CareFirst
fDocs update
fDocs updates for February 2017
Critical information: launch of Stronger Families: Safer Children (new child pathway model)
New forms to support our new 'Stronger Families: Safer Children' (strengths-based approach) working with children
and families in need of protection and those who are the subject of child
protection investigations are now live on CareFirst.
There are links
from some of the forms to guidance notes on FDocs.The new forms
are:
- D3 Child Single
Assessment v2
- D5 Child's Plan
v2
- G0 Information
Request to Police for Strategy Discussion
- G1 Strategy
Discussion / Meeting Record v7
- G2 Section 47
Enquiry Record v7
- H2 Social Work
Report CP Conference
- H9 IRU
Monitoring for CP v2
- I6 ICPC QA
Screening Tool
New printable
form reports have been created for:
- D3 Single
Assessment v2
- D5 Child's Plan
v2 – this one allows you to output just the plan for the family or the whole
form.
Please use
these forms from now on, and if you have any questions please email the
mailbox:
strengthbasedprocessqueries@devon.gov.uk
CS102A form
In
2015/16 we introduced a more rigorous and thorough system for
reviewing the Special Guardianship Order, Child Arrangement Order and Adoption
Order allowances.
During
the setting up of this system it was identified that there was a lack of
clarity and consistency in where crucial information on the allowance was
recorded on CareFirst. For example,
-
Who agreed it?
-
How long was
it agreed for?
- What is the
end date?
- Is it subject
to an annual review?
- Are there any
exceptional circumstances?
-
How much was
agreed?
The
CS102A form – already well known to social workers, our finance staff, team managers, the placements team, and SWTROs – has been adapted to address these
issues. These changes will make us more aware of allowances coming to an end
and therefore enable us to contact the carers in good time for them to make
adjustments or request a further assessment of need.
The
CS102A for allowances will be completed by the Special Guardianship Support
Team, see pages 15 and 16 of the guidance.
South West Child Protection Procedures (SWCPP) staff survey
The
DSCB, in co-operation with other local Safeguarding Children Boards in the south west, has produced a staff survey in order to better understand how professionals
are using the South West Child Protection Procedures website and how it can be improved. We are asking all agencies to please forward the
survey to practitioners. We are looking for feedback from practitioners at all
levels, so please feel free to share this with your colleagues.
The
survey will only take about five minutes to complete, and we would very much
appreciate your feedback.
By optimising the SWCPP website we are looking to
improve safeguarding practice throughout the region and ultimately improve
outcomes for children, so please make sure you take part in this important
piece of work.
The
survey will initially be open for responses until Friday 24 February.
 Conversations that Matter: The
Children's Society in Torbay (Checkpoint) Conference
Checkpoint
Torbay is 25 years old this year. This event marks the decades spent supporting
children and young people suffering extreme hardship, abuse and neglect in the
South West.
The
Children’s Society Torbay - in conjunction with Dr Margot Sunderland, Director
of Education and Training at The Centre for Child Mental Health London - is
holding a conference ‘Conversations that Matter’ for professionals
committed to improving the wellbeing of children and young people.
The
conference takes place at Buckfast Abbey Conference Centre on Monday 27 March 2017- tickets
available now (there is a cost - from your budget).
 Referrals to the RD&E paediatric team
Are you a team manager or social worker in Exeter, East and Mid Devon?
The paediatric team at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital is looking
into the referral process for children requiring safeguarding medicals. Our aim
is to highlight any concerns or problems with the current referral process to
enable us to address these issues and make the process easier and more user
friendly.
The anonymous survey can be completed here and should take no more than five minutes:
The information gathered will go on to help improve our
services for children and young people in our region.
Have your say! NAAS consultation reminder
Assessment and Accreditation System – NAAS – is currently consulting on the new national system of
assessment and accreditation for child and family social workers and setting
out how we see it working in practice.
You
can complete the consultation here: http://ow.ly/Jbea306Fyue
It closes on 14 March 2017.
Who is nominated as a STAR this month?
Well done... Gavin Williams
You can nominate a colleague or team now and log your compliments (Jan-Feb-March). Winners will be
chosen by Dave Black, Head of Planning, Transportation and Environment.
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Dear colleague,
Often when I get involved in
something it’s because things aren’t going well - so it’s always great to have
good practice drawn to my attention. I’m going to start this newsletter with
some of the good things I’ve been hearing about in the past couple of weeks.
Kath Drescher made my day
last week by reminding me that we’re on track to have 85 of our children
adopted this year! That’s a brilliant achievement for the whole service.
When doing a foster carer's
annual review this week, I picked up an amazing message in the report from a 17
year old child in care: “The most important thing in my life right now is the
people I live with, they have helped me change my life and made my life amazing.
My bedroom feels calm and safe.”
How great is that?
I’m also really pleased to
tell you that the summary of findings from the staff survey that many of you
completed before Christmas are now ready to share widely and my expectation is
that this will be on the agenda at your next team meetings. You had some really
positive things to say about the support you are getting from your manager, the
learning and development you have had and improvements’ to your ways of
working. This is really great progress to hear about given our investment in
recruitment and support to staff, and initiatives in place like the team
manager development programme.
