The Children and Young People's Workforce Strategy for Barnet 2011 2014 - Barnet Children & Young People's Strategic Partnership Board
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Barnet Children & Young People’s Strategic Partnership Board
The Children and Young People’s Workforce
Strategy for Barnet
2011 – 2014
Delphine GarrCONTENTS PAGE
A. INTRODUCTION 2
B. CONTEXT 4
C. ACTIVITIES FOR 2011 - 2014
− Recruiting the Children’s Workforce 4
− Developing and Retaining the Children’s Workforce 5
− Strengthening Inter-agency and Multi-Disciplinary Working 6
− Promoting Stronger Leadership, Management and Supervision 6
− Defined Training Needs and Core Competencies around the Lead Professional Role, the Common Core of Skills
and Knowledge, the Common Assessment Framework and Safeguarding 7
− Engaging Service Users in the Quality and Design of Workforce Development and Integration 8
− Undertaking Specific Commissioned Training and Development Activity 8
D. DELIVERING THE STRATEGY
− Appendix 1 - Delivery Plan 9
− Appendix 2 – Risk Analysis/Impact 14
− Appendix 3 - Broad Children’s Services Workforce 16
1A. Introduction
In this time of unprecedented change, it is critical to ensure that the children’s workforce have the skills, knowledge and qualifications
to deliver a high quality of service to service users. Barnet is committed to the on-going investment in the development of a well
trained and flexible workforce, especially in social care, in order to create a competitive edge that will enable us maintain an efficient
and excellent workforce across the children’s service partnership in Barnet.
The key lies in delivering a learning and development experience that is user friendly, engaging, collaborative and facilitates the
sharing of information, expertise and knowledge across the children’s service partnership. We are determined to build on our
achievements in previous years by empowering our workforce to overcome barriers to change, connect with communities and
families in order to promote our early identification and prevention agenda and deliver lasting improvements to vulnerable children,
young people and families.
This strategy sets out our ongoing partnership approach for developing a world-class children’s workforce to deliver our ambition for
better outcomes for children and young people as set out in our Children and Young People Plan. It focuses on a diverse range of
collaborative workforce development initiatives across Barnet’s children’s workforce and is organised across seven strands:
1. Recruiting the children’s workforce.
2. Developing and retaining the children’s workforce.
3. Strengthening inter-agency and multi-disciplinary / partnership working across various sectors, linked to workforce re-
modelling/reconfiguration and working with local partners.
4. Promoting stronger leadership, management and supervision.
5. Defined training needs and core competencies around the Lead Professional role, the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge
and the Common Assessment Framework (CAF)
6. Engaging service users in the quality and design of workforce development and integration.
7 Undertaking specifically commissioned training and development activity
Section C sets out our approach to each strand with a detailed action plan contained in Appendix 1.
Our approach over the years have been aimed at proactively developing the workforce and going beyond formal training to identify
creative ways of engaging the workforce across the partnership and working collaboratively to share expertise, information and
knowledge in order to improve outcomes for children and young people in Barnet. A number of key annual initiatives introduced over
the years include:
2 The children’s workforce conferences held, each with morning and afternoon sessions to maximise access and attendance
across the services and agencies, providing an opportunity to share ideas, promote integrated working practices, network and
build relationships.
Children and Young people’s Jobs and Careers Fair, introduced as part of our integrated working approach to share good
practice, promote a shared identity and purpose. In appreciation of the fact that all work roles in the children’s service
complement each other to deliver excellent services for service users we also published a joint recruitment brochure to
underpin effective collaborative working on recruitment.
Learning and development activities in key areas of professional development, accessible, currently free of charge, to
the children’s workforce across the partnership. These include a suite of Safeguarding courses, Common Core Skills – Child
development, Effective communication and engagement with children and young people, Supporting transitions, Multi-agency
working and Sharing Information,- Common Assessment Framework, Lead Professional training, Domestic Violence training,
a suite of substance misuse training and Leadership and Management training.
