisations’ ability to advance equality and diversity and comply with the law
Identify the impact of the power invested in your role on relationships and your intervention, and be able to adapt your practice accordingly / Critically reflect on and manage the power of your role in your relationship with others / Demonstrate and model the effective and positive use of power and authority, whilst recognising and providing guidance to others as to how it may be used oppressively
Rights, Justice and Economic Wellbeing - Advance human rights and promote social justice and economic wellbeing
Social Workers recognise the fundamental principles of human rights and equality, and that these are protected in national and international law, conventions and policies. They ensure these principles underpin their practice. Social Workers understand the importance of using and contributing to case law and applying these rights in their own practice. They understand the effects of oppression, discrimination and poverty.