Agenda item

Adult Social Care Workforce Health Check 2020

[Courtney Abbott,Quality and Improvement Advanced Practitioner for Children and Adults, to present report]

 

Minutes:

Courtney Abbott, Quality, and Improvement Advanced Practitioner presented the findings from the survey of adult social care workforce.  The panel were advised that the survey is done annually looking at different areas of practice, how improvements can be made and also what is being done well in regard to social work practice in Wolverhampton.

 

The survey was extended this year to include the wider workforce of non-Social Work qualified workers as part of efforts to support the continuous improvement of Adult Social Care in Wolverhampton.

 

The panel were advised that they would be asked to comment and ask questions on three specific areas from the survey findings – workload management, staff wellbeing and equality and diversity. The survey was undertaken between 2 November and 14 December 2020 and all grade five and grade six non-Social Work qualified staff, working directly with people with care and support needs, were invited to take part.

 

The Advanced Practitioner advised the panel that there was a 33% response rate to the survey, which was slightly lower than last year. In total 100 responses were received. The Advanced Practitioner gave a brief summary of the findings from each of the three areas to the panel and added that information has given a much more rounded picture of adult services as a whole.

 

A decision was made last year to continue doing a separate survey in recognition of the different roles, but many of the actions and findings are similar to the previous report.

 

The panel thanked the presenter for the report.

 

The panel queried the details about workforce retention figures for the service and if there was a view of what good in this situation would look like. The panel also queried if there was a target set to measure progress of the service that would provide a ‘barometer’ about what was working well.  The panel suggested a target would be helpful in understanding this issue better and assessing progress over time.

 

The Advanced Practitioner accepted of the value in having a better understanding of what a good service looks like and discussed of useful benchmarks for the service that would show this.  The Advanced Practitioner gave the example when thinking about supervision and wishing to see 100 % of people getting regular good quality supervision. This would be a challenge to achieve as the nature of social work practice may mean the planned supervision sessions may have to be cancelled or rearranged to meet the needs of the service or in response to a crisis.  A figure of 90% would be perhaps a more realistic target. The Advanced Practitioner agreed to discuss this further with neighbouring authorities to see if there was any consensus about the issue and how it could be quantified.

 

The Principal Social Worker added that there are regular meetings with other principal social workers in the region, which provide opportunities to share good practice across the region and also to create resources, such as health checks. The benefits of comparing performance locally and nationally and sharing learning was highlighted, but also there was acknowledgement of not wanting to lose local intelligence provided from the annual social work surveys.

 

The panel commented on the positive benefits of working directly with colleagues in a face to face situation which provides a good source of support and networking opportunities which can help address some of the issues highlighted in the survey responses.

 

The Cabinet Member for Adults wanted to formally record her thanks for the work and support provided to her by the Principal Social Worker and Advanced Practitioner.

 

Emma Bennett, Director of Children and Adult Services, endorsed the comments and also highlighted the work done to support them both presenters in their respective roles. The Director welcomed the focus on the issue of health and wellbeing across the Council especially during the pandemic and commented on the work planned to social work staff in the future. The service is looking at developing a wellbeing framework to support all social work staff.

 

The panel thanked the presenters for their report.

 

Resolved:

 

The panel agreed to note the report.

Supporting documents: