Over the years, social work has been subject of top-level reviews and experienced a raft of reforms. Yet the problems that social workers face persist.
Following the case of Baby P and other child deaths in Doncaster and Birmingham, we have seen more recommendations from on high and the creation of the Social Work Taskforce, which includes only one practicing social worker. Is this really the answer?
Community Care is backing an initiative to help frontline workers come up with their own charter for the future.
It is social workers themselves who are best placed to find solutions to the hurdles they face - limited training opportunities, high stress levels, high case loads, variable supervision and often scant staff care or personal safety support.
Community Care is backing an initiative to give them a voice. We are supporting BASW, Kids Company, and Reconstruct to convene a meeting of frontline social workers to draw up a charter setting out their vision for the future of child safeguarding social work.
The charter is not about box-ticking or bureaucracy but about involving those who know best - those on the frontline - in setting essential minimum standards that can make a difference.
The starting point is a draft charter:
1) No safeguarding team to ever fall below 100% staffing
2) A national mentoring scheme for new workers
3) A national multi-agency supervision diploma in safeguarding
4) A national staff care scheme for all frontline staff
5) An interdisciplinary diploma in safeguarding work
6) A commitment to national and international safeguarding procedures
But this is just the start. Over the next few months the charter will develop and change - led by staff who should know. Those on the frontline.
To have your say now, join the debate online on Carespace, Community Care's discussion forum.
Please also join us in person on at a special meeting on 20 May in London to dicuss the issues. Download the information sheet here: Safeguarding_form.pdf.
Whilst I applaud this initiative I have to express the gravest reservations. UNLESS there is a far more open, honest and ethical reaction to it by Central Government, Elected Members, Directors of Children's Services then it will produce absolutely nothing.
Many of us are all too well aware of what is wrong within social work. I speak only about Children & Families social work and it is about inadequate training, inadequate support and mentoring for newly qualified workers, inadequate and ineffective Supervision, having to 'fight' the IT systems supposedly there to be of assistance- ICS is an unmitigated disaster as it is neither User nor worker friendly. Lord Laming's Victoria Climbie recommendations are sadly not sufficiently implemented in many local authorities and his latest ones seem to do little to improve things. Hitting Performance Indicators (PI's) has taken over from ensuring that it is QUALITY and SAFEGUARDING that are far more important.
We need a return to more community-based supports such as Open Access Family Centres; Mother and Child neighbourhood support programmes (not limited to SureStart areas); more 'joined-up' multi-agency responses to Domestic Violence (and associated drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes); better accommodation to support single parents and families experiencing relationship stresses; more and speedier therapeutic CAMHS services.
We need to make agencies (and their senior managers) accountable for meeting the Every Child Matters outcomes. Those employed IN and BY the Public Sector are PUBLIC SERVANTS - they need to realise where social work came from and they need to be supported to SPEAK OUT against injustices - why has the profession become so ground-down and seemingly afraid to say and do what they KNOW is right?
Angry - you bet!!!
Philip.measures@gmail.com
Yes! Workers and managers learning together, with the right sets of principles and a sound method. Together learning to understand what works and creating the appropriate measures related to purpose and what matters to customers.
For more see:
http://www.thesystemsthinkingreview.co.uk/