Hi,
I am a newly qualified Social Worker who has been invited for an interview as a Reviewing Officer. Please help me with the staff that i can look out to prepare for the interview.
Thanks
Hi Kim do you mean a reviewing officer as in the context of children i.e. independant reviewing officer or as a reviewing officer who reviews care plans with adult services?
I didn't know newly qualifieds could BE reviewing officers!
Those were my thoughts, as it is defined as an experienced role, I know in some adult services a reviewing officer does not need to be a qaulified social worker.
The title of this thread is 'role of a reviewing officer' which insinuates you do not know what their role is. So let me ask, why apply for a job when u have no knowledge of the role?!
This can't mean IRO can it? Surely newly qualifieds aren't eligible since they can't even carry cp cases in their first year.
Hi
If it's in Adult Services it's usually exactly as the job title suggests. A person who reviews individual cases to ensure their needs are being met looking at what services and supports they have in place and whether outcomes are acheived.
My apologies I was not explicit, I meant as in reviewing care packages for adults.
Thank you.
Hi Kim, well done with being selected for interview and I hope you get the job.
There is not alot advice on your page of tips which may help you with the interview. That's probarbly cause the revewing officer in Adult Social Care is generally becoming more popular with Council's, but in the past generally did not exist and all reviews were conducted solely by Assessment and Care Management Teams. Where I work in the south-east, the reviewing role is increasingly becoming the 'hot potatoe' and the reviewing functions appear to be expendaning more and more (which sit alone outside of Assessment Teams usually) and this is because of the transformation to 'Personalisation' and self directed support pathways.
I would say for a newly qualified social worker, it is the ideal place to start gaining social work experience, whilst not being thrown in the deep end (that is of course you have not experienced statutory social work before qualifying?).
I have been working in adult statutory social work for almost a decade and I would recommend you bear in mind the following when in the interview.
- Personalisation and self directed support (give examples of how this approach with clients imbraces choice, control one's care and definetly menin direct payments and personal budgets as a way of doing this);
- Ensure your understanding of social worl law; NHS CCA 1990, NNA 1948, Mental Health Act, Carer (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, Mental Capapity Act, Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act and Delayed (community care) Discharge Act (only if appropriet). Don;t go into loads of detail but let them know your aware of these and give a small example, for example, 'I am aware the Local Authority are by duty to assess a person needs if they are seen to be in need to community care services (s.47);
- Talk about Policy and how this affects your role, for example, Personalisation, our health, our care, our say - White Papers which are the foundations to personalised care and the recent transformation in social care;
- Have knowledge of the Councils Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults which you will find on their website. Ensure you know the duty to report if you come across a situation where you have been told or observed abuse or likely abuse. (You will not be expected to have experienced investigation, but be clever and say what you would do if you found of this information when reviewing a care package);
- Have some knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty safeguards. Inform you are aware of these and that you would seek immidiate advice if ther were concerns noted of a persons mental capacity or their liberty of freedom (i.e an older person wishing to leave a residential servce but are prevented and there are concerns of their capacity to consent);
- Have examples of being a team player and gives examples of when you have been a good team player and what you would bring to a team of social work colleagues. This is self explanitory but worth thinking about.
- Remember, the role is to assess needs of service users and carer's in a way which is fair, transparent and is able to be challenged if the customer is not happy. You should have clear examples of anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practices and how you will conduct these values within your work with clients and their families. I would suggest having a think about these above and equality to access to care and gives examples of equal treatment for all (i.e Fair Access to Care Services? - complaints procedure??);
- Lastly, your skills are what the interviewers are going to want to hear about. Make a list of your skills to the role and revise how how these will be used in the role your applying. Give examples from your placements, past work experiences but always come back to the essential skills of organising, prioritising, methods for making contact, planning, preparing, listening skills, report writing skills, anaylictical skills, sunthesising data skills, communication skills, multi-agency or partnership skills, computer skills and skills of containing your professional boundaries and having skills to always ask for advice and support if you encounter a tricky situation (I am almost definately sure you will come across these).
