UPDATE NO 430 20 November 2020

Social Work England – Deadline for CPD Registration 30 November 2020

It is a legal requirement that social workers in England renew their registration to continue to use the protected title of ‘social worker’. The requirement to renew registration is set out in our legislation, and regulation 13 of The Social Worker Regulations 2018, and Part 7 of the Social Work England (Registration) Rules 2019. Registration renewal must be completed between 1 September and 30 November 2020 or social workers run the risk of being removed from the register. Those with an open fitness to practise case still need to apply to renew their registration.

Here are resources on the Social Work England website to assist with the process:

Renew your registration and How to record CPD You Tube clips

Renewal FAQs

Top tips for recording CPD

Blog on recording CPD while on maternity/paternity leave

Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme: insights and evaluation

The DfE has published Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme: insights and evaluation Evaluation and summary reports for the CSCIP grouped by theme. The CSCIP was launched in 2014 to test and share effective ways of supporting vulnerable children and young people who need help from children’s social care services. The programme has supported 98 projects through £200 million of investment.

There is a full list of projects that includes name, location, summary and funding amount.

The programmes and themes covered are:

1. Adolescents facing complex risks
2. Alternative delivery and finance models
3. Care leavers and staying close
4. Child sexual exploitation or abuse
5. Edge of care and children in need
6. Female genital mutilation (FGM)
7. Fostering and adoption
8. Looked after children
9. Young people’s mental health
10. Support for parents facing complex risks
11. Residential care
12. Social work systems and practice
13. Young people with disabilities

Fostering in England 2019 to 2020: main findings

Ofsted have published Fostering in England 2019 to 2020: main findings covering 

• the numbers of foster carers and foster places and placements, in both local authority (LA) and independent fostering agencies (IFA)
• data relating to types of foster care, registrations, de-registrations and a range of other subjects

• Net capacity increased in IFAs, but decreased in LAs. 
• As at 31 March 2020, we estimate that there has been a 3% increase in the number of filled fostering places, and a 13% decrease in the number of vacant places.
• The majority of foster carers in England are over the age of 50, and 25% were over 60.
• Around half of IFA fostering households are registered with agencies owned by just 6 ‘top companies’.

Changes to statutory induction for teachers during national roll-out (formerly NQT)

This page provides further detail on the intended changes to statutory induction for teachers to take place from September 2021. These changes will ensure that all early career teachers undergoing induction are entitled to a 2-year training and support programme underpinned by the early career framework.

There is no action for schools to take at this time. Further information and guidance to help schools prepare for national roll-out of the early career framework reforms is planned to be published in spring 2021.

Children Missing Education – LGA Report

On 16 November, LGA published Children missing education. 

“Drawing on evidence provided by local authorities, school leaders and parents we try to understand who the children are who are missing out on a formal full time education, how many children fit this description, what evidence there is for the long-term impact of children missing education and how local and national government might work together to address this issue.”

The report recommends a wider, statutory definition of CME, strengthening EHE legislation and increased funding so LAs can fulfil responsibilities better.

The full report is available here

DfE and DHSC write to DPHs about C-19 control measures in education

On 11 November 2020 the Secretaries of State for Education and Health and Social Care wrote a letter to Directors of Public Health in England. 

The letter emphasises the need to keep schools open, and reinforces the message that advice to close a school on public health grounds should be a last resort.

New funding for Complex LAC project

Recently we heard that our bid for £128,600 for the next phase of the Complex LAC project had been accepted by the DfE, alongside 4 other national projects.

In this phase of the project we are going to be working closely with 4 South East authorities (Milton Keynes, West Sussex, Kent and Portsmouth) as development partners, together with three providers. To deliver the full ambition of the bid the project needs to focus work with a smaller group of authorities and providers. As the project develops we will regularly update the wider group across the region. We will also be working to ensure the outcomes of the project are transferable and can be shared with all authorities in the South East.

The overall aim of the project is to develop a specification for new and innovative provision for looked after children with a particular focus on the following key elements:

• Flexible, creative provision designed to meet the needs of complex children, including options to ‘step across’ various forms of provision (e.g. residential to fostering)
• Keeping children local, as close to their home address as possible
• Working with providers who already offer both residential and fostering services and with small providers, developing joined up partnerships, enabling movement between each as appropriate to need
• Exploring options for considering lifetime costs for placements, the potential to invest in more intensive early interventions, with a view to improving outcomes and potentially reducing longer term costs
• Including measures of progress for children placed based on assessment at the point of placement (regularly reviewed up until placement end using an evidence-based assessment tool)

Further information is available from Mark Evans or Rosemary Perry (contact details below).

DfE Evaluation of the Family Safeguarding Model 2020

This report was published on 4 November 2020 and concludes that multi-disciplinary working – and specifically the integration of specialist adult workers within social work teams – is the foremost success factor of Family Safeguarding. It has given families prompter access to specialist input and has provided more joined-up and tailored packages of support. Other success factors include Motivational Interviewing (which has improved engagement and ownership amongst families) and group supervision (which has enabled practitioners to better manage risk and be more reflective).

The report includes analysis of implementation of the model in Bracknell Forest, Luton, Peterborough and West Berkshire along with an update on progress in Hertfordshire (where the approach was first developed).

The full report is available here

Find more information on Hertfordshire’s Family Safeguarding model

Find more information on the DfE’s Strengthening Families, Protecting Children Programme

Future dates for Network meetings

AD Safeguarding: Friday 11 December 2020 –  for more information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: Wednesday 9 December. Following the recent meeting of the network, new confidential documents have been posted on the QA restricted pages – access to these pages and more information from Diane Williamson (contact details below)

Fostering Network: 10.30am Thursday 28 January. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: more information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Thursday 10 December 2020. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 27 November 2020 – 10.00am to 12.00noon – more information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Tuesday 19 January 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)