Social Services News, brought to you by IRISS

‘Supervision helps social workers avoid a one size fits all approach’

Kirsty McGregor — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:14:44 PDT

An experienced social worker employed by Coventry council, who wishes to remain anonymous, talks us through his experiences of supervision, past and present. My current experience is the best supervision I’ve had. I work in a duty system where we are required to work with a number [...]

Social work supervision live chat, 19 June: meet the panel and register for a reminder

Kirsty McGregor — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:58:41 PDT

Here is our panel for the live online chat about social work supervision, which will take place at 8-9pm on Wednesday 19 June, where you will be able to ask any questions you have about supervision best practice and/or share your experiences. Login or register with Community Care to receive an email reminder a few [...]

Social learning: the changing face of workplace learning

Jane Hart — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 01:15:30 PDT

Last week I was in New York City where I gave the keynote at the International Conference on E-Learning in the Workplace. The title was Social learning; the changing face of workplace learning.Ã¢?Â¦

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'Social workers must stop defying Mental Capacity Act by resorting to care homes'

(author unknown) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:13:00 PDT

Social workers are too often placing people with dementia in care homes following a hospital episode contrary to the Mental Capacity Act's requirement to consider the 'least restrictive option', says Elmari Bishop.

Healthcare for elderly may become unaffordable - doctor

(author unknown) — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:35:16 PDT

TOUGH decisions must be made about how much is spent on care towards the end of life if health services are to remain affordable in years to come, a leading Scottish doctor has warned.

Breaking the cycle of addiction through social investment

(author unknown) — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:31:36 PDT

A research project is exploring how social investment can be used to fund substance misuse services

Parental substance misuse is a huge problem and we are keen to expand our services so we can help more people. However, doing this at a time of commissioning budget restrictions is a difficult prospect and we need to consider alternative approaches.

Last year Addaction won a grant from the Big Lottery Fund to work in partnership with the University of Warwick to develop a social investment for our Breaking the Cycle services. Breaking the Cycle supports families to successfully reduce parents' drug or alcohol misuse and improve family life. Social investment could help by providing upfront funding for services with local or central government purchasers and commissioners paying for the outcomes achieved.

In our model, the outcome payments should be financed through the cost savings and cost avoidances that result from our work. The theoretical savings that result from the successful delivery of Breaking the Cycle in an area include: reduced drug and alcohol treatment costs; reduced costs for social services; reduced primary health service costs and reduced costs related to criminal justice services.

However, at this point statutory authorities cannot recognise these as actual cost savings in their resourcing and planning – the social services budget does not decrease because Addaction has provided an effective service.

Our research aims to show how these cost savings can be evidenced, how the savings generated by a service can be used to fund it, and how this funding model can work across multiple budgets (eg adult services, children's services, health, criminal justice).

We are working with five local authorities to track the service inputs, costs and outcomes for 300 families supported by Breaking the Cycle, using the data collected to construct a social investment model that works from the provider, purchaser and investor perspectives.

It's certainly been a challenging project so far. Every day there are questions to be answered and problems to be resolved. How do we collect more data without overburdening service users and staff with paperwork? How can we attribute success specifically to Addaction's activities when we work in collaboration with other agencies to change families' lives? Do we understand the risks we will be asking investors to take? Who pays for the outcomes achieved – local government, central government or both?

We are fortunate to have funding which enables us to devote substantial time and thought to resolving these issues. However, we and other providers can't afford to carry out this level of research every time we want to look at alternative funding models. Over the coming months we will be disseminating the learning from our work to help other voluntary sector providers to take steps towards social investment. We also hope to help develop knowledge among commissioners and investors about funding complex models through social finance.

We are involving a wide range of experts of people to test our findings along the way. If you have an interest in social investment and would like to be involved, please do get in touch.

Charlotte Simpson is social investment project manager at Addaction

Why not join our social care community? Becoming a member of the Guardian Social Care Network means you get sent weekly email updates on policy and best practice in the sector, as well as exclusive offers. You can sign up – for free – online here.

Action research – new book

(author unknown) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:00:00 PDT

A new textbook examined action research, including the history and philosophy underpinning it.

Source: Jean McNiff and Jack Whitehead, All You Need to Know about Action Research, SAGE Publications (Publication date: October 2013)

Links: Summary

Resource allocation systems and community care

(author unknown) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:00:00 PDT

An article examined the resource allocation systems being used by local councils in England to calculate personal budgets for users of community care services. It challenged many of the claims made concerning such systems – in particular that they were more transparent, more equitable, simpler, and less discretionary than the traditional assessment process led by social workers.

Source: Lucy Series and Luke Clements, 'Putting the cart before the horse: resource allocation systems and community care', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Online first

Links: Abstract

Supervising newly qualified social workers: case study #1 (split supervision)

Kirsty McGregor — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:17:28 PDT

Newly qualified social worker (NQSW) Rebecca has been doing her job nine months and is employed by a housing charity. Her assessed and supported year in employment (ASYE) supervision is split between a case management meeting with her line manager, who’s hasn’t been social work trained, and a reflective session with a social worker from [...]