There are lots of other things which may come up, but as long as youhave the core knowledge and examples to express im sure you will be fine.
Good luck with your interview - fingers crossed
D ;-)
I would also be prepared to answer why you want the job as a reviewing officer when you have just qualified as a social worker - i would think they are fairly likely to ask you this as they would want to know if you are committed to being in a non qualifed post.
'swsoutheast' makes a powerful case as to why the role should be carried out by an experienced and qualified social worker.
Thanks to everyone who gave me some feedback and a huge thank you to swsoutheast for the encouragement and support, I've been to the interview, waiting for the results.
Hi Kim, did you get feedback???
swsoutheast: Hi Kim, well done with being selected for interview and I hope you get the job. There is not alot advice on your page of tips which may help you with the interview. That's probarbly cause the revewing officer in Adult Social Care is generally becoming more popular with Council's, but in the past generally did not exist and all reviews were conducted solely by Assessment and Care Management Teams. Where I work in the south-east, the reviewing role is increasingly becoming the 'hot potatoe' and the reviewing functions appear to be expendaning more and more (which sit alone outside of Assessment Teams usually) and this is because of the transformation to 'Personalisation' and self directed support pathways. I would say for a newly qualified social worker, it is the ideal place to start gaining social work experience, whilst not being thrown in the deep end (that is of course you have not experienced statutory social work before qualifying?). I have been working in adult statutory social work for almost a decade and I would recommend you bear in mind the following when in the interview. - Personalisation and self directed support (give examples of how this approach with clients imbraces choice, control one's care and definetly menin direct payments and personal budgets as a way of doing this); - Ensure your understanding of social worl law; NHS CCA 1990, NNA 1948, Mental Health Act, Carer (Recognition and Services) Act 1995, Mental Capapity Act, Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act and Delayed (community care) Discharge Act (only if appropriet). Don;t go into loads of detail but let them know your aware of these and give a small example, for example, 'I am aware the Local Authority are by duty to assess a person needs if they are seen to be in need to community care services (s.47); - Talk about Policy and how this affects your role, for example, Personalisation, our health, our care, our say - White Papers which are the foundations to personalised care and the recent transformation in social care; - Have knowledge of the Councils Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults which you will find on their website. Ensure you know the duty to report if you come across a situation where you have been told or observed abuse or likely abuse. (You will not be expected to have experienced investigation, but be clever and say what you would do if you found of this information when reviewing a care package); - Have some knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty safeguards. Inform you are aware of these and that you would seek immidiate advice if ther were concerns noted of a persons mental capacity or their liberty of freedom (i.e an older person wishing to leave a residential servce but are prevented and there are concerns of their capacity to consent); - Have examples of being a team player and gives examples of when you have been a good team player and what you would bring to a team of social work colleagues. This is self explanitory but worth thinking about. - Remember, the role is to assess needs of service users and carer's in a way which is fair, transparent and is able to be challenged if the customer is not happy. You should have clear examples of anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory practices and how you will conduct these values within your work with clients and their families. I would suggest having a think about these above and equality to access to care and gives examples of equal treatment for all (i.e Fair Access to Care Services? - complaints procedure??); - Lastly, your skills are what the interviewers are going to want to hear about. Make a list of your skills to the role and revise how how these will be used in the role your applying. Give examples from your placements, past work experiences but always come back to the essential skills of organising, prioritising, methods for making contact, planning, preparing, listening skills, report writing skills, anaylictical skills, sunthesising data skills, communication skills, multi-agency or partnership skills, computer skills and skills of containing your professional boundaries and having skills to always ask for advice and support if you encounter a tricky situation (I am almost definately sure you will come across these). There are lots of other things which may come up, but as long as youhave the core knowledge and examples to express im sure you will be fine. Good luck with your interview - fingers crossed D ;-)
thats excellent advice
Hi sws
Once again thank you for inquiring unfortunately I did not make it this time round.
Kim.
That really is excellent advice! It sounds like a fascinating, and very important, role.