Joint innovative recruitment website - www.barnetpossibilities.co.uk, launched to include partners as part of our joint
commitment to maintain low rates of vacancies across the children’s service partnership, particularly in social work. This
supports our joint commitment to building capacity to deliver and keep children safe.
Shadowing programme – launched across the partnership towards full engagement across all services and agencies in
Barnet.
Engaging young people in the delivery of training, providing placements and volunteer opportunities – as part of a
collective responsibility towards supporting care leavers and preparing young people for a successful work life.
Identified dedicated support for foster carers’ learning and development to help provide a minimum standard of support
and care for children and young people.
Full details are available from Delphine Garr, Barnet’s Children’s Workforce Development and Learning Manager
(delphine.garr@barnet.gov.uk). Lessons learnt have helped us develop our approach and the strategy is a dynamic document, kept
under regular review in order to maximise success and allow us to respond to changes and emerging priorities especially in this
climate of on-going change.
3B Context
The strategy has been developed within the context of the requirements and demand of a range of initiatives that underpin the Munro
Review (May 2011), the Tickell Review (March 2011), the Allen Graham Review (January 2011), the Every Child Matters agenda,
and the 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy. The need to develop new ways of working and collaborate
effectively is true across all the services and agencies working with children, young people and their families/carers. Barnet supports
the vision that everyone working with children and young people should be ambitious for every child and young person, excellent in
their practice, respected and valued as professionals and committed to integrated working. We are passionate about workforce
development and believe that developing our workforce across the children’s service partnership is fundamental to the delivery of
excellent services to service users. We are embarking on an on-going programme of joint initiatives to support the implementation of
the recent reviews and the 2020 Children and Young people’s Workforce Strategy across the partnership in Barnet and to embed
integrated working arrangements.
This is a high level strategic workforce development plan for the children’s service partnership and underpins other local strategies in
the services. In addition to the joint areas of collaboration, there are additional on-going change programmes relating to workforce
development in varied areas of the children’s workforce to help promote and support integrated working arrangements and realise
the vision for 2020. These include:
C Activities for 2011/12
Strand 1: Recruiting the children’s workforce
Barnet has a stable workforce. We need to maintain our efforts of the last few years that have resulted in this success and continue
to address pockets of local recruitment difficulties that remain. In particular, recruiting experienced social workers can be challenging.
We will:
• adapt and roll out good recruitment practice, working with our partners to widen participation in the recruitment website as well
as joint recruitment activities
• maintain focus on our recruitment and retention activity; for example for social workers, foster carers, early years and
children’s centre workforce and on-going participation in the Children’s Workforce Development Council’s (CWDC) Return to
Social Work programme
• explore new ways of attracting more people into the children’s workforce by rolling out a common identity using
www.barnetpossibilities.co.uk branding as base with links to the newly developed One Barnet E-recruitment site
jobs.barnet.gov.uk.
4• review our existing jobs and careers fair campaigns and arrangements to include any additional partners across the children’s
workforce
• provide work experience opportunities across the children’s service including A day in the life of… initiatives across varied
professional backgrounds in the children’s service partnership
Strand 2: Developing and retaining the children’s workforce
Retention is critical to workforce development; high staff turnover is costly and disruptive to service users. Our previous workforce
analysis, suggested that staff retention is not a huge problem in Barnet and that most of the children’s workforce would like to stay
working within their current organisation and gain experience and promotion. The four most important opportunities for career
development identified were:
training specific to a particular aspect of the job
professional development training
management development opportunities and
access to conferences and workshops.
Our approach to retention is to encourage professionals to develop their skills and build rewarding careers through pathways based
on commonality of skills and knowledge. We will:
• offer on-going world class supervision and management support, including coaching sessions
• offer continuous professional development (CPD) in line with identified workforce needs
• develop and offer tailored training sessions to meet individual needs and experience
• review the skills of managers and ensure they have good quality management skills to manage and motivate staff, to drive the
changes relating to our early identification and prevention agenda, changes resulting from the Munro Review, the Graham
Allen Review and integrated working arrangements across the children’s service partnership
• on-going participation in CWDC projects for Newly Qualified Social Workers (NQSW), the Early Professional Development
(EPD) and the Support for Frontline Social Worker Managers programme. We will continue to support our early years
practitioners to achieve the Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) to ensure quality childcare provision
• develop common induction elements across the partnership.
