UPDATE NO 439 05 February 2021

Mental Health at Work – Our Frontline

You support us, we support you

Our Frontline is a partnership between Shout, Samaritans, Mind, Hospice UK and The Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Find out more about them here, join them on their social channels below, and see some of the latest real-life stories from Our Frontline.

Twitter or Instagram or Facebook or Linkedin

There are tailored support pages for staff working in schools; and staff working in social care. Also for social care workers, to talk by text, text FRONTLINE to 85258 any time. To talk by phone, call 0300 131 7000 from 7am to 11pm if you’re in England.

Other specialist help is available at: Get support if you work in health; Get support if you work in the emergency services; Get support if you’re any other essential worker.

Urgent Review of the Memorandum of Cooperation (Agency Social Workers)

Following discussions with colleagues in multiple SE authorities there is an urgent need to review the MoC. This is based  serious concerns that the MoC is no longer working well. We think there are two main challenges.

Firstly, three South East authorities continue to be outside the South East MoC, they are Slough Children’s Trust, Surrey and West Sussex. Approaches have been made to all three to explore if they are open to joining or re-joining the MoC.

Secondly there are anectodical reports of authorities paying rates beyond the maximum rates agreed and using other approaches outside the spirit of the MoC  (e.g. creation of managerial project roles, paying hotel/travel costs etc).  The MoC was initially successful with agency numbers in the region dropping (against the national trend), but it now appears to be having much less impact.

To address this issue we are proposing a 2 stage process. 

1. Survey of all SE authorities to clarify the current use of agency staff, rates paid and views about the future of the MoC arrangement (this will be distributed to DCSs on Monday 25 January for completion by Friday 12 February) 
2. The information gathered in the survey will be distributed to all DCSs by Friday 19 February for discussion and decision at the regional meeting scheduled to take place on the Friday 26 February  

Historically the MoC worked well from inception in 2016 through to the end of 2018, but can only be effective with a strong commitment from all SE authorities. Please can you prioritise completion of the survey to help us make an informed decision about the future of the South East MoC.  

To review the current version of the MoC follow this link

If you have any questions about this item please contact Mark Evans (details below).

Take Your Place – the future leaders programme for the South East

New dates announced for Take Your Place courses delivered in association with The Staff College this spring and summer

Please download the flyer here 

Further information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

• Women in Leadership 24 and 25 March

The Women in Leadership Programme is designed to create a safe space for women to connect, share their experiences and learn how to strive and thrive in their own work places. There are some key issues that affects every woman along the path of her career. The Programme helps to address some of the issues that affect all females by providing a forum that considers the unique challenges women encounter

• Black and Asian Leaders 23 and 24 June 

This programme aims to: Provide strategies to help participants overcome barriers and enhance their skills to be able to thrive as Black global majority leaders; Renew self and group confidence, which is often depleted by every day racism; Enable participants to learn about and try out for themselves different leadership approaches and understand how these relate to their own values and principles; Ensure participants develop their own personal learning plan in order to help them progress in their careers.

NHS (E) and NIROMP: South East Community of Practice – Children in Care

Andrea King (contact details below, of NHS South East) and NIROMP are delighted to share with you the details for their ‘South East Community of Practice – Children in Care’ webinar, which will take place on 16 April 2021, 9.30-11.30.

The purpose of the event is to provide a safe space for IROs to talk together with CYP Mental Health Clinical Leaders to further develop and improve statutory care planning, and consider how the timeliness and reliability of notifications to OOA social care and CAMHs services might be improved.

An event flyer is here

We will be joined by colleagues from Local Authorities, Nuffield Family Justice Observatory and CORC, who will be sharing updates and facilitating areas for discussion.

An event outline and programme is here

Register your place via Eventbrite: Click here to Join the Community of Practice event on 16 April 2021

Please contact Jenny Harris from Brighton & Hove City Council regards any queries related to joining instructions or cancellations.

Supporting Career Progression for Teachers from Minority Ethnic Groups

Sufian Sadiq, Director of Teaching School, Chiltern Learning Trust, in Impact, the Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching, writes,

“For the past five years, Chiltern TSA has been running ‘BAME into Leadership’, a programme that seeks to support teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds to develop the skills and knowledge needed to progress in their teaching careers.”

“Funded by the DfE and now in its fifth year, the course runs from the autumn to the summer term and is open to all levels of leadership, from NQTs to aspiring headteachers. Aspiring leaders apply to the programme and we take 25 to 30 participants to ensure that we can offer close attention to each individual member. The programme involves 12 practical sessions” 

Read more about the BAME into Leadership programme here

Future dates for Network meetings

Lead Members Group:  10.00am Friday 5 March 2021, “Your role as Corporate Parents in delivering excellence for Care Leavers“, presented by Mark Riddell MBE. More information from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Thursday 11 March 2021. More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 12 March 2021 – 10.30am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Tuesday 20 April 2021. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 12 March 2021. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: Wednesday 10 March 2021. More information from Diane Williamson (contact details below)

Fostering Network: 10.30am Thursday 12 April 2021. The group met on 28 Jan and discussed vaccination for foster carers; protocols for covid+ve or symptomatic children; impact of court and medical delays on fostering. More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: SEND/Covid Conversation #15 12.30pm Tuesday 9 February 2021. DfE SEND Regional Update 12.30pm Wednesday 24 February 2021. More information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Social Work in England: First Reflections

Social Work England have published “Social Work in England: First Reflections“, the first of 2 interim reports on social work leading to a landmark report in 2023.

In this interim report, SWE shares its reflections on its first year as the new specialist regulator for social workers in England. Its role uniquely positions it to offer insight and inform quality conversations about social work, and it is committed to sharing what its learns with the public, the profession and stakeholders. 

The full report is here

The report covers 4 key areas: 

1. Learning to be a social worker: we share what we’ve learned from our first year inspecting courses and from speaking to course providers, employers and students.
    
2. Social workers in England: an overview of the social work workforce, exploring how we use insight and research to engage with the profession and people with lived experience.
     
3. Career-long learning: an outline of what we’ve learned from introducing a new model of continuing professional development (CPD), what research has told us, and our plans for the future.
    
4. Investigating concerns: we set out our experience of addressing concerns and reflect on our unique model and engagement-led approach. 

Learning from the Partners in Practice Programme

Gillian Ruch (a facilitator for the Practice Supervisor Development Programme and Professor of Social Work at the University of Sussex) has introduced her review of PiP for Reseach in Practice with these words,

“It’s not just on Strictly Come Dancing that partnership counts”

Read more in the DfE’s Partners in Practice: Practice Review Report (May 2020) and the Learning from the Partners in Practice Programme Review: Practice Briefing (Dec 2020), published by Research in Practice.

DfE Project Phase 2

The project is well underway and aims to develop a specification for new and innovative provision for looked-after children – with four participating authorities (West Sussex – Susan Tanner, Kent – Christy Holden and Caroline Smith, Portsmouth – Hayden Ginns and Milton Keynes – Sivay Heer) on the Project Team. The first stage of the project is to collect some detailed information from the 4 participating LAs to feed into an outline specification.

We are now setting up a project-specific Commissioners’ Network (terms of reference here) to allow non-participating authorities to be kept informed of progress and timelines as well as exemplars of good practice

To join this network (thanks to Medway, Reading, Hampshire and Surrey for their positive responses), please email Isabelle Gregory (contact details below).

The webpage for the project is here: DfE Project Phase 2