Hi Kim,
In a way I am glad you didn't get the job and I'll explain why - no offence intended to you.
I am a locum mental health social worker and in these times of cost cutting am recently working in just such a post for purely financial reasons. Another mature yet essentially newly qualified SW is working jointly with me. I have been qualified for 14 years and have much experience mainly in mental health adults field.
You may notice that many of the jobs for locums out there at the moment are for these reviewing type posts but do not be fooled into thinking these are perfect environments for getting some social work experience because they are not. You probably failed at interview because you didn't give them what they wanted to hear but more than likely talked quite rightly of client centred practice, empowerment and other social work values central to our practice when what those interviewing wanted to hear is that your focus is on cutting care cost - at no expense i..e you should be skilled at ignoring your principles, ignoring need and not noticing risk. Paying no heed to consent of clients when you move them from 'high cost' placements to 'low cost or no cost' placements. That sort of thing. Most importantly you should be able to do exactly as instructed by your superiors and any challenge you might have to this remit regarding your professional practice will be met by line management putting it down to your clear lack of experience in the field. Yet I suggest that this type of work is not social work anyway. It is better termed care management. I would further suggest that, as in my colleagues case, that to be registered as a social worker with the GSCC and to practice in this way, whether under instruction or not, is tantamount to bad practice. As a social worker regardless of your employer, which in this case is a project management team with a cost saving remit, I believe, one should be able to adhere to good social work values and competencies and retain a professional air of autonomy in the absence of social work line management and would argue that this is difficult to achieve as a newly qualified. To 'do' what is asked of you merely because a line manager instructs one to do this is not ethical but one needs much confidence in order to realise what is happening. Essentially the reason why newly qualifieds are often appointed for these posts is for this very reason. They lack the confidence and experience to be able to challenge and are easily malleable plus scared witless of course that they may never work again or develop. That plus the vital factor of course which is that they are cheaper! No offence intended to you Kim. I would advise that you keep looking for real social work opportunities even if for a while that means a low wage because it will be very difficult for you to get future work unless you have this. Working as a reviewing officer will only ensure you possibly get future work in this field.
Yours,
Expecting a huge protest from those actively involved in care management,
The Matriarch.
What Matriarch says is a sad but true reflection on how things are. Everyone knows it but just like bankers bonuses, nobody will stand up and say how totally outrageous the whole thing is. There just is no justification. Both topics are about money and it doesn't take a genius to see the solution.
SWs are there to be pointed and fired; trouble is, if you accept this you do not have the required qualities for the post.
There was a time when it was touted by government, that ex army and police were ideal recruits for the probation service, quality has become a dirty word and the swear filter needs to be adjusted.
Kim, sorry to hear that you were not appointed and you should not this personally, but go forwarrd and keep applying for post which you find of interest. I do agree with other guys that this role would not have necessarily been the best to start to start your social work career, but getting your foot through the door would have been a positive as its easier to then move to other roles/teams when your in so to speak.
I don't want to put you off, but it is indeed true that in terms of the 'remit' of the role is to assessmen eligible needs, and, where necessary, make changes to package of care, whether that an increase or reduction. From experince there are more POC cut then increased and the reasons for this are a matrix, but generally relate to the older system of care management where resources were thrown at services users as there was a belief 'theres no limits to what people can have'. This changed very quickly when accountants started to look at the figures and pretty a few years after the privious reform to care management. Fair Access to Care Services was only introduced in 2003 a decade after the introcution of the NHS CCA 1990!! This clearly has been used to filter out people before even getting near the front door. Im not defiending local authorities but even now there are many clients in receipt of services who do not fit the criteria, but have become dependant on the service which they began to received 10 years ago. In other words services were much easier to access, but now the draw-gate is coming down and people are in fact as a result are losing their services (whether or not they needed them in the first place).