Stand 3: Strengthening Inter-agency and Multi-disciplinary Working
It is central to our workforce development strategy that the new ways of working across organisational and professional boundaries
promote a healthy collaboration among professionals and ensure a consistent and coherent delivery of services to children, young
5people and families; especially those with multiple additional needs. The Barnet approach will continue to encourage shared
resources such as good practice and information sharing, shared training programmes, facilities and other resources including
expertise and skills. We will:
• continue to offer further training programmes for the lead professional role, the Common Assessment Framework and the
Common Core of skills and knowledge in multi-agency teams across the children’s service partnership
• create and promote further opportunities to jointly develop and commission training across agencies including Induction
Workshops and leadership and management training programmes
• continue to actively engage the voluntary and community sector in workforce development activities including conferences and
recruitment initiatives
• improve the integration of medical staff within the children’s workforce.
Strand 4: Promoting Stronger Leadership, Management and Supervision
The pace of unprecedented and unpredictable change in the current economic climate underscores the need for managers and
leaders to maximise the outputs from their limited resources through effective leadership and management. In partnership with
Middlesex University and Hay Group, Barnet has developed an accredited leadership and management programme that provides an
opportunity for participants to enhance personal effectiveness at work by supporting them to understand the impact of their own
behaviours and attitude on others and to help them identify ways of building on their existing skills and knowledge to make effective
change. This programme has so far been rolled out to a cross section of 48 leaders and managers across the children’s service
partnership as part of the approach to support them in driving through change effectively. To further develop and strengthen
leadership and management we will:
• explore varied development opportunities including, external courses / seminars, on the job training, formal taught courses,
executive coaching, mentoring, line management coaching, secondments, job rotation / shadowing.
• create networking opportunities for strategic leaders in the local authority and partners in the private, voluntary and community
sectors
• provide on-going and sustainable support structures for early years graduate leaders in order to enhance the profile of
childcare
• identify and develop staff with potential for management growth and development and continue to deliver an accredited
integrated leadership and management training programme in partnership with Hay Group and Middlesex University as
resources allow
• review training support for foster carers in order to address the challenges of integrated working and improved leadership in
foster care
• provide appropriate and effective supervision and support for managers.
6Strand 5: Defined Training needs and Core Competencies around the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge, the Common
Assessment Framework (CAF) the Lead Professional role and Safeguarding
The Lead Professional role, the Common Core of Skills and Knowledge and the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) initiatives
are all interlinked. They equip the workforce with a basic common core of skills and knowledge and common approach to referral
and assessment across children’s services. We have successfully implemented the Common Core Training Programme, the
Common Assessment and the Lead Professional Training programmes which are now freely accessible to the workforce. The
priority within this workforce development strategy is to provide on-going support through the delivery of training and the promotion of
their inclusion within induction and continuous professional development programmes. We will:
• continue to lead and increase the take up of the Common Core training programme for the children’s workforce
• continue to offer accredited Common Core training via the Work Based Learning Unit, Middlesex University at certificate level
(level 1) and graduate level (level 3)
• continue to offer free CAF training across the partnership
• offer the Lead Professional training programme for managers and practitioners to enable them manage the role effectively
• seek to actively engage medical staff (including doctors, Deanery and Clinical Tutors), the police and other hard to reach
children’s workforce in these initiatives
Strand 6: Engaging service users in the quality and design of workforce development and integration
It is good practice to involve service users in changes regarding workforce development initiatives because it makes them feel more
valued. It is also an effective way of bringing about change because the beneficiaries of the changes need to be aware that these
changes are happening to enable them make an input where possible and take advantage of the benefits. Actively engaging
children and young people enables them to make a positive contribution to the community thereby achieving one of the five
outcomes for children and young people. In the case of parents / carers it helps increase their confidence and build good
relationships with the children’s workforce when they are involved in the activities that deal with the competence of the workforce. In
the longer term, actively engaging service users could be a useful recruitment approach, helping to market careers within the
children’s service to children, young people and their parents / carers. We will:
• continue to identify and promote innovative ways of engaging with service users including children and young people
• involve children and young people in the delivery of any relevant training and development opportunities where feasible – The
Total Respect Training
• offer apprenticeships and work experience opportunities across the children’s service partnership
• engage children and young people in workforce development activities.
