Team: People and Payroll Team

Main Submission:

Achieving for Children (AfC) launched an initiative to support and strengthen the workforce by enhancing data and accountability in managing vacancies. This allows for more strategic and timely interventions in recruitment and retention through the development of a live Social Care data dashboard managed by the HR team. This dashboard provides real-time metrics on vacancies, agency held roles and turnover. The aim was to incorporate regular management meetings with HR into a feedback loop that provides the senior leadership team with insightful information. Alongside this it was important to ensure that the dataset was easily accessible and user friendly, making it easy for colleagues to engage.

The motivation behind this initiative originated from the pressing needs to tackle high vacancy rates and high reliance on agency staff. These issues not only strain resources but also disrupt consistency and quality of care. AfC aims to provide senior managers with a thorough understanding of staffing issues by utilising real-time data. Allowing managers to anticipate trends, make well-informed decisions and implement targeted strategies to stabilise the workforce.

This initiative reflects AfC’s passion to enhance workforce planning and drive equity in recruitment, ensuring that recruitment practices are not only efficient but also fair, whilst also applying to Safer Recruitment principles. The objective is to continue to create a sustainable model that reduces dependency on agency staff, fills vacancies and promotes a more stable, permanent workforce for our children and young people.

Below are several examples of how the initiative was driven by specific actions and activities designed to deliver on this commitment.

Decision making – utilising data intelligence

The introduction of data dashboards and regular Social Care Sub Group meetings help to overcome several obstacles. Firstly, by bringing colleagues together in one place and aligning on a unified approach to addressing recruitment and retention issues required clear and actionable insights. The dashboard provides real-time data, offering tangible evidence of which teams are struggling, creating a shared understanding of the critical areas that require attention.
Offering a platform for benchmarking against national statistics from the DfE allowed managers and senior leaders to gauge their recruitment and retention performance in terms of the national picture. This addressed the challenge of developing targeted strategies by providing accurate, up-to-date information at the team level, making it easier to pinpoint areas for improvement and implement effective solutions.

Structured discussions within the Social Care sub group meetings allow a focused discussion on problem solving, allowing senior managers to collaboratively devise and refine strategies 0 to enhance AfC’s recruitment and retention efforts. This collaborative approach helps to bridge gaps in communication and strategy implementation.

Engaging with the workforce – drop-in sessions / continuous improvement

A key element of our shift in seeking improvements to recruitment was the introduction of HR and Agency worker drop-in sessions, which provide a platform for engagement, hosted by senior leaders and HR representatives. These sessions create an opportunity for staff to feedback at all levels, providing qualitative feedback alongside the real-time data captured by the live Social Care dashboard. Allowing for a deeper understanding, extending beyond just the data.

Integrating feedback from these sessions alongside manager insights and the data dashboard metrics, AfC can make more informed, strategic and timely interventions in recruitment and retention. This enables AfC to target problem areas, streamline processes and anticipate staffing needs before they become critical. We can be more proactive in our social work pipeline for example incorporating agency conversions.

This continuous feedback loop ensures that staff feel heard and that their input directly influences recruitment strategies and retention efforts.

To evidence that the best practices, such as the use of the live Social Care data dashboard and HR/Agency worker drop-in sessions, are having a positive impact, AfC can confirm several key indicators:

Improved reporting data

Tracking the reduction in vacancy rates and the decline in agency staff usage over time has demonstrated the effectiveness of data-driven recruitment and retention strategies. By comparing pre- and post-implementation data, AfC can show how targeted interventions are leading to a more stable and permanent workforce. Over the last 2 years, we have seen an overall reduction in vacancy rates (from 27% to 21%) within social care teams and less reliance on Agency staff (from 22% to 18.5%).

Senior management buy-in and participation

Evidence of continued engagement from senior leadership and managers, through their participation in regular meetings and strategy refinements based on data insights, shows that the initiative is gaining traction and influencing decision-making at the highest levels. The data dashboard is included at all Social Care sub group meetings.

Improved staff survey results

The impact of the initiative is evident in improved staff survey results, there was a positive rise in satisfaction across all indicators. The most significant upward move since the previous year was in relation to questions on recruitment. There was a +15.53% increase in positive responses when colleagues were asked ‘AfC is doing a good job of recruiting the right people for its future needs’. This improvement reflects the renewed effort in this area including enhanced communication, opportunities for staff feedback and more effective, data-informed recruitment and retention strategies, all contributing to a stronger, more supportive work environment.