You will not have experienced this already, but for us who have been working in statutory services for many years will most probarbly agree that social work is currently in a strange place and feels quite unsafe at the moment. Once again there not only changes from most or all local authorities up and down the country with restructuring, introduction of Personalisation, but also there is the welfare reform and further attempts define the social work role useing bodies who are there to protect us as a profession?. Some theorist, such as Horner et al. (2005) wrote of concerns that because there are so many different variables to the profession, structures and levels of power and change it has infact lost its identity, which is hard to disagree with and probarbly fely by most who work with vulnerable adults. The future is also very unclear, given that authorities are moving towards out-sourcing their duties of social services to independant organisations. This seems to be creeping about more and more these days and once the laws are changed by the law commission i think were see a quicker shift as LAs are not particulary interested in providing functions of this type and would rather provide services to the commuity which does not place them in a position where there are no repercussions or negative exposure. Unfortunately, there are cases which place LAs under this spot light. The other reasons is that social services is certainly nearly one of the biggest departments in the councils ans they culd significant savings by outsourcing.
Don't let this put you off and i propose you continue to take the advice I gave a while back inrelation to the possible subjects touched upon in the interview process as these are central to the knowledge and experience, skill base and expectation interviewers will want to hear as its point-based so get as many examples of your experience in as possible. Be clear, concise and dont rush to answer questions. If you dont understand the question ask them to repeat it (as most of the time you have 2 questions in 1). Use good eye contact and when explaining your answers refer to different people on the panel not just the person wh asked the questions. And remember, the central areas of focus as it seems this where our journey is taking us in social work to date. Take note of the issues of discrimination and oppression and use your values as a way to guide your answers in the service users shoes. If you dont mention these it will go against you in the interview. Councils have a duty to fairness and anti-discrimiation. If you find issues with these in the future, refer to the greivence procedures, even if its your manager. Its not easy, but i know its done.
Best wishes
Kim, sorry to hear that you were not appointed and you should not take this personally, but go forwarrd and keep applying for post which you find of interest. I do agree with the other guys that this role would not have necessarily been the best to start your social work career, but getting your foot through the door would have been a positive, as its easier to then move to other roles/teams when your in.
I don't want to put you off, but it is indeed true that in terms of the 'remit' of the role is to assess eligible needs, and, where necessary, make changes to packages of care (POC), whether that be an increase or reduction. From experince there are more POC cuts than increased and the reasons for this are a matrix, but do generally relate to the older system of care management where resources were thrown at services users as there was a belief 'theres no limits to what people can have'. This changed very quickly when accountants started to look at the figures. Fair Access to Care Services was only introduced in 2003 a decade after the introcution of the NHS CCA 1990!! This clearly has been used to filter out people before even getting near the front door. Im not defending local authorities but even now there are many clients in receipt of services who do not fit the criteria, but have become dependant on the service which began 10 years ago. In other words, services were much easier to access back then, but now the draw-gate is coming down and people are in fact as a result losing their services (whether or not they needed them in the first place).
You will not have experienced this already, but for us who have been working in statutory services for many years will most probarbly agree that social work is currently in a strange place and feels quite unsafe at the moment. Once again there not only changes from most or all local authorities up and down the country with restructuring, introduction of Personalisation, the welfare reform and further attempts define the social work role using bodies who are there to protect us as a profession who are failing?. Some theorist, such as Horner et al. (2005) wrote of concerns that because there are so many different variables to the profession, structures and levels of power and change social work has infact lost its identity, which is hard to disagree with and probarbly felt by most who work with vulnerable people. The future is also very unclear, given that authorities are moving towards out-sourcing their duties of social services to independant organisations. This seems to be creeping about more and more these days and once the laws reviewed by the law commission i think will see a quicker shift as LAs are not particulary interested in providing functions of this type and would rather provide services to the commuity which does not place them in a position where there are no repercussions or negative exposure or scrutiny. The other reasons being social services is certainly nearly one of the biggest departments in the councils and they can make significant savings by outsourcing.
Resent as requiredspell-checking
'swsoutheast' - you can amend Postings within 1 hour without having to re-send them. Just click on 'More' button and edit.
Still a number of spelling errors!