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Welcome to the West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership Newsletter.
In this newsletter, we will keep you informed on updates, developments, events, masterclasses, best practice and research, within the West Midlands Social Work Teaching Partnership.
In this edition:
Worcestershire County Council recently welcomed their first social work apprentices and offered them the chance to talk about their experience:
We are Justine and Jamie. We are social work apprentices and started our exciting journey back in March 2019.
Janine: "I have worked for Children’s Social Care with Worcestershire for the past 9 years. I have predominately worked with Looked After Children aged 16+. My current role is the Group Manager for Placements & Sufficiency which includes managing Residential Services, The Outreach Team, Placements Team and Fostering & Kinship. I really enjoy my job and wanted to further my knowledge and understanding so applied for the apprenticeship."
Jamie: "I have work in Adult Social Care for Worcestershire for the past 15 years. I started out as a care assistant in 2004 before becoming a social work support worker working in the Transitions Team. I've always wanted to gain my social work qualification to further my career and expand my knowledge."
We have found the course to be very engaging and enjoyable. It fits in with our day to day jobs and our employers have been very supportive and allowed us opportunities to progress and learn. The way the course is structured it fits in with work and personal life with minimal impact.
We have successfully passed our modules and direct observations. We have gained knowledge and have been able to use our learning within our roles and it has had a positive impact on peers and service users alike.
We are proud to be part of the first course that has been delivered in the way of a Social Work apprenticeship and we would recommend this opportunity to our peers.
The West Midlands Teaching Partnership has funded a number of masterclasses to share knowledge and learning. They provide an excellent opportunity for social work professionals to continue professional development. Book your place via our EventBrite page.
To discover further events, please visit our website.
As part of the Teaching Partnership's ongoing work to increase support for Practice Educators, six regional conferences have been arranged:
There are a number of topics being discussed and workshops taking place within the conferences. If you are interested in attending any of the conferences, please contact us via the Eventbrite page.
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The ASYE programme at Worcestershire County Council has incorporated Action Learning Sets since September 2018.
We gather regular feedback from the NQSWs across both Adult and Children’s services, to help inform and support the development of the ASYE and the Action Learning Sets.
The Action Learning Sets are always preceded by a bite sized learning session which are linked to the Knowledge & Skills Statements for both Adult and Children’s. Often the learning sessions are delivered by Advanced Practitioners across both service areas and/or external stakeholders.
Read feedback from NQSWs.
Tri-city delegates, Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children’s Trust workers
On Monday 9 September 2019, Birmingham Children’s Trust and Birmingham Adult Social Care welcomed delegates from Hamburg and Chicago for the Tri-city Exchange. This project has been running for 21 years. It offers a unique opportunity for Hamburg and Chicago’s social workers, social work managers, local politicians and educators to connect and explore Birmingham’s social work practice from a professional, academic, strategic and political position. This year’s theme was safeguarding with a particular focus on contextual safeguarding, service improvement and culture change.
The program started with a welcome ceremony which included presentations from the Lord Mayor of Birmingham and from Councillors Kate Booth and Paulette Hamilton at the Council House. This was followed by an action packed program for the week that included opportunities such as meeting with the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children’s Team, a visit to Liberty House, residential home for people who have learning disabilities, an introduction to Birmingham Adult Social Care’s new approach to social work known as Three Conversations model, a meeting with the working group behind the development of the newly formed Contextual Safeguarding Hub, a presentation from Mathew Gibson at University of Birmingham, plus much more.
Over the course of week, the practitioners involved were able to discuss and share ideas about social work practice from across Children and Adults services in Birmingham, Hamburg and Chicago. There was commonality as well as differences that made for healthy debate and learning and development opportunities.
Read the full article.
Lara Timms, Acting Principal Social Worker, Birmingham Children's Trust
Birmingham Children’s Trust, in partnership with the Principal Children and Families Social Worker (PCFSW) network, CAFCASS, National IRO Managers Partnership (NIROMP), Making Research Count, Research and Management Consultancy Centre and a number of other local authorities are undertaking a national research and practice improvement project to understand current practice and challenges in relation to the use of social media by professionals and children/families and to produce best practice guidance and principles for digital practice in social work and social care.
This is a ground breaking and much-needed research into digital professionalism and online safeguarding and as such we invite you to complete the survey which will take about 15 minutes to complete and is totally anonymous and the data cannot be retraced to you in any way however, you have the option on the last page of the survey to add the name of your employer.
If you would like to know more about this research project, please contact the Practice Hub at Birmingham Children’s Trust and speak to Rachel Nall.
It is important that your voice and views are heard and guide the outcome of this survey therefore, please use the link below to complete the survey : Online Safety and Digital Professionalism Survey
 The West Midlands Teaching Partnership website now offers a range of resources for practitioners including research, tools and professional standards. We have recently added a new accessibility widget and updated our accredited CPD courses. The website provides updates and news on the Partnership's progress. Prospective social work students can explore social work courses available and discover careers in social work.
Read more.
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