Of course there is more to do
and SMT are developing an action plan picking up issues like reminding managers
to make sure social workers are managing their time off in lieu (TOIL)
appropriately, Valerie (our Principle Social Worker) is clarifying the risks
assessment and other evidenced based tools we support and improving your access
to them. I will be writing to you in March with a more detailed response about
how we have responded.
This month I’ve been part of
a range of discussions to ensure we get the whole system working well including
developments in specialist mental health provision in the region, placement
sufficiency, reviewing our children’s centre arrangements, public health
nursing, and with the police about arrangements for missing children.
This month, also, the four
area managers submitted the first overview of performance in their area for the
past quarter – reporting on progress against your team plans. I could really
see how key areas such as placement stability, children being seen and the
quality of supervision are being prioritised. My challenge has been to improve
the evidence of the work that social workers are doing with children and
families as part of the agreed plan and evidence the difference this is making
in terms of outcomes for children. I would like to see more evidence of planned
and purposeful social work…
New quality standards for social
work practice have been agreed following work by a cross service group and are
being implemented. Audits are starting to be undertaken in a more purposeful
way to support service improvement as part of an emerging new approach to
quality assurance. This week two key audit reports were presented to SMT, one
on children who come into care for a short time and the other on practice on
children on care orders placed at home. Both contained significant observations
on where practice needs to improve; better assessment, more creative work with
families and stronger evidence of management oversight. All of these will be
shared with you to ensure we are all clear about and adhering to practice
expectations.
Team managers are currently
attending meetings about our child protection practice to make sure consistent
decisions are being made and recorded correctly by teams across the county. The
new child protection conference model seems to have made a good start in its
first weeks; we’re keeping a close eye to make sure its working as we planned.
We’ve got more work to do to make sure everyone understands our financial
position for next year, and that we are well equipped to operate within
budgets.
So – as always LOTS going
on! I hope this is a useful overview but please do let me know if there is
something in particular you would like me to focus on in future newsletters.
Vivien
Vivien Lines, Head of Children's Social Care (interim)
Placement stability
The
placement stability task and finish group has spent many months looking at how
we can improve placement stability within Devon.
Here
is an overview of the changes you can expect to see in order to promote
placement stability.
Keeping in contact and being contactable – making best
use of ICT tools
Following joint work with
Scomis ICT the online ‘How to’ guides are being updated and improved. This
guidance builds on the existing guidance developed during the LEAN review and summarises
how to make best use of key ICT tools, ensuring effective two-way communication
and contactability is achieved, regardless of where you work from. Find out more.
 Launch of Stronger Families: Safer Children
The new child protection pathway strength-based approach for child protection called 'Stronger Families: Safer Children' was launched on the 1
February 2017. The new model will provide a robust approach to balancing
risks and strengths, identifying and building on the assets around the child
and harnessing these to reduce risks.
Two
videos have been developed for practitioners and families to use.
So far, seven multi-agency workshops have been held
across Devon, providing an introduction to the strength-based approach to child
protection to over 500 practitioners. 500 are booked on the remaining courses.
There are limited places available but more workshops will be
available throughout the year.
For further information, videos and workshops find out more.
Children’s
Social Work and Child Protection Services Management Information SharePoint site
We have launched the
Children’s Social Work and Child Protection Services Management Information SharePoint site.
There is a clear expectation
from SMT that you will make full use of this SharePoint site to access the
latest MI data to monitor how your team is performing, and identify possible
service improvements within your work stream.
You can also find the staff survey here on the MI SharePoint site (see
second tabbed box and then click on the last tab called ‘CSW Staff Survey’).
This SharePoint site is a self-serve resource designed to enhance access,
understanding and communication of performance issues across Children's Social
Care Services. Find out how it can help you.
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Eclipse Project Update
The Eclipse Project team is more or less complete now, although one or two new members will be joining shortly. We now have a range of different people with lots of skills and knowledge, all of which is necessary to complete this exciting but complex project.
More from Business Lead, Nicky Scutt
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DIAS 'This is Me' for young people – a view gathering document
As Devon’s information advice and support service, DIAS is constantly updating and producing information to support families and young
people with SEND.
The new ‘This is Me’ document, has been designed to be used
by young people, either independently or with support from an adult and is
being used by the 0-25 team as part of their view gathering toolkit.
It is relevant to the EHC needs assessment process and can help young
people understand why their views are so important and what information needs to
be gathered.
February SEND (Special Educational Needs and
Disability) update
In the latest update, find a summary of the Peer review carried out
last year with a link to inspectors' full report.
There are also details of
important Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) training, and a reminder that
the current consultation on Devon's SEND reforms is still underway.
You can also find out how our
Local Offer is shaping up, and how we are restructuring our work
around Education, Health and Care assessments.
 We have a new manager – welcome Jenny-Ellen!
Jenny-Ellen Scotland has joined us as the new area
manager for Exeter. She tells us more about her role and plans. Meet Jenny-Ellen!
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