Category Archives: Social work reform

SYTP is delivery partner for new Practice Supervisor Development Programme

The Department for Education are launching a national Practice Supervisor Development Programme (PSDP). This programme will be for those social workers taking up their first role in which they are responsible for supporting and developing the practice of others.

Research in Practice will be responsible for running this new programme working with a number of local delivery partners including the South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership, drawing on the expertise of several highly respected organisations including Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, University of Sussex and Goldsmith’s University of London.

This programme will have a strong focus on embedding key knowledge and skills, including those set out in the knowledge and skills statement for practice supervisors. It will focus on key aspects of management and leadership, and equipping participants with the confidence to lead their teams, manage practitioner workloads and wellbeing and develop practitioners’ own knowledge, skills and confidence.

The programme will also have a focus on embedding learning within organisations. Extensive engagement with the sector will inform the final programme design. We expect the programme to reach approximately 700 newly promoted practice supervisors over the next two years.

South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership recruited two training facilitators in the summer and they are Gordon Jelley (Rotherham Local Authority) and Kerry Byrne (Rotherham Local Authority).  The Training Facilitator Team also includes Simon Howard (Sheffield), Dave Bosworth (University of Sheffield) and Lynda Hughes (University of Sheffield) who have also been involved with the design of the programme.

 

Children’s Social work reform: January – October 2016

Background/Overview

  • In January 2016  the Government announced a set of proposals to reform children and families social work (Children’s Social Care Reform: A Vision For Change)
  • However, the Government faced criticism for the lack of clarity on how they intended to achieve these aims, which prompted an inquiry into by the House of Commons Education Committee (report published in July 2016).
  • In July 2016 the Government published ‘Putting Children First‘ which outlines how they will deliver their vision for reform
  • In October 2016 a document was published which sets out the Government’s response to the Education Committee’s report

For more information about each of these reports, including links to the full reports, please see here

Government to Regulate Social Workers from 2018

It has recently been announced, under plans tabled by ministers, that social workers will be regulated by the government from 2018.

A new government executive agency will replace the HCPC as the regulator for social workers in England, under regulations underpinning the Children and Social Work Bill.
The agency will be accountable to the education secretary and based in the Department for Education (DfE). It will be supported by the DfE and Department of Health with both departments sharing responsibility for social work policy.

Summary of what the new body will do:

  • Publish new professional standards, aligning with the chief social workers’ knowledge and skills statements
  •  Set new standards for qualifying education and training, and reaccredit providers against these standards by 2020
  • Maintain a single register of social workers, annotating it to denote specialist accreditations
  • Set new social work specific CPD standards
  • Oversee a robust and transparent fitness to practise system
  • Approve post qualifying programmes and training in specialisms including Approved Mental Health Professionals and Best Interests Assessors
  • Oversee the proposed new assessment and accreditation system for child and family social workers
  • Oversee the required arrangements for succesfully completing the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE).

For more information, visit Community Care: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2016/06/29/government-regulate-social-workers-2018/?cmpid=NLC%7CSCSC%7CSCNEW-2016-0629

Or view the Department of Education and Department of Health Regulating Social Workers Policy Statement:http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2016-0569/Policy_Statement_Social_Work_Regulation_June_2016.pdf