 I have had an opportunity to get out and about again this month and have met some amazing individuals who are truly making a difference to children's lives.
Whatever your role - be it Children's Centre Worker, Social Worker, Family Worker or Administrator - our mission is to improve outcomes for children across the city.
I remain fully committed to supporting you to do your job and to create an environment that enables good practice and to celebrate the work you do. Part of this is ensuring you have the tools to do your job, so this month's newsletter has a training and development theme.
It's essential we keep updating our knowledge and skills so we deliver the best services we can for our children.
And as always, thank you for the Goliath effort you make everyday.
John Gregg, Director of Children's Services
john.gregg@coventry.gov.uk
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 MASH, CSE and YOS have moved
This week the remaining Children's Services teams based in Christchurch House moved.
MASH, CSE and the Youth Offending Service moved to floor 4 of Broadgate House. If you have a meeting with them you'll need to use the entrance by Greggs.
Service users will be directed to the Customer Service Centre entrance in the Upper Precinct.
Telephone numbers will be the same but their fax number has changed to 0203 3648 443.
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A new Chair for the Improvement Board
The Coventry Children's Services Improvement Board has seen a number of changes in order to continue to strengthen its work to improve Children's Services in the city.
The changes include a new independent chair, Steve Hart.
Mark Rogers, Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council, and the outgoing Chair of the Improvement Board, said:
"There
is clear evidence of good relationships and a strong partnership across
Coventry; a new strategic leadership is in place and beginning to make a
difference; the Safeguarding Board is improving well; and there is clarity
around the board table about what needs to be done next, by whom and at what
pace to leave inadequacy behind."
The Children and Social Work Bill
The Children
and Social Work Bill released on 20 May could turn out to be the
most significant piece of legislation for the social work profession since the
1989 Children’s Act. The new Bill promises to improve standards in social work
and opportunities for young people in care. It’s important you know what the
changes are and how they could affect you and your profession. Community
Care has summarised the Bill and what happens next.
 Foster for Coventry
See what local children had to say about family and fostering during this year's Foster Care Fortnight.
Anyone interested in fostering can meet the team to find out more about how fostering could work for them on:
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Friday 17 June 10am- Midday Earlsdon Methodist Church, Albany Road, Earlsdon
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Saturday 25 June 1-2pm Hope Centre, Sparkbrook Street, Hillfields
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Help shape the future of social work in Coventry
Having
been very successful in recruiting both new and experienced staff to Coventry
we will be talking to staff ‘old and new’ to find out your views about the
things you believe make people want to carry on working for Coventry and would
contribute to helping the Council keeping hold of our social workers.
Lisa Lawson, HR
Adviser, and Andrew Brunt, Principal Social Worker, will be working with a
cross section of social workers from across Children’s Services to gather ideas
and draw up a plan. Managers are currently suggesting staff who could take
part, but if you want to volunteer for the working group, e-mail Lisa or Andrew.
Protocol User Group formed
A new group is looking at how we can get the most from the systems used across Children's Services.
The user group will also provide a space for some operational
decision-making and the ability to meet and share practice on
Protocol from areas across the service. The group will be able to plan for future
changes and react to any issues with the system. The group will meet monthly.
Heads
of Service nominated staff to represent service areas. The group includes:
If
you have any issues with using Protocol, please inform your nominated lead as
above.The
first meeting of the group is taking place this month.
 Training opportunities
From child sexual exploitation awareness raising to court skills, there's a wide range of training on offer for you over the next few months.
Find out what's available on Beacon.
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 Research in Practice
There’s a whole host of online resources
available to help you do your job.
Research in
Practice provides a range of resources and learning opportunities based on
academic research, practice expertise and evidence from service users. It's aimed at frontline practitioners and managers working with children, young
people and families.
You can create
a free account using your work e-mail at www.rip.org.uk . Foster carers can set up an account by contacting Dianne.stevenson@coventry.gov.uk
As well as online
resources, you can access training, webinars and e-learning. You can also sign
up for monthly updates to find out the latest research and events.
Watch this video to find out more.
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 Community Care Live
This year's Community Care Live event in London will look at:
- Section 20 arrangements
- Child sexual exploitation
- Unaccompanied asylum seeking
children
- Adoption and fostering
It's free to attend for registered social workers and Council staff. You can find out more at www.communitycare.co.uk/live
Please speak to your manager if you're interested in attending.
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News in brief
Children’s
Services have undertaken significant steps to improve over the last two years. The service is working at pace to embed and sustain the changes
already made. The focus continues to be:
- implementing the workforce strategy to
stabilise the workforce and reduce the reliance on agency workers
- improving the quality and consistency of
practice by continuing to progress through auditing and quality assurance,
ensuring that learning is being fed back in to practice.
- ensuring that there is a greater availability
of placement choice for all children by implementing the placement sufficiency
strategy
- recruiting
more foster carers and specialist carers to increase capacity to avoid
residential placements for more complex children and young people
- ensuring that the best use is made of the available resource/budget to maximise the
impact on children’s lives.
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