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 details the progress report on the work done during 2021- 2022 in promoting and improving the quality of social work practice and the key priorities for 2022-2023. 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the main remit of the work is around the retention of social workers, learning and development and quality assurance policies.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the report covers both children’s and adult’s social work. 

The Principal Social gave a summary of the key highlights and areas of progress from adult’s social work and the work done to support excellence in social work practice.

The Principal Social Worker outlined the key priorities for 2022 – 2023. 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that she will be supporting the Adult Service Transformation Programme, focusing on the preparation for Care Quality Commission regulation, and the implementation of the new social care charging reforms.

The Principal Social Worker commented that work is also being done to prepare social workers for the introduction of Liberty Protection Safeguards, which replaces the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards scheme. 

The panel were invited to ask questions and to comment on the report.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report and commented on the importance of having a benchmark of good practice. 

The panel expressed concern about the challenges in providing a quality of service due to the shortage of social workers and other experienced public sector workers which all affect the delivery of adult care services. The panel welcomed the plans for improving the recruitment and retention of social workers and the reduced use of agency workers.

The panel also welcomed the reference in the report to supporting social workers, and monitoring caseloads, and the importance of regular supervision in helping workers to manage work which can be very stressful.

The Principal Social Worker thanked the panel for the comments and the assessment of the challenges facing the service. The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the adult social care service is not having the same difficulties in recruiting to permanent vacancies, compared to children’s services. 

The Principal Social Worker acknowledged the issues of quality and increasing costs of recruiting agency workers and commented on the benefits of having an experienced peripatetic social work team that can help support social work teams during a period of increased demand. The Principal Social Worker commented on the importance of keeping people at the centre and listening to their experiences to help shape how services are delivered.

The Principal Social Worker discussed the importance supervision in supporting social workers and adopting a trauma informed practice approach. The Principal Social Worker outlined plans to discuss the issue at the next joint social work conference.

The panel congratulated the Principal Social Worker on the progress and key achievements detailed in the report. 

The panel asked for more details about social work practice weeks and the link to supervision sessions and the challenges in covering children’s and adult social work services.

The Principal Social Worker commented that the joint role requires the same skills and social work values across both areas of work. The role is supported by a good team but acknowledged the challenges in learning about new processes and different legislative requirement that applies to children’s social work, as previous background was in adult social work. The Principal Social Worker commented on the benefits of covering both children’s and adults and the opportunities for applying learning and practice from one area to another area.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that there are three social work practice weeks a year which have now been combined with the case file audit work. This provides the opportunity for learning and sharing knowledge among social workers. 

The Principal Social Worker commented on the value of case work audits in supporting this process, for example, supporting social workers in their CPD work and social work re-registration. The learning and feedback from the first pilot practice week in May 2022 will be used help improve the next planned practice week in November 2022. The topics for the next session will include safeguarding adult reviews, child safeguarding practice reviews, complaints, and feedback.

The Principal Social Worker outlined the work being done in terms of improving the recruitment and retention of social workers.

The panel agreed to receive feedback on progress on the agreed actions in January 2023.

The panel commented that it would be helpful for the report to include an assessment of progress against actions for the key priorities for Principal Social Work detailed in the report for 2021 – 2022. The Principal Social Worker agreed to include the information in a future annual report.

The panel asked for examples of the Principal Social Worker being able to show a degree of independence in the role and challenge as referenced in the report.

The Principal Social Worker highlighted different examples of critical challenge in meetings with Leadership Teams and in the use of language, specifically the term ‘service user’ which is not considered to be appropriate. The aim will be to incorporate these changes in approach into the strategic vision document for the service. The Principal Social Worker commented on the importance of having conversations with people about what matters to them when redesigning services.

The Director of Adult Services gave further examples of how the Principal Social Worker have demonstrated the independence of the role. The Director of Adult Services commented on the positive contribution of the role to the work of the Council.

The panel queried the support available to the Principal Social Worker. The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that there is team that supports her work across the Council and commented on the important contribution they made in the preparation of the annual report.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report and offered their congratulations on the progress and performance of the role as detailed in the annual report.

The agreed to endorse the report recommendations.

Resolved:

1.    The panel comments on the draft Principal Social Worker Annual Report 2021 – 2022 to be noted.

2.    The panel endorse the recommendations in the Cabinet report dated 27.7.22.

3.    The Principal Social Worker agreed to present an update report to the panel in February 2023 on the progress of plans to further improve the recruitment and retention of social workers.