7Strand 7: Undertaking specific commissioned training and development activity
As part of our approach towards early identification and prevention and in order to promote integrated working, we will:
• continue to provide on-going training to enable the children’s workforce across the service demonstrate the ability to identify
and undertake appropriate action including referral to address substance misuse / abuse
• provide on-going training to enable the children’s workforce understand the complex nature of alcohol use amongst young
people, why and how they are used to enable them improve the support offered.
We will also work with relevant colleagues to highlight issues relating to disability and ensure that the workforce is highly skilled to
deliver effective services to children and young people with disabilities. This includes the delivery of the Disabled Children’s Access
to Childcare Training programme which includes the following learning and development programmes:
• Disability Awareness Training
• Speech, Language and Communication/SLC Needs
We will continue to commission learning and development initiatives that support parent partnership work across the borough.
These include the delivery of Parenting programmes and other related training programmes that support positive parenting and
building relationships. We will also explore further options for training opportunities for support staff to enable them feel a part of the
children’s service partnership.
D DELIVERING THE STRATEGY
APPENDIX 1 - DELIVERY PLAN
Resource analysis: We will continue to deliver the planned activities using existing resources identified for workforce development
across services and agencies. The varied CWDC grant funding streams have enormously helped in sponsoring the delivery of our
action plan to date. In light of current limited resources, we will need to pool resources including time, expertise and free access to
training facilities across the partnership to ensure effective delivery. We will continue to discuss resources as the scope of work
unfolds to help build a more accurate picture of the level of input required to deliver the various initiatives.
Communicating our message: Our previous workforce analysis established that while communication channels used across the
workforce are varied, most tend to receive information about latest developments and training opportunities via email, team meetings
and briefings with line managers. This is both consistent across all the services and agencies and is the preferred method of
8communication by the workforce. We are in the process of developing a children’s workforce website to be accessible across
organisational and professional boundaries.
The activities will be led by various groups and individuals as appropriate including the representatives on the Children’s Workforce
Strategy Group.
Activity Lead By when Expected outcomes
Strand 1: Recruiting the children’s workforce
Explore and develop new ways of attracting people CWS On-going Workforce capacity and quality
into the children’s workforce through a partnership maintained and improved
approach (eg flexible entry routes, joint recruitment areas of recruitment hotspots addressed
fairs, joint advertising, joint dedicated web by role and demographics
area/website) joint approaches to recruitment
Hold one joint Children’s Service Careers Fair CWS 8/03/2012 progressed
shared identity promoted across the
Encourage partners to use the new joint recruitment CWS 8/03/2012 children’s service partnership.
microsite website www.barnetpossibilities.co.uk
On-going participation in CWDC projects – CWDC Delphine Garr 31/03/2012
Graduate Recruitment Programme for social work
and the Return to Social Work Programme.
Raise profile of social care work, including foster care CWS / Delphine On-going
work, early years and other children and young Garr
people’s workforce roles, building on the success of
www.barnetpossibilities.co.uk website.
Strand 2: Developing and retaining the children’s workforce
Share best practice in developing and implementing CWS On-going • Staff turnover is at a healthy level
competitive retention packages, focusing on areas • workforce diversity more closely reflects
identified in the earlier workforce analysis (younger the local diversity profile
staff, disabled staff, men, part-time staff and BME • the range of CPD plans match children’s
9Activity Lead By when Expected outcomes
staff) as well as hard to recruit children’s workforce workforce needs
including social workers and foster carers. • induction is appropriately prioritised
Increase and improve access to learning and CWS / Delphine On-going
development opportunities across the children and Garr
young people’s workforce through active publicity of
courses.
