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Championing the new Eclipse system
The project has started and
the development workshops are underway!
We have identified champions
from each part of the service and they have been invited to attend the workshops
with the Eclipse team to help shape our new case management system.
Find out who are our identified champions. And FAQs about Eclipse.
 Have you had your appraisal?
Don't forget your annual appraisals are due and are to be completed by
Friday 30 December.
Appraisal formats have been revised and are now on the Source on the appraisal webpages
Youth justice SEND project –
free online training
This training is available to Young Offending Teams, youth secure estate
professionals, health, education and care professionals, Local Authority SEN
teams and any other interested professionals who work with young people who are
part of the youth justice system.
 CareFirst
fDocs update
fDoc updates for December 2016
CareFirst fDocs new templates
From 2 January, new templates
will be available on FDocs for the preparation of Section 7 and Section 37
report for private law. These have been designed and developed to ensure that
there is consistency of style with the SWET and to include embedded guidance to
help social work staff understand their purpose when preparing these reports.
Any concerns or questions about the use of these templates can be
discussed with Valerie Cannon Principal Children and Families Social Worker.
Example templates:
W2 Case Closure form
The W2 must be used for
ALL case closures, including those closed as an outcome of a Single
Assessment. However, about 20% of cases closed as an outcome of Single
Assessment do not have a W2 completed which means Business Support are unaware
of the closure, therefore the essential activity detailed above does not take
place. Find out the process and guidance.
Do you know what NICE
is? Do you use any of their
recommendations in your practice?
Find out more from Research in Practice
(RiP)
Are you accessing the DSCB's
learning opportunities?
Following recent advertising
of ‘Introducing a strengths-based
approach to child protection in a new child protection pathway’ training,
it was clear that a large number of staff did not have accounts with the DSCB's
online booking system – CPD online. Find out how to get free access.
Get involved to change the way HCPC carry out their work
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HCPC consultation: guidance on social media. Deadline: Friday 13 January
2017. Respond
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HCPC consultation: revised guidance on confidentiality. Deadline: Friday 13
January 2017. Respond
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Dear colleagues,
I’m really pleased to report that
this morning we had a meeting with the DfE where our progress was formally
recognised and it was confirmed that we are no longer subject to intervention.
A really significant milestone and well done for everyone for getting to this
point.
This month the project to implement the new IT system,
Eclipse, has really begun in earnest as Nicky Scutt is now seconded into her
role as Service Lead and other staff are being seconded or identified as
‘Champions’ to ensure that the new system supports practice. This is a
fantastic opportunity for the service and will be a key focus for all of us as
we move towards the target date for implementation of September 2017. The article (left) shares first hand experiences in more detail.
Detailed work is now complete in order to propose a budget
for the service for next year. We will all need to continue to keep close oversight
of all of our spend to ensure we get best value and the outcomes we want for
the children we are working with. Amongst other things, the budget reflects
plans to; reduce the number of adolescents coming into care (Marian is
developing a pilot in North Devon with Clara), support more children to remain
with our foster carers (Rachel is ensuring recruitment and support develop as
needed) and to use residential care in a more outcome focused way.
Of course, critical to this is the quality of our assessments,
planning and reviews. Caseloads now average 17.6 which is tremendous progress,
well done everyone, and keeping them under this level is a key part of our
focus on the quality and impact of interventions. Our PSWs, Valerie and Jennie
are working on new practice standards and we will launch a new quality
assurance process in January to ensure we are clear about whether our
expectations about quality of SW practice are being achieved. This includes a
fresh approach to audits and learning from a wide range of service information
such as complaints and the views of children and young people.
Jean Kelly has started in the Senior Management Team to
cover the SM Safeguarding role and you will have had messages from her and the
IRU starting the work they are doing to improve their support and challenge to
the quality of practice, including relaunching the escalation process, in
particular to ensure good placement support and permanence planning for our
looked after children. We will be monitoring this closely at SMT.
Last week, Jane Anstis presented the new approach to child
protection to the DSCB where partners signed up to this new model and training
has now started in earnest, so make sure you and your team is involved in this.
Also last week, we held an event in Torrington to thank the
Mayor and local community members for the support they gave us with the project
we supported in north Devon for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. With
others, our colleagues Andrea, Nak and Charlotte spoke about what they learned
from being part of it. It was incredibly moving to see the impact of this
project on the local community and how they had come together to do everything
they could to give the boys the best start in Devon. It was fabulous to be
reminded of the amazing things Devon can do.
It’s been a busy year and I hope you’ve taken the time to
use the recent staff survey as the opportunity to contribute your view about
the progress made so far and to inform priorities for next year. Your views are
very important to us.
I also hope that you take some time over the Christmas and New
Year break to rest with your friends and families. I want to thank you all for
everything you have done this year and to wish you all the very best for the
festive season!
Vivien Lines, Head of Children's Social Care (interim)
South West Child
Protection Procedures Manual update
The updated South West Child Protection
Procedures are now online.
Updated 2016/17 Children’s Improvement Plan
We are delivering an ambitious programme to
improve Children’s Social Work and Child Protection and our aim is to
improve standards to the equivalent of a ‘good’ Ofsted rating. The
Children's Social Work and Child Protection Senior Management Team has
developed a plan to structure the delivery of the improvement work for the
2016/2017 financial year.
 Do you know how to spot the signs of sepsis?
Workers, carers and parents in the South West urged to spot the deadly signs of sepsis.
Our Peer Review, 22-25 November2016
As
part of our programme to improve services for Children with Special
Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), we asked the Local Government
Association (LGA) to undertake a Peer Review of the Council and our
partners, to provide challenge and share learning to support
implementation of the SEND reforms in the local area.
Read the SEND updates:
 Thank you for supporting our Care Leavers' Christmas Lunch event
We raised over £1,000 through Christmas jumper day donations and over £8,000 so far from your generosity.
Volunteers who have offered to help with our Christmas day event for care leavers have been contacted and preparations are in full swing. Lunch will be served on 25 December and we hope everyone has a great day.
If you have any monies from fundraising or donations for the event, please contact sophie.ellis@devon.gov.uk
There are STARS shining out there, all you need to do is recognise them - and nominate them now!
You can nominate a colleague or team now and log your compliments for the next quarter. And if
you missed all the winners from the last quarter here are July-August-September STARS and With
Compliments winners.
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