This initiative incorporates the voice of the child by ensuring that staffing stability directly impacts the quality of care provided to children and their families. By improving recruitment and retention, AfC can ensure that consistent, well-supported staff are in place, allowing for better continuity and personalised support. This is illustrated in the reductions in employee turnover rates from 24% to 22% within the last two years. Indicating that staff are more likely to remain in their roles, enhancing the overall stability AfC is offering to its service users.

By sharing this initiative and its outcomes so far, AfC aims to inspire other Local Authorities to adopt similar approaches. The key takeaway for AfC is that equitable recruitment practices, supported by continuous feedback and data-driven insights can lead to a more stable and committed workforce, ultimately enhancing outcomes for children and young people.

Supporting Materials:

Team: Children’s Workforce Development Team

Main Submission:

Introduction and Motivation
Career Conversations is an innovative workforce development initiative that gives staff opportunities to explore career pathways, hear directly from recruiting managers about job roles, and receive tailored advice on applications and interviews to support their progression.

Originating from staff feedback and co-production, it reflects our commitment to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace, particularly by improving access to career development for underrepresented groups. While supporting immediate recruitment needs, Career Conversations is a long-term strategy to embed a culture within Family Services that enables diverse staff to progress into senior roles, aligning with the council’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) action plan.

As part of our wider workforce strategy, its impact is regularly monitored and reviewed, with consideration for expanding the initiative to other directorates.

Actions and Activities
Since 2022, Career Conversations has delivered key activities to promote transparency, accessibility, and career progression for all staff:

• Presenting Job Vacancies: Hiring managers present vacancies and share what they are looking in applications and interviews. This often includes thoughtful presentations that outline how candidates can prepare, what to expect during interviews, and the qualities managers value. This intentional approach ensures all staff have access to the same information, helping staff prepare, increase success rates, and reduce disappointment for unsuccessful candidates.
• Accessible Recordings: Sessions are recorded and saved on the intranet for on-demand access, enabling staff to revisit content at their own pace and prepare for future opportunities.
• Open Discussions: Two-way dialogue demystifies career progression, with staff hearing directly from hiring managers while sharing their experiences and feedback on recruitment practices.
• Clear Pathways: Sessions highlight specific roles, shadowing opportunities, and tailored development pathways to meet the diverse needs of social workers, practitioners, business and performance staff, and neurodiverse colleagues.
• Responsive to Feedback: Continuous staff feedback has kept the initiative dynamic and responsive, leading to a stronger focus on representation, increased access to job descriptions, shadowing opportunities, and targeted support for neurodiverse employees.

• Evidence of Impact
• Career Conversations has delivered positive outcomes, supported by staff feedback and data:
• Career Conversations average 30 attendees per session, with recorded sessions increasingly accessed on-demand.

This initiative has enabled conversations about the standard to which we promote practices that address barriers to fairness, such as anonymised recruitment, diverse panels, open-book interviews, and positive action, addressing concerns about inequities and raising recruitment standards.

• Staff value practical advice on career progression, strengthening trust in recruitment processes, and feeling inspired to progress. One participant shared, ‘I will always come to career conversations, it’s a good place to find out about routes to future roles that I might not feel ready for now, you get to hear how to work towards something, it’s like I can find out all the tips of how to get somewhere else and think about my own journey and what I want for myself”
• Business, administrative and performance staff are included and supports a greater sense of integration across the workforce. Early data indicates that Career Conversations is contributing to positive trends in internal progression, with 83% of internal roles presented during sessions being filled by internal candidates. While we cannot attribute this entirely to the initiative, it demonstrates a focus on supporting internal candidates for progression and aligns with our broader commitment to workforce development and retention.
• The influence of Career Conversations extends beyond Family Services, serving as a golden thread that strengthens workforce development across the council. The initiative has inspired new practices, including its inclusion in Race Equality Week events and adoption by staff networks like the Black Resource and Action Group (BRAG). Other departments have also incorporated elements of the approach, including shadowing opportunities and tailored support like printing job descriptions for staff with literacy needs. These adaptations show the impact of how the Career Conversations approach is strengthening a culture of equity and progression council wide.