Supervising newly qualified social workers: case study #2 (task-led environment)

Kirsty McGregor — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:17:08 PDT

Newly qualified social worker (NQSW) Nikki’s been in post for 10 months in an adult services team. Prior to doing her social work master’s, she’d worked unqualified for three years. In her current workplace, she feels she’s one of the luckier supervisees. “The whole department is task-led, service-driven, so when it comes to supervision it’s [...]

No social work expertise on the new Serious Case Review Panel, but there is an aviation expert…

Camilla Pemberton, journalist, — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 13:21:25 PDT

The government has revealed who will sit on the new panel that will scrutinise and advise LSCBs on serious case reviews. Ray Jones, professor of social work at Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, examines their credentials and looks at what they might bring to social work… Mr Gove has appointed an ‘independent [...]

Designing bespoke personal budgets for adults with HIV/Aids

(author unknown) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 05:41:00 PDT

Practitioners in one council have designed a bespoke personal budgets assessment for adults with HIV/Aids that better identifies their needs than standard questionnaires.

Does your GP care about carers? Nominations now open for Caring About Carers Awards 2013

mshakes — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 03:01:37 PDT

Carers Trust, The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), and Carers UK are calling for nominations for the Caring About Carers Awards that recognise the work of GPs and GP practices in supporting unpaid carers across the UK.

BASW rejects Policy Exchange's view of social work's "bleak" future and calls for students and NQSWs to be given their chance to work

BASW media — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:00:00 PDT

BASW challenged the findings of a report by a thinktank describing the future for social workers as “bleak” by emphasising the steps local authorities could take to widen the available pool of skilled social work practitioners.

The Policy Exchange report forecasts there will continue to be a shortage of social workers until at least 2022.

It points to high vacancy rates and problems recruiting to the profession, blaming this on a lack of suitable candidates as a result of inadequate training, a reluctance of employers to take on inexperienced practitioners and a dearth of quality placements.

The report, titled Reforming Social Work, also points to problems retaining good social workers in the face of low morale, budgetary pressures, limited opportunities for promotion and excessive paperwork.

Responding to the report, BASW’s Chief Executive Bridget Robb said : “It is very disappointing when reports constantly come out saying there is a training crisis or that the profession as a whole is in chaos when in fact there are plenty of trained social workers keen to commence their careers and any difficulties are about resources rather than skills.

“There are challenges in social work like every other profession and this report is right to highlight the financial pressures that many social workers are grappling with, something BASW has been very clear about for some time. We find local authorities employing social workers in extremely difficult times, facing budget cuts and problems recruiting staff and a rise in demand.

“But any crisis is about the cuts and the proliferating demand for more services - it isn't a crisis of social work, but a crisis of cash-starved local authorities meeting the needs of the country at times of severe financial pressure.”

Ms Robb rejected the Policy Exchange view that there are not enough trained social workers to fill vacancies, highligting instead the need for local authorities to better support students and to be prepared to give jobs to newly qualified workers.

“Social work courses are always very popular with students so it is not that there are not enough people wanting to come forward to do the job.

“But there are real challenges for local authorities in providing sufficient placements of high quality for these students. That is a constant cause of concern and a real opportunity for local authorities to make a difference to the quality of social work training currently provided.”

The report by the Policy Exchange, which was co-founded by Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove, says: “For social services to be effective, they must have enough skilled, motivated and qualified staff.

“Unfortunately, the long-term outlook for the social work workforce is bleak. The profession faces two key problems: the recruitment of social workers with the right skills and retaining the most effective and experienced social workers.

“More importantly, failing to develop an effective social work workforce means that vulnerable groups in society do not get the support or help they need.”

According to the study of 155 local authorities in England, 13% of them had a vacancy rate of more than 20% in 2012. Half had a vacancy rate of more than 10%.

Despite this, more than a quarter (27%) of newly-qualified social workers were unemployed in 2011.

The report says: “A key problem is that many potential employers are reluctant to take on newly qualified social workers as they are not thought to have enough adequate experience. Employers are normally looking for up to two years post-qualification experience when hiring. This suggests that they may not believe that the current level of social work education prepares students for practice.”

The report highlights issues around morale and retention of staff, including a 60% higher leave of absence rate than the national average; BASW evidence indicating 70% of social workers view their caseloads as “unmanageable” and concern over public perception.

Budget reductions at a time of increasing demand on services were highlighted as barriers to reform.

The report says: “In an environment of constrained public expenditure, addressing these issues in the short-term will require a focus on reforming services and training to deliver greater outcomes with limited resources.

“These challenges also provide an opportunity to address some of the longer term structural issues which have affected social work for decades. In particular, the tendency to conduct enquiries and make policy changes in reaction to major scandals risk over-regulation and constraining the ability of social workers and local authorities to operate flexibly and adjust their resource allocation.

