Be Inspired! Shirley Ayres Consulting

“I have a life like everyone else. I deal with the problems we all have. I am not a person to be put in a box. Just because I am disabled does not mean that it is any different for me.”

See me now, see me now
The person they said no
The person they said could never do,
See me now, see me now,
The person with a home,
The person with a family,
The person with a life,
See me now  

I first met Shirley when she was running a pilot programme for Skills for Care London region to encourage service users and carers to contribute to the education and training of social workers. My poem was inspired and written at one of the sessions.

I was subsequently invited to participate in the Social Workers Educational Trust conference. I have trained as a mentor and contributed to a number of working groups.

But I do have a number of challenging questions about how all the principles of service user involvement and participation in social care will become a reality. I am told by one organisation that they cannot pay me as a trainer because this will affect my benefits but another organisation is able to make a contribution towards my costs. This needs to be sorted out. I do not know if the new guidance published recently by Skills for Care will really make a difference to me. In the meantime if you would like an independent voice on your committee, board or panel get in touch!!

Tags: be inspired, communication, conference, disability, engaging people who use services, involving service users, janet jackson, swet

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Confused about the many organizations responsible for improving social work services? Welcome to our guide to the key players in the social care sector in England and the surprising range of organisations who have an influence on social work and social policy developments.

Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) – www.adcs.org.uk

ADCS is the national leadership association in England for statutory directors of children’s services and other children’s services professionals in leadership roles. The ADCS Virtual Staff College promotes the professional development and competence of all staff working in the strategic management and operational delivery of education and children’s services in local authorities and their stakeholders. The College works in partnership with other organisations to deliver professional development opportunities, seminars, courses, activities and other tools to meet the needs of public service professionals.

Association of Directors of Adult Services (ADASS) – www.adss.org.uk

ADASS represents all the directors of adult social services in England. It evolved from the former ADSS (Association of Directors of Social Services) when responsibilities for adults and children’s services within top tier local authorities were split between two new departments – one for adults and one for children.

British Association of Social Workers www.basw.co.uk

BASW is the largest association representing social work and social workers in the UK. BASW offers support and advice and publishes The Code of Ethics for Social Work, which sets the professional standard to which all BASW members subscribe.

CSIP – http://www.csip.org.uk/

The Care Services Improvement Partnership supports positive changes in services and in the wellbeing of vulnerable people with health and social care needs. CSIP publishes the most accessible, comprehensive and free eBook on Commissioning.http://www.icn.csip.org.uk/betterCommissioning/index.cfm?pid=858 

Children’s Workforce Development Council – http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

CWDC exists to improve the lives of children, young people, their families and carers by ensuring that all people working with them have the best possible training, qualifications, support and advice. It also helps children and young people’s organizations and services to work together better so that the child is at the centre of all services.

Children’s Workforce Network(CWN) www.childrensworkforce.org.uk

CWN is a strategic body, bringing together the relevant Sector Skills Councils and other partners. It is an Alliance committed to creating and supporting a world-class children’s workforce in England.

Members of the Children’s Workforce Network

Children’s Workforce Development Council – www.cwdcouncil.org.uk

Cultural and Creative Industries Skills • www.ccskills.org.uk

General Social Care Council – http://www.gscc.org.uk/

General Teaching Council for England – www.gtce.org.uk

Improvement & Development Agency – www.idea.gov.uk

Lifelong Learning UK – www.lifelonglearninguk.org

National College for School Leadership – http://www.ncsl.org.uk/

Nursing and Midwifery Council – www.nmc-uk.org

Skills for Health – http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/

Skills for Justice – http://www.skillsforjustice.com/

SkillsActive – www.skillsactive.com/

Training & Development Agency for Schools – http://www.tda.gov.uk/

Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) – www.csci.org.uk

CSCI inspects and reports on care services and councils to improve social care and stamp out bad practice. An invaluable resource if you need to check out a care home or care agency.

Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform  – http://www.berr.gov.uk/

BERR works to create the conditions for business success and help the UK respond to the challenges and ensure business success in an increasingly competitive world.

Department for Children, Schools and Families – http://www.dfes.gov.uk/

DCSF aims to make England the best place in the world for children and young people to grow up.

Department of Health – http://www.dh.gov.uk/

DH provides health and social care policy, guidance andG

Guidestar UK – www.guidestar.org.uk

A free and comprehensive website providing a source of high quality information on more than 167000 UK registered charities

Improvement & Development Agency – http://www.idea.gov.uk/

The IDeA works for and leads local government improvement to enable councils to better serve the community. Councils are supported and challenged and good practice is disseminated. The IDeA also promotes the development of local government’s management and workforce. The IDeA is owned by the Local Government Association

International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) – www.ifsw.org

IFSW is a global organisation striving for social justice, human rights and social development through the development of social work, best practices and international cooperation between social workers and their professional organisations.

