Dear
colleague
Welcome
to this month’s edition of Keeping Devon’s Children Safe, which keeps you up to
date with the latest developments and information affecting children’s
services.
Now
that the Back to Social Work structure has had time to bed in, we hope you are
feeling the benefits of less bureaucracy in the system and that stronger
working relationships are being built up across the service, and with our
partners. Professor Ray Jones, independent Chair of the Children’s Improvement Board, made it clear at the last meeting that, as a result of
the new structure, he expects to see noticeable
and evidenced improvement in performance over the next two to three months.
A key aspect of Back to Social Work is
the development of a professional career development pathway to provide a quality
experience for staff, and give you the professional stimulation and career progression
you deserve.
Much work has been taking place with
of HR colleagues to build a workforce strategy and more details of the progress
being made in this area, and some recent decisions taken by the Delivery
Improvement Group to support career progression, can be found in this bulletin.
As
always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email peopleservices-mailbox@devon.gov.uk
Bulletin sent on behalf of
Update from Children’s
Safeguarding Improvement Board
Key messages from Professor Ray Jones, independent
Chair of the Children’s Improvement Board (CIB)
At the recent CIB, Professor
Jones stated that he was pleased to see the new Back to Social Work structure
in place and, as a result, he now expects to see noticeable and evidenced
improvement in performance over the next two to three months.
He also welcomed the roll-out
of the Devon Assessment Framework next month, alongside the start of the Early
Help Co-ordination Centre. These were cited as key developments which Ray
expects to help free up professionals to spend more time with children and
families.
There was also recognition
from the Board that staff are very busy and that we must all focus on doing the
important things that will protect children and improve their lives.
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Ofsted Improvement Programme Overview
At the recent Children’s
Safeguarding and Improvement Board, a programme overview report was presented.
This highlighted
- the overall trend in enquiries into the MASH
- referrals for social care assessements from MASH
- the
overall number of children awaiting an assessment
-
how we can improve monitoring against
the new Single Assessment Framework
- increasing focus on improving recruitment and retention, and
better management oversight following the resent restructure
- ensuring that more case audits are undertaken
to improve practice locally.
Learning
from best practice in other local authorities
Between October and
December 2013, a range of DCC officers attended best practice visits in Plymouth, Gateshead and
Lincolnshire.
These local authorities' child protection arrangements were judged to be 'good'
or 'outstanding'
by Ofsted
at their last inspection. They also visited Cornwall who had recently been graded 'adequate'
after
being subject to an Improvement Notice.
Read the report, the actions and the key findings. All documents are also located on the Ofsted staff intranet page.
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Back to Social Work
The new Back to
Social Work structure is now in place
and operational from 1 February 2014.
An updated list of
teams and staff can be found on The
Source. There is a high volume of
letters/contracts needed so please be patient, read more.
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Building
the social work workforce into the future
Since
the Ofsted inspection, our Human Resources and Workforce Development teams have
been working closely with colleagues to develop an overarching strategy,
identifying the workforce development activity focused on improving practice
and supporting the service to retain the best staff and encourage them to reach
their potential.
To date 42 social
workers have been recruited, up by 83% compared to 2012/13. Find out about the activity
delivered so far.
We
are keen to develop a robust learning and development programme which reflects
the needs of our Social Work practitioners. In order to support that process we
ask that social workers complete this self
assessment survey online (use your DCC login) openly and honestly to help us to design a
training programme that meets your needs. Survey ends Friday 7 March.
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