Promote best practice in induction across the CWS On-going
children’s workforce and work towards a common
induction policy around the common core programme
Explore options for further training opportunities for CWS On-going
support staff
Stand 3: Strengthening Inter-agency and Multi-disciplinary / Partnership Working
Identify and promote opportunities for effective multi- CWS On-going & Shared commitment to joint working and
agency learning and development programmes, yearly learning and development, resulting in
including an annual partnership multi agency review improved accountability and effective
conference. partnerships
Increase engagement of medical staff where CWS On-going integrated working arrangements and
appropriate by holding an awareness raising event practices more embedded across the
for them to promote integrated working workforce to support early intervention
and prevention approaches
Strand 4: Promoting stronger leadership, management and supervision.
Identify approaches and share best practice for CWS On-going Leadership and management skills gaps
growing new managers and leaders as part of identified and addressed
succession planning for leadership and management managers and supervisors effectively
through career progression, work-based routes, CPD skilled through CPD activity to support
plans, leadership and management training staff and manage change
programmes, shadowing programmes, seminars and leadership programme established as
others. part of succession planning
Continue to roll out leadership and management CWS As increased strategic collaboration to
10Activity Lead By when Expected outcomes
training programme across the children’s service resources promote integrated working
partnership as resources allow. allow
Create networking opportunities for strategic leaders CWS On-going
across the local authority, Private and Voluntary and
Community Sectors and other partners.
Strand 5: Defined training needs and Core Competencies around the Lead Professional role, the Common Core of Skills and
Knowledge, the Common Assessment Framework and Safeguarding.
Monitor and review on-going provision of CAF and CWS On-going Children’s workforce well equipped with
Common Core Training Common Core skills and knowledge
On-going roll out LP awareness Programme for CWS On-going Children’s workforce have effective skills
Managers and practitioners and determine any to complete CAFs and deliver LP role
additional support required by Lead Professionals more efficiently.
Promote the inclusion of Common Core training in CWS On-going
induction across the children’s workforce.
On-going collaboration between the Safeguarding CWS / Delphine On-going Children and young people’s workforce
Children’s Board and the Children’s Workforce Garr across the partnership have a greater
Strategy Group to develop, promote and deliver understanding of safeguarding issues
relevant safeguarding training across the children’s and how to tackle them.
service partnership to ensure safer recruitment and Shared skills and knowledge for
enhanced safeguarding practices in Barnet. safeguarding practices in Barnet
Children and young people in Barnet will
be safe.
Strand 6: Engaging service users in the quality and design of workforce development and integration.
Encourage engagement of children and young CWS On-going Service users feel more valued and more
people in workforce development activities actively engaged in workforce
Identify new ways of engaging children and young CWS On-going development
people - A morning/day in the life of … initiatives increased confidence in the quality and
to be developed and promoted practice of the children’s workforce
Create and offer more opportunities for work CWS On-going amongst service users
experience and apprenticeships in the children’s children and young people more
11Activity Lead By when Expected outcomes
service across the partnership. knowledgeable about children’s
Develop further ways of involving parents / carers CWS On-going workforce roles.
Strand 7: Undertaking specific commissioned training and development activity
Provide training to enable the children’s workforce to CWS/ Delphine Garr On-going - Increased ability of children’s workforce
identify and undertake appropriate action including / Karina Umeh yearly to identify and deal with issues relating to
referral to address substance misuse / abuse alcohol and substance misuse and take
Provide training to enable the children’s workforce to CWS/ Delphine Garr On-going - supportive measures
understand the complex nature of alcohol use / Karina Umeh yearly Increased understanding of inclusive
amongst young people, why and how they are used approach to service delivery
to enable them to improve the support offered Enhanced partnership working with
Undertake mental health learning and development CWS On-going parents.
activities
Develop and deliver parent partnership training CWS On-going
programmes as relevant.
