The chief social worker for children has asked for the views of candidates on their assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE).
Isabelle Trowler tweeted the online survey and said it was “really important” ASYE social workers respond to the Department for Education survey about their experiences of their first year in practice.
Employer standards
The survey includes questions such as how supported newly qualified social workers feel in regards to the ASYE and whether ASYE candidates are aware of the Employer Standards, designed to protect social workers.
Supervision and reflection
It also covers supervision, reflection and practice observation to understand whether these are embedded in ASYE social workers’ organisations.
It also asked candidates to say whether they intended to stay with their employer after completing the ASYE.
However, Isabelle Trowler has not responded to questions on whether the survey results will be published or what action will be taken based on the results.
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I like many of my fellow newly qualified workers have reservations about the value of the ASYE training. Whilst we assured that we would be given reduced caseloads in order to develop and find time to complete ASYE work – the reality is somewhat differrent.
Caseload work always takes priority over ASYE work and as a result I found myself very stressed towards the end of the year as i did not have time to complete the work. Due to my workload and my collapse in my own confidence to complete work on time I ended up having a substantial time off sick with stress. I feel most dissillusioned with my work and I think the only way to keep up with my workload is to do free overtime like most social workers within my service. Because i was unwilling to write up work in my overtime I have often fallen behind in my work which has led to me being mentally unwell. Most younger workers just get on with it because they have bills to pay. Every week there seems to be a new piece of bureacracy that needs to be completed and things seem to be getting worse. I would however openly concede that I am less efficient worker in terms of maintaining my workload.
I entered into my position enthused by the ideals of the Munrto report – but I have since realised that Munro is long forgotten and performance management culture prevails. i have been pretty much informed by senior workers that Munro is a Utopian concept and I need to conform to the reality.
I considered the ASYE training itself as being less than challenging (intellectually) and most of the work just repeated previous social work training. I like most newly qualified workers just regard it as another hoop to jump through in a world where we already feel overstretched.
As regards the Employer Standards I am unaware of how this works. What we have been advised is that we should have a 10% reduced caseload of senior workers. So if members of my team have 35 cases I should have no more 31 – which is far beyond my capacity. At one time my caseload went up to 32 – and I had to approach the head of my service to have my caseload reduced.
I like many of my fellow newly qualified workers have decided that child protection social work is too “demanding”. “Demanding” being a euphemistic term. I would regard my working environment as autocratic and oppressive. Most workers only share such views with their peers.