Joint University Council for Social Work Education Committee (JUCSWEC) – http://www.juc.ac.uk

JUCSWEC is a representative body of UK Universities involved in delivering social work education and provides an important forum for profile raising, information sharing, advocacy and strategic planning for social work practice and education. It has made significant contributions to the review of social work in England (Options for Excellence) and Scotland (21st Century Review). The current chair is Michael Preston-Shoot (University of Bedfordshire). JUCSWC have published a Code of Ethics for Social Work and Social Care Research.

Learning and Skills Council (LSC)- http://www.lsc.gov.uk/

The Learning and Skills Council have a single goal: to improve the skills of England’s young people and adults to ensure a workforce of world-class standard. The LSC is committed to improvement of the further education and training sector to raise standards and to make learning provision more responsive to the needs of individuals and employers. Information is provided about financial support for learners and LSC publish a useful jargon buster

Learn To Care www.learntocare.org.uk

Learn to Care represents people engaged in the management and implementation of workforce development in the personal social services.

Making Research Count – http://www.uea.ac.uk/swk/MRC_web/public_html/

Making Research Count is a national collaborative research dissemination initiative, established by a consortium of nine Universities and developed by regional centres. These university based regional centres have formed collaborative partnerships with member agencies, to promote and develop knowledge-based practice and improve services in social work, social care and its interface with health and education. Each regional centre has established a unique approach to knowledge based practice based on the needs of local partnerships. The network has brought together the Universities of Bedfordshire, Brighton, Central Lancashire, East Anglia, Keele, King’s College London, Salford, York, the Open University and their social care and health agency partners. 

New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) www.philanthropycapital.org/

NPC was set up by a group of City financiers to provide independent advice on charity giving for wealthy individuals and foundations. The founders believe that providing donors with information on the results achieved by charities — and helping charities themselves to get better at focusing on how they change lives — could help to create change. They share a desire to make a positive difference: whether that is through understanding the root causes of societal problems, discovering excellent charities and helping them get the funds they deserve, or helping donors maximise the impact of their donations. NPC have developed criteria for assessing highly effective charities, find out which charities have met this standard so far.     

The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) – http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/

Oftsted inspects and regulates to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. The new Ofsted brings together the wide experience of four inspectorates to make a greater difference for every child, and for all young people and adult learners, in England. Ofsted inspect an extensive range of services including: child minders and nurseries, early education, children’s social care, adoption and fostering, Cafcass, schools, teacher training providers, training providers for international students and education ansd training providers funded by DCFS and other government departments.

Research in Practice – http://www.rip.org.uk/

Research in practice supports evidence-informed practice (EIP) with children and families and is the largest children and families research implementation project in England and Wales. Established in 1996 it is a department of The Dartington Hall Trust, it is run in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, the University of Sheffield and a network of over 100 participating agencies in the UK.

Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)  – http://www.thersa.org/

For more than 200 years, the RSA has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Their approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action. The tradition lives on in the free events programme which provides a rich and diverse platform for leading public thinkers. 

Skills for Care – www.skillsforcare.org.uk

Skills for Care are the Sector Skills Council who work in consultation with employers, education and training providers, service users and carers, Skills for Care aims to modernise adult social care in England, by ensuring qualifications and standards continually adapt to meet the changing needs of people who use care services.

Skills for Care and Development (SfC&D) – www.skillsforcareanddevelopment.org.uk

The Sector Skills Council for social care, children and young people’s workforces in the UK. It is an Alliance of 5 organisations: Care Council for Wales, Children’s Workforce Development Council, Northern Ireland Social Care Council, Scottish Social Services Council, and Skills for Care. SfC&D is licensed by government to represent the interests of some 60,000 employers and 1.6 million workers across the UK. These staff are employed by a range of organisations – both public authorities and independent organisations, often commissioned by the public sector to deliver social care services but sometimes acting directly for people who receive the services.The Alliance works closely with service users and carers, education and training providers, national stakeholders and the health sector to develop an appropriately skilled and qualified workforce to meet the UK’s current and future social care needs.

Skills for Health – www.skillsforhealth.org.uk

Skills for Health are the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for the UK health sector. They cover the whole sector and aim to develop solutions that deliver a skilled and flexible UK workforce in order to improve health and healthcare.