Voice of the Workforce
Staff feedback highlights the initiative’s impact:

“I’ve found the session useful, especially the part about what the manager is looking for in applications. It’s great to see a clear route to progress in Barnet!”

“Even though I probably won’t ring them up [managers], it feels good to know they’re saying anyone can contact them. It’s a start, and I might feel different in the future.”

“The job ads are always too generic, but you find out useful info when the managers talk about the jobs themselves.” This feedback reflects a growing culture of inclusion, transparency, and progression.

Transferability and Lessons for Other Authorities
Career Conversations offers a cost-neutral, adaptable framework that other local authorities can replicate to strengthen workforce development. Its success is driven by:

• Co-Production and Collaboration: Staff involvement ensures relevance, impact, and engagement.
• Cost-Neutral Delivery: Simple to organise, requiring minimal time and resources.
• Flexibility and Inclusivity: Sessions address the unique needs of various roles, demonstrating that workforce development is not ‘one-size-fits-all.’
• Transparency and Trust: Open communication and equitable recruitment practices, including anonymised shortlisting, diverse panels, and open-book interviews, build trust and accountability.

Conclusion and Future Ambitions
Career Conversations is now a well-established initiative that has taken meaningful steps to embed equity in workforce development. By addressing barriers to progression and strengthening trust, it equips our workforce to better support children, young people, and families. This creative and flexible approach makes Career Conversations an impactful model for workforce development.
We invite other authorities to consider how similar initiatives can contribute to shared ambitions for a fairer, stronger, and more inclusive workforce.

Supporting Information:

This is a collection of screen shots from our staff intranet to give you a sense of what staff can access:

This is our career progression pathway document:

Team: Redbridge The Learning Academy

Main Submission:

Introduction:

We are committed to ensuring that Bexley Children’s Services is a welcoming and enjoyable place to work for all our colleagues, whether they are with us for a short or long time. There is currently a shortage of experienced social care practitioners across the UK and it is acknowledged that the best support given to families is via a secure permanent workforce. This mitigates risk of families experiencing multiple changes of social workers. We’re proud to say that approximately 84% of our colleagues are with Bexley permanently and we are committed to encouraging our locum colleagues to join us and make Bexley their home.

Details of actions, activities and initiatives:

Our Signs of Safety practice model is used in bespoke and tailored ways across all Children’s Social Care services and with our partner agencies. At it’s heart is an ethos of a supportive honest, collaborative, approach to learning, with families but also with our colleagues. We believe in a culture of open, honest and respectful relationships which creates the conditions for compassionate and collaborative practice.

We do not believe in a two-tier system, our locum colleagues are valued and supported in the same way as our permanent staff with access to inhouse training and development. Our ethos has been to support our agency workers to make them feel valued and at home. We have found that this methodology has worked, akin to the application of attachment theory, as the more at home and secure our workers have felt, the more likely they have been to convert to permanent (see testimonies via supporting evidence).

In October 2023, we set up a new way of running our quarterly ‘Agency to Permanent event’ which has supported a high conversion success rate. The event is mandatory and is hosted by our Director of Children’s Services (DCS) our Principal Social Worker (PSW) and our Organisational Development Partner from our Human Resources Service (OD). The event provides practical detail with respect to the Bexley employment offer with the opportunity to have extended support via a bespoke one to one support from our OD lead to fully understand salary, annual leave and pension entitlement.

Additionally, we incorporate a slot where practitioners who have recently converted to permanent talk about their experiences via an Appreciative Inquiry that looks at positives and challenges. This has proved to be very successful. We further supported a live online event via LiIa in July 2023 ‘Taking a Relational Approach in Agency to Permanent Engagement’ where we promoted our method to other London Local Authorities. A testimony is given about the power of relational practice in building our permanent workforce and how the DCS presence is key is given here (https://www.liia.london/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/August-Issue-2024-London-Workforce-Newsletter-FINAL-3.pdf).

Evidence of impact:

Locum colleagues who have made Bexley their home are progressing in their careers with us. For example, four social workers who became permanent colleagues are now being supported to complete their Practice Educator training via our Teaching Partnership. One has been promoted to Assistant Team Manager and two are mentoring Newly Qualified Social Workers. Through this they develop their own practice and share their knowledge and expertise with our wider workforce and the next generation of social workers.

