CareFirst 6 to be ‘Eclipsed’
In Children’s Services, we
are constantly looking at ways to improve the way we work. As a key part of these
improvements, we are making changes so that practitioners can spend more time
with children and families.
Many of you have told us that
the current CareFirst 6 system doesn’t fully support good practice and quality
case recording; that it is time consuming, impacts on our ability to
performance manage our services effectively, and that improvements would be
welcomed.
After carefully considering
our options, agreement has now been given to implementing a new information
management system to replace CareFirst 6. Eclipse ‘model office’ will be better
structured and easier to use, with quality case and data recording that will
save you time, and provide a more integrated view of our involvement with a
child. Find out about Eclipse.
Recruitment and selection update
Since
January 2016 the Participation Team has assisted in facilitating 20 young people’s panels. They have worked with the Children in Care Council to write a list of personal
qualities for the job description of all our social care workers and managers. All our panels are entirely youth led with
apprentices in the team leading on co-ordination and facilitation.
They have developed:
Personal Occupation Progression Plan (POPP)
The
POPP has been designed by our Care Leavers to help those who are in
education, employment or training and those who are NEET. Its focus is to
help a young person plan for a successful future and ensure they are able to
access any courses, qualifications, work experience or other support to help
them succeed. Read the Briefing for Social Workers.
Meet
some of the characters who will be starring in a series of animated films!
The films are made for children coming in to
care and will be launched on the Stand Up Speak Up website this week. Members
of the Children in Care Council and Care Leaver Forums have worked with our
Participation Team, and graphic designers, to make eleven short digitally animated
films. The films help answer some of the questions the children may have when
they come in to care. Find out more.
 New guide for young people leaving care
Also being launched is a new guide for
young people leaving care which provides clear information about their rights
and entitlements.
Find the animated films and the guide on
the Stand Up Speak Up website
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fDocs template changes this period:
- Section
7 Report - template created and stored in the Legal section
-
Initial and Final Statements for Court – changed
the titles to reflect they are to be used for cases prior to 01 July 2016 only.
Stored in the Legal section
-
Supervised Contact – removed existing template and
replaced with updated template to reflect service requirements. Stored in the
Child in Care section.
 Latest training courses from Devon Safeguarding Children Board
Book now for courses in November through to March 2017
 Event aimed at people who
have learning or similar disabilities aged 16 years +
Use Your Voice and Inspire Change on Monday 14 November 2016
Looking to directly access research?
As
well as subscription to Research in Practice here are some other ways
you can directly access full research articles.
NHS OpenAthens
An
NHS OpenAthens account allows you to access a range of quality information
online. Users can access a number of key databases including:
- NICE Evidence
Journals and Databases
-
Wiley Online Library – Child Abuse Review, Child &
Family Social Work.
Whilst
this is a service run by the NHS its focus is on health and social care.
You
are able to register for access using your @devon.gov.uk email address. Using this link https://openathens.nice.org.uk/
Local University library facilities
Members of the public are able to access the library
facilities at Exeter and Plymouth University. Although access is limited (you can only look at books/ journals onsite), there is the opportunity to
view and download journal articles from publications such as The British
Journal of Social Work.
There are additional opportunities for Alumni of the
University which include taking resources out on loan.
For more information follow the links below
Health and Care Professions Council HCPC is seeking views on draft social media guidance.
Don't miss the latest jobs!
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Dear Colleague,
Welcome to your new-look Children's Social Care Newsletter providing staff with one source of
information relating to children's social work and child protection.
The 'Keeping Devon's Children Safe' bulletin is being reviewed by Jo Olsson, Chief Officer for Children's Services (interim), to become a partnership bulletin.
It feels a long time ago
since I was writing an introductory piece about myself just after I’d arrived…
the weeks are flying by and there’s lots I’d like to update you about. Obviously events very recently have been
dominated by our work to support the project providing temporary accommodation
for young people who have been moved out of the refugee camp in Calais to Devon
and I will write to you separately with more news on this.
I really enjoyed getting out
round the offices in my first month, introducing myself to front line staff,
sharing my priorities and hearing yours. Continuing our progress on workforce
stability, sustaining our progress on achieving manageable caseloads and
supporting you well through good training and supervision are priorities we
clearly all share.
I also heard a lot about the
importance of getting the ‘front end’ of the system working right, through our
early help and MASH arrangements, making sure children and families get the
right help at the right time from the right service. In her new role as Chief
Officer for Children’ Services, Jo Olsson is prioritising the development of an
effective early help offer in localities across Devon and we all play a part in
making sure all professionals work together well by working in a multi-disciplinary
way in our assessments and planning. We are also reviewing MASH and will be
consulting on options before Christmas.
Senior Management Team (SMT)
agreed the implementation for our improvements to our child protection system,
to strategy meetings from this November and to child protection reports and
plans through a new approach to child protection conferences from January 2017.