Recommendations for reform in the report include:

· Establishing “teaching organisation” status in local authorities and other bodies to take on more students

· Embracing fast-tracked social work education, to recruit the most able individuals

· Establishing more diverse career routes for social workers and create “practice educator posts to supervise training/professional development

· Greater focus on the benefits of multi-disciplinary models and preventative work

· Making local authorities that fail to provide high quality placements partner with another LA awarded “teaching organisation” status

· Easing local authority concerns over financing placements by paying placement fees up-front rather than at the end of placements

· Councils should establish "student units" offering practice placements

How to survive in social work

(author unknown) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 03:04:35 PDT

When dealing with hostile and aggressive people you should not take it personally, advises the blogger Masked AMHP

A few days ago, one of our CMHT nurses returned to base in tears. She had been visiting one of her patients, a woman with bipolar affective disorder. She knew she was relapsing, and had been trying to support her and her relatives, and had been striving to avoid a hospital admission for several days.

The patient had shouted at her. She hurled very personal insults at her. She berated her for failing in her job, for letting her down, for not being a good enough nurse. It hit a nerve with my colleague. It triggered her deepest fears. Was she a bad nurse? Was she incompetent? Could she have done more to prevent this crisis? Was she so useless? Should she hand her notice in right away?

The team did their best to support and comfort her. She was a good enough nurse. She had done her best. She had seen a relapse coming, and she had done everything she professionally could to avert it.

This incident made me think about how mental health and other care professionals survive the job. It made me think about how I had managed to continue to function as a (hopefully) effective social worker for over 37 years.

I remembered very early on in my social work career being given a particular female client to work with. She and her children were very well known to services, and had had many social workers. I was the latest.

I walked into her living room and introduced myself. She took a deep breath and then proceeded to treat me to a tirade of complaints and insults which continued for at least 30 minutes. Throughout this deluge of vituperation I stood silently and listened diligently.

At first, I was mortified. Judging by her comments, I must be the very worst and most totally useless social worker in the entire world.

But after a while, it occurred to me that all this had nothing to do with me. She was ventilating. She was expressing her anger and despair at the system, and at the world in general. I just happened to be there at the time. It wasn't personal. It wasn't about me at all.

I learned right then that it was all about separating out the professional persona and the professional functions from the personal, from the individual me. When I realised this, I suddenly felt a lot better. I waited patiently for her to finish, then got on with the job in hand. She never shouted at me again.

It's a simple lesson, but not necessarily easy to learn. But it has helped me to deal with the often hostile and verbally aggressive people who I have to assess under the Mental Health Act.

It has even helped me to remain mentally intact on the few occasions when I have been physically assaulted during the course of my work. It's not actually about me.

Social work students, having witnessed me working in extremely fraught and stressful situations when acting as an approved mental health professional, have often asked me how I manage to remain calm and unflustered when they have been mentally (and sometimes physically) cowering. I tell them that story. It's all about separation.

The Masked AMHP blogs at themaskedamhp.blogspot.co.uk

If you would like to blog for the social care network about issues affecting social workers' professional lives, then you can get in touch by emailing us at socialcare@guardian.co.uk.

Why not join our community? Becoming a member of the Guardian Social Care Network means you get sent weekly email updates on policy and best practice in the sector, as well as exclusive offers. You can sign up – for free – online here.

Careers advice

Mum turns writer to help families of children with autism

(author unknown) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 05:35:31 PDT

The caring mum of a youngster with autism is working with families across the UK to write a book about the good things that children and adults with the condition can contribute.

‘We’ll refund unfair care costs for severely ill’

(author unknown) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:47:59 PDT

SCOTTISH patients wrongly charged for nursing care will get their money back, health secretary Alex Neil has said.

Social value created by new-start social enterprises

(author unknown) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:00:00 PDT

An article examined resident perceptions of the social value created by National Lottery-funded new-start social enterprise projects in ten rural communities. In considered what could be learnt about the relationship between different approaches to social enterprise activity in rural contexts and the social value created for local people and communities.

Source: Chris Dayson, 'Understanding the place based social value created by new-start social enterprises: evidence from ten rural UK communities', People, Place & Policy, Volume 7 Issue 1

Links: Article

Call to improve training of social workers

(author unknown) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:00:00 PDT

A think-tank report said that without structural reform to social workers' training programmes, local councils in England could be in danger of missing serious incidents of abuse and neglect. This was likely to be exacerbated by low numbers of social workers with specific training and experience in handling cases involving children.

Source: Ed Holmes, Guy Miscampbell, and Benedict Robin, Reforming Social Work: Improving social worker recruitment, training and retention, Policy Exchange

Links: Report | Policy Exchange press release

Mentoring scheme 'cuts reconviction rates'

(author unknown) — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:00:00 PDT

Researchers found that a pilot scheme to mentor and rehabilitate prisoners sentenced to less than 12 months had reduced reconviction rates.

Source: Jack Cattell, Alan Mackie, Yvette Prestage, and Martin Wood, Results from the Offender Management Community Cohort Study (OMCCS): Assessment and sentence planning, Ministry of Justice

Links: Report | MOJ press release