Agenda item

[Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present report]

The Chair invited Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present the report.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the annual report covers social work practice across both Children’s and Adult’s Services. The Principal Social Worker outlined the main highlights in the report, with a focus on performance of social work practice in Children’s Services.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the work being done to strengthen existing quality assurance activity, responding to the challenges in terms of the recruitment and retention of social workers, the ongoing focus on tackling inequality and raising the profile of social work profession, and supporting excellence in social work practice.

The Principal Social Worker outlined the responsibilities of the role and the key priorities for 2022-2023.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the strong improvement in the quality of social work practice and the highlighted the increase in the number case files rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ as an example of the progress made. The Principal Social Worker highlighted the commitment to quality assurance which was recognised by Ofsted following their inspection in March 2022.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the annual joint social work conference in Wolverhampton which was attended by adults and children’s social worker. The theme for this year’s conference was celebrating diversity, challenging inequality with conference speakers sharing their lived experiences of discrimination. The feedback from the conference has been very positive from social workers that attended.

The Principal Social Worker commented that the work of six social workers in Wolverhampton were recognised by the British Association of Social Work and awarded the title of amazing social worker in 2022. In addition, 70 social workers have been supported to engage with the national review of independent children’s social care and contributed to the recommendations.

The Principal Social Worker gave details about the range of work being done to challenge inequality and the promotion and to further embed equality, diversity, and inclusion in areas of social work practice and policy.

The Principal Social Worker outlined the key priorities of the role as detailed in the work plan for 2022-2023 and highlighted the importance of having highly skilled social workers to help reduce the risk of children being taken into care and supporting adults with care and support needs to remain or become independent for as long as possible.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the need to build on the successful Ofsted report and to prepare for future inspections, to maintain links with other Principal Social Workers across the region that can help shape policy and practice locally and influence national policies.

The panel were invited to comment on the report.

The panel welcomed the report and the outstanding inspection report from Oftsed on the service and the achievements made during the year.

The panel queried the progress to the reference made in previous annual report about actions aimed at increasing the number of audits following a reduction during the pandemic. The Principal Social Worker commented on the changes made to increase the number of audits from the period during the pandemic, for example, doing them during social work practice weeks to reduce social worker workloads.

The panel queried the impact of the introduction of the new IT system on reducing workloads and duplication highlighted in previous annual report.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the Eclipse IT system has really helped to reduce workloads and the duplication of recording. There are still work needed to smooth issues with the system but the response from social workers has been positive about the new system. The service is regularly reviewing and making changes to the system, which is being supported by advanced social work practioners. The Deputy Director added that there is work being done to utilise the system more effectively, for example, there is no facility to record voice messages. The changes would allow social workers to record notes following their visits which will help to further reduce workloads.

The panel discussed the challenges facing the service in terms of the recruitment and retention of experienced social workers at a time when there is such a high demand for people with such skills and experience. The panel welcomed the initiatives detailed in the report to recruit and retain social but had concerns about ongoing workforce challenges nationally caused by the high turnover and vacancy rates and the reliance on agency staff across the public sector generally.

The panel queried the caseload numbers of social workers. The Principal Social Worker commented that there is not typical caseload as it will depend on the complexity of the cases being managed. The Principal Social Worker highlighted the importance of good supervision sessions with social workers about their skills and experience to talk about how they are managing their current workload. There are different caseload levels for newly qualified social workers, and they also have a protected caseload which will be increased gradually when supervisors are confident, that they can manage.

In addition, work is also being done to manage caseloads using peripatetic teams and speeding up social work recruitment to help stabilise teams and to help keep casework workloads as low as possible.

The panel discussed the impact of the pandemic on social workers and the introduction of flexible working. The Principal Social Worker commented on the challenges experienced by social workers in managing home schooling and other caring responsibilities and advised the panel that the service has recognised that social workers may need to work outside normal hours or in the evenings. In such situations social workers are encouraged to use toil accrued and have conversations about the wellbeing and offering training and support which is an important area of work.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report and the progress made.

Resolved

The panel endorsed the recommendations in the report and priorities identified for the 2022 – 2023 by the Principal Social Worker.