I’ve seen from my Agency
Decision Maker (ADM) role over the past few weeks that we are still doing well
on permanence for many young children, including through fostering to adopt.
But I think we can do more. I had a really positive meeting with HHJ
Robertshaw, link High Court Judge for Devon, with colleagues from Plymouth and
Torbay, where we focused on how to improve our approach to parenting
assessments as part of care proceedings and the need to do more to reduce
delay.
Many of you have shared ideas
with on how we could do better for our children in care. SMT spent a day last
week developing ideas about how we can support more children to remain at home,
support foster carers better and use residential care in a more effective way
when it’s needed.
All of this requires that we
have confidence in the quality of our assessments, that plans focus actively on
identified needs and risks and our reviews keep us on track and we will have a
big focus on this over the next six months. And of course, we don’t do all this
on our own – relationships with partners are critical.
So far I’ve seen lots of
examples of our practice which tell me we can get it right and that we’re
heading in the right direction. I’m looking forward to seeing more.
Vivien
Vivien Lines, Head of Children's Social Care (interim)
New sub category of domestic abuse for child protection plan
If you are considering making
children who are subject of a plan where domestic abuse is a significant factor, please
use the appropriate main category and then the sub category of domestic abuse. Find out more.
Changes to Child
Protection Pathway; a strengths based approach
As
many of you will already know, we are engaged in reviewing our Child Protection Pathway. We are proposing a collaborative
approach to working with children in need of protection in which families are
invited at every stage to play a central, rather than a passive role and to
agree with us what needs to be achieved
to keep children safe. Find out more.
Social Work Team Resource
Officer (SWTRO) checklist and management
The SWTRO is a business support post fully embedded within every area
Social Work team, and within the Children's with Disabilities Service.
The SWTRO is the
organisational foundation of the team, and is critical to delivering a good
service. In order to assist new SWTROs to become as effective as possible please read the SWATRO checklist and information.
 SEND update - from Jo Olsson, Devon
County Council’s Chief Officer Children
Important changes taking place across services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
What is
the Local Offer?
Devon’s Local
Offer for SEND contains information about the services available for children
and young people with SEND. The information should be clear and up to date.
What is
new?
We have been
working on the website over the summer and we are particularly interested in
what you think about the ‘Preparing for Adulthood’ section. This information is
there to support young people aged 14-25 with the transition into adult
services. We have made a start and now we need your help to make sure the
information is relevant and useful. We have also added some information about
the upcoming Ofsted/CQC inspection.
How can I
tell you what I think?
You can give
feedback on the information featured on the Local Offer website in different ways. You can use the Feedback button, you can connect with us on Facebook or send us a tweet on Twitter. We will publish your feedback and
tell you what we have done about it. We have already started to do this in the
‘We are Listening’ section of the site.
We want
to change the website to make it better. Your feedback will help us to do this.
How are we
performing for our children in care?
Complete the survey by Friday 11 November
The Leading Improvements for Looked After Children (LILAC) inspection team
will soon be back to re-assess our practice. Find out more.
If you work in Children's Services please
complete the LILAC self-assessment survey now
If you work with a young
person (in, or leaving, care over the age of ten) or foster carer
please ensure they also participate by completing
the young people survey by 11 November.
 Coming up on Friday 18 November
- Takeover Challenge 2016
On the day, young people get to take over
decision making in a range of settings. It's gives you a chance to learn from our children in care and care leavers, and for them to influence the way you work.
This year we have topics including young people’s perspectives and
advice on going missing, transitioning to independence, adoption,
identifying as LGBT in care and the cycle between Autism and Anxiety.
Please reply to your invitation from Sam Heaton, Care Experienced Apprentice in the Participation Team.
Congratulations
to our finalists in this year’s Social Worker of the Year Awards
We are proud to announce that we have eight finalists across the Council for this
year's Social Worker of the Year Awards. The prestigious awards ceremony is the
leading celebration of its kind in the social care sector, and recognises the
achievements and successes of the profession’s most innovative and dedicated
social workers.
Three finalists are from Children's Services:
-
Jean Beynon – Team Leader of the Year, Children’s Services
-
Jenny Harris – Children’s Social Worker of the Year
-
Juanita Scallan – Team Leader of the Year, Children’s Services
Jo Olsson, Chief Officer for Children’s Services (interim), said:
“The last year has been characterised by recognition of
the amazing job that social workers do; quietly, professionally, day in
day out, changing the lives of children and families by doing their job
really well. Congratulations to all our social workers.”
Our
STARS and With Compliments winners!
Congratulations to our winners and to
everyone who was nominated.
If you missed all the winners from the last
quarter here are July-August-September STARS and With Compliments
winners.
And don't forget you can nominate a colleague
or team now and log your compliments for the next quarter.
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