Social Care Institute for Excellence – www.scie.org.uk

SCIE aims to improve the experience of people who use social care by developing and promoting knowledge about good practice in the sector. Using knowledge gathered from diverse sources and a broad range of people and organizations, SCIE has developed an extensive resource bank which is shared freely, supporting those working in social care and empowering service users. Check out the audit tools available at the People Management website.   

Social Enterprise Coalition -  http://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/

The UK portal for social enterprise information and resources. Social enterprises are profit-making businesses set up to tackle a social or environmental need. The social enterprise movement is inclusive and extremely diverse, encompassing organisations such as development trusts, community enterprises, co-operatives, housing associations, ‘social firms’ and leisure trusts, among others. These businesses are operating across an incredibly wide range of industries and sectors from health and social care, to renewable energy, recycling and fair trade.

Social Policy and Social Work (SWAP) – www.swap.ac.uk

SWAP is the UK subject centre for social policy and social work, one of the Higher Education Academy’s 24 discipline based centres. SWAP aims to enhance the student learning experience by promoting high quality learning, teaching and assessment. SWAP has a lot of useful resources to download including publications, teaching resources, digital learning and themed resources.

Social Workers Educational Trust (SWET) www.socialworkerseducationaltrust.org

Established by BASW in 1972 the Social Workers’ Educational Trust supports qualified social workers to develop their knowledge, skills and practice. Research is encouraged into social work practice and education. SWET provides small grants to individuals undertaking post-qualifying studies and more substantial research scholarships are awarded annually through open competition

Check out our jargon buster if you are still puzzling about the differences between a sector skills council and a regulator. The Big Question -  has the separation of adult and children’s services, the development of new Trust arrangements and the division of responsibilities for social care regulation and workforce development contributed to the vision for “joined up” services across the care sector?

Post a Comment below or Contact Us to suggest other useful organisations for the resource bank.

Tags: adas, adcs, basw, csci, csip, cwdc, cwn, dfes, doh, gscc, ifsw, jucswec, ofsted, scie, skills for care, skills for health, swap

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What do the cases that the General Social Care Council (GSCC) has taken to conduct hearings or tribunals tell us about the state of social work practice? How should professional boundaries be managed, especially in the sensitive area of sexual relationships? How are complainants supported and how are conduct issues assessed?

The GSCC is the social care workforce regulator and “guardian of standards” for the social care workforce in England. It is responsible for regulating the codes of practice, the Social Care Register and qualifying and post qualifying social work education and training.

The Codes of Practice for Social Care Workers and Employers describe the standards of conduct and practice within which employers of social care workers and staff should work. The codes require that employers adhere to the standards set out in their code, support social care workers to meet their professional responsibilities and take appropriate action when workers do not meet expected standards of conduct. The codes mean that the social care sector has similar regulation to doctors and nurses.

Registered social care workers who breach the codes could be removed from the Social Care Register, while employers who break them could face sanctions.

A workshop at the recent GSCC Annual Conference gave an interesting insight into what happens when social workers breach the code and are reported for misconduct.

The work of the GSCC’s Conduct Group centres around maintaining and raising professional standards to ensure that applicants to, and people on, the Social Care Register:

• are suitable to be a registered social worker 

  work safely in social care

  are held accountable for their practice and conduct

Is the regulation of Conduct working?

Between 1st April 2003 and 31st March 2008 the work of the Conduct Group has led to:

214 refusals to join the Social Care Register

60 registrations with conditions

14 removals from the Social Care Register

16 admonishments placed on the registrants’ public record

39 Interim Suspension Orders

Emerging Trends

Almost half of all referrals from employers relate to professional practice

Although there are proportionately fewer referrals relating to professional boundaries a high percentage of Conduct Committees held relate to this matter

Sections 2(striving to establish and maintain the trust and confidence of service users and carers) and 5 (uphold public trust and confidence in social care services) are the sections of the codes of practice most commonly breached.

(source GSCC 2008)

Download the full Codes of Practice here

http://www.gscc.org.uk/Good+practice+and+conduct/Get+copies+of+our+codes

WITNESS supports people who use services who are reporting abuse by social workers. This includes:

Emotional support to help deal with the impact of conduct proceedings

Helping communications and providing support at meetings with lawyers and the GSCC

Preparation for and support at Conduct Committee hearings

Post hearing follow up/debriefing

Reporting to the GSCC on client experiences 

WITNESS is the professional boundaries charity and aims to promote safe boundaries between professionals and the public. They provide a range of services for professionals and the public and work to improve public protection through policy and influencing work. http://www.popan.org.uk/

Professional boundaries are high on the list of issues reported to disciplinary hearings

Skills around boundaries are not currently taught to social workers

Many employers have no clear policy about professional boundaries

Workers often do not know where the line should be drawn.