Commission relevant learning and development CWS / Delphine March 2012
programmes on disability awareness and speech and Garr / Denise
language needs among others Jacobson
12Appendix 2 - Risk Analysis / Impact
Impact
The impact of our Children’s Workforce Strategy has been very positive. It has contributed enormously to effective collaboration
across the children’s service partnership and supported enhanced multi-agency workforce development initiatives across the
children’s service partnership in Barnet. This has enabled the maximisation of resources, promotion of positive working relationships
and the collaboration of efforts regarding safeguarding and integrated working approaches.
Local risks identified in the national strategy
1. Failure to engage across agencies successfully and lack of sufficient cooperation
• Local Authorities and their partners may fail to co-operate sufficiently and align their activities into a coherent and effective
local change programme with supportive local workforce strategies
• Insufficient involvement of schools (especially academies) and health services due to new centralised approach
• The voluntary and community sector may feel excluded
2. There is insufficient capacity available to move the agenda forward
• Local Authorities and their partners have insufficient resource capacity, and may be short on cash as they attempt to realise
efficiency savings
• Effects of credit crunch may affect momentum and general engagement across the children’s service partnership.
Local and national strategies aimed at mitigating local risks:
• Building the capacity of Directors of Children’s Services to lead local change programmes including through local cross sector
leadership and management programme;
• Active and effective engagement with Community Budgets
• Developing a communications strategy to stress the need for co-operation, focusing in particular on schools;
• Integrating delivery of the children, young people and maternity National Service Framework into the Every Child Matters:
Change for Children programme
• Reviewing current approaches so that we improve the sharing and embedding of existing good practice.
Other risks
• On-going changes and new priorities relating to the Every Child Matters initiative could lead to a waste of resources and
change fatigue amongst the workforce
• Internal disagreement on the way forward within the agencies and services;
• Staff turnover may increase if their perception of the new changes are negative which could affect programme delivery;
13• Inability to engage users/lack of interest from users in engaging with the change process or workforce development;
• New national legislation from other Government departments could trigger more changes that will affect workforce
development
• Some children’s services providers by virtue of their structure and regulation may fall outside the regular agencies as stated in
the national strategy and therefore will not engage with this joint strategy to develop their workforce
• Lessons learned and good practice may not support the implementation of some of the proposals in the national strategy;
• Increased recruitment pressures could lead to recruiting unsuitable people in the children’s workforce;
• Pressure to deliver on national targets could lead to rushing through the process of developing professionals;
• Limited resources for workforce development could result in falling standards of practice;
• Agencies not bound by statutory requirements in their provision may not fully engage with the process, e.g. there is no
statutory requirement for private schools and academies to engage with the local authority’s learning and development
programme.
14Appendix 3 - Broad Children’s Services Workforce
Definition of the Children’s workforce according to the 2020 Children’s Workforce strategy suggests that the principal services
used by children, young people and families are early years and childcare, play, health, schools, and colleges, youth work, sport and
leisure, family support and children’s social care, as well as a range of specialist services. National estimates in 2009 suggest that
there are around 2.8M people in the paid children’s workforce. A further estimated 1.5M work on an unpaid, voluntary basis. In
Barnet there are approximately 20,000 children and young people’s workforce across the service partnership.
Health Private & Voluntary
Medical staff, Occupational therapists, Sector workforce
Speech therapists, Nurses, Health included across
visitors, Midwives, Paediatricians, all areas.
Children’s Service Substance misuse/abuse workers,
School workforce, Educational welfare officers, school nurse, Dentists, CAMHS, see
Educational Psychologists, unregistered NSF General services
provision, Early Years practitioners, play Police, school bus drivers, leisure centre
workers, Social workers, Care workers, Foster Lead Professional, Common workers, park keepers, librarians, carers
carers, Child minders, Au pairs, babysitters Core Competencies, CAF, and parents, faith groups e.g. Sunday
Safeguarding schools etc.
Youth Justice/Youth Workers
Prison / probation staff, juvenile homes staff,
family support workers
This list is not exhaustive
1516
You can also read