(source GSCC 2008)

Social services department, services registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), and further types of services are expected to be in a position to comply with the Code of Practice for Employers of Social Care Workers. The GSCC suggest that employers:

Use the code for employers as a ‘tick list’ for a comprehensive audit of policies.

In larger organisations, make sure relevant senior colleagues such as the human resources manager, training manager and elected members or board are aware of the codes and their potential impact on the organisation. In smaller organisations, make sure all senior colleagues are aware of the codes and their potential impact.

Ensure that sufficient copies of the code are available for all staff, make sure they have received and read them, and try to have a session where the issues are discussed.

Introduce the codes to new staff at induction and have a discussion with them then about what they mean. The codes contain nothing that cannot be put into practice straight away by social care workers.

The codes can be used in the performance appraisal process as a measurable target for staff and managers. Incorporating the codes into people’s work plans and objectives will be a good way of getting them to think about the codes.

Get staff to carry the credit card-sized codes around with them and ask staff to explain to service users what the codes are, at an appropriate moment.

People who use services should have access to the codes, which are available for download and to order by post in a variety of formats from the GSCC.

 

It remains to be seen how employers, who do not adhere to the codes of practice, will be sanctioned through the Conduct process.

 

Tags: admonishments, codes of practice, gscc, popan, professional boundaries, professional practice, regulation, social care register, social workers, witness

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Sometimes, we can get so hung up on jargon, acronyms and professional speak that we lose sight of the fact that they fail to bring understanding or enlightenment to people outside of our world. Creating more jargon is not the answer. Changing the words we use might work better and possibly glossaries of terms and jargon busters are a step on the way.

Our sector desperately needs to communicate effectively to so many different stakeholders. Why is it such a major challenge keeping up to date with the latest acronyms, initials and jargon, especially in the areas of workforce development, education and training?

We are currently identifying useful resources and compiling a glossary of the most common terms and acronyms used across the care sector. You can then ask the GSCC about your PRTL (gaining information from our website may qualify!) and request a TNA from your employer who may refer to the PQ and seek guidance from the SSC about the relevant NOS.

GSCC – General Social Care Council

The General Social Care Council is responsible for setting standards of conduct and practice for social care workers and their employers, for regulating the workforce, and for regulating social work education and training.

PRTL – Post-Registration Training and Learning

Every social worker registered with the GSCC shall, within the period of registration, complete either 90 hours or 15 days of study, training, courses, seminars, reading, teaching or other activities which could reasonably be expected to advance the social worker’s professional development, or contribute to the development of the profession as a whole.

TNA – Training Needs Analysis

An analysis of training needs to identify any skill gaps for organizations and individuals.

PQ-  Post Qualifying

Education and training undertaken by qualified social workers and other professionals. Social workers need to evidence their PQ training and CPD when submitting their PRTL to maintain their  registration with the GSCC Social Care Register..

SSC – Sector Skills Council

Each SSC works to agree priorities and targets with its employers and partners to address four key goals:

• reducing skills gaps and shortages

• improving productivity, business and public service performance

• increasing opportunities to boost the skills and productivity of everyone in the sector’s workforce, including action on equal opportunities

• improving the supply of learning opportunities, including apprenticeships, higher education and national occupational standards

Skills for Care and Development are the Sector Skills Council for social care, children and young people’s workforces in the UK. It is an Alliance of 5 organisations:

Care Council for Wales, Children’s Workforce Development Council, Northern Ireland Social Care Council, Scottish Social Services Council, and Skills for Care

NOS – National Occupational Standards

National Occupational Standards (NOS) have been developed to assist employers, businesses, employees and individuals. They contain descriptions of good practice and can be a benchmark for rewarding experience, knowledge and competence.

NOS Directory

All the NOS developed by Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) and Standard Setting Bodies (SSBs) are available to download on the NOS Directory managed by the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA). The NOS Directory is available on the UK Standards website. http://www.ukstandards.org

In the meantime we would like to introduce you to Jargonbuster, a resource drafted by Kevin Ashby and Colin Nee (Charities Evaluation Services), with input from a steering group containing representatives from a number of charitable foundations, grant awarding bodies and national umbrella bodies.

This book defines and explains key terms used in evaluating and monitoring services. Definitions range from milestones to benchmarking and the differences between an output and an outcome are explained in plain english with examples and case studies.

An invaluable resource available to download here or on the Charity Evaluation Services website

Tags: acronyms, care sector, ces, charity evaluation services, glossary of terms, gscc, jargonbuster, nos, outcomes, ssc

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