Supporting Information:

Testimonies:

“I was really inspired by attending the ‘Agency to Permanent Event’. Hearing the live stories of colleagues who had gone permanent supported my decision. I am happy to present my own authentic story at the event to inspire others in the same way! After years of contracting, I decided to go permanent because Bexley was the first Borough where I felt that I could grow and develop my career. Going permanent for me was an investment because it is evident that Bexley are committed to investing in you. It works both ways!

It depends on what your vision is for your career, going perm may mean you taking a drop financially for a while; however sometimes you have to take one step back to go two steps forward. Bexley is a friendly place to be in, the support from senior management across children’s services is fantastic and they are very approachable” (AB Senior Practitioner)

See further testimonies via:

https://www.londonsocialworkforchildren.com/our-stories/27d88525-b368-4f45-a382-8ca6c772a895

https://www.liia.london/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/August-Issue-2024-London-Workforce-Newsletter-FINAL-3.pdf

Bexley Offer:

To support development of our workforce and to engender retention we have our extensive Bexley offer via our ‘Workforce Strategy’. This incorporates both well-being and professional development. This has included well-being sessions via art therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EDMR).

Our training offer is acknowledged via our annual staff health check to be one of the identified reasons why practitioners stay in Bexley. Our Professional Standards and Quality Assurance team support a range of ways in which learning is delivered and embedded via classroom training, exciting staff conferences and bite sized sessions that mirror current themes and trends. To develop our current and future leaders, we offer support via our Career Pathway drop in sessions and our Leadership Academy training opportunities that are rolled out from Senior Practitioner level.

Individual practitioners are offered a bespoke service to progress their journey (see interview with Davina Holder via supporting materials). Our practitioners are given shadowing opportunities with services outside of their own role to promote curiosity and career development in creative ways that they may not have thought of.

Practitioners have the opportunity to develop as coaches and receive coaching sessions via our exciting new Coaching Academy.

Team: Brent Children and Young People Service

Partners: Nigel Chapman, Corporate Director. Palvinder Kudhail, Director for Early Help and Social Care. Shirley Parks, Director Education, Partnerships and Strategy, Sonya Kalyniak, HOS Safeguarding and Quality Assurance.

Main Submission

1. Introduction to the initiative and motivations for action

The overall ambition of this project was to have a ways of working document that stretched across all of the directorate. This included agreed values and behaviours that set clear expectations in interactions with each other, our partner agencies and with children and young people. As background, Brent first introduced a Practice Framework in 2017 that was represented by an apple tree. We were motivated to redevelop the Practice Framework with staff to align with our evolving practice and to make it a living document that stretched across the whole directorate, including staff with an education focus to their work. In order to do so, we embarked on a journey of defining our CYP values and behaviours that we expect every member of staff to embody and demonstrate. Critical to this was incorporating anti-racist practice into our ways of working document – and aligning with the nationally defined purpose of Children’s Social Care.

It was essential that the Brent CYP Ways of Working were ‘rooted’ in our history and demonstrate that all of us – individually and as an organisation – are on journey of continuous growth. We wanted to keep our tree but better represent diversity. We wanted to articulate anti-racist practice within the behaviours that we expected staff to demonstration.

This led to some exceptional challenges including incorporating staff from different professional backgrounds, differing use of language across different parts of the directorate, having to have a framework that resonated for all CYP including practitioners, those working in education, administrators and all staff that are essential in our work. There needed to be creative space to re-imagine our tree and consider how each element of our ways of working would be pictured. We had considerable amounts of conversation about how to incorporate anti-racist practice into our growing tree. We also needed to consider how to make our tree represent the diversity of Brent and our workforce

2. Details of actions, activities and initiatives designed to deliver on this commitment

Over a six month period, a cross CYP working group led a series workshops and conversations trialling ideas and gathering feedback. This led to a directorate wide consultation about our vision at the Brent Staff Conference in December 2023. At the conference, it was clear we had more work to do – especially to make sure people had time to consider anti-racist practice within our ways of working. This meant a further consultation period. Following these conversations, we agreed a way forward with anti-racist practice being integrated into our ways of working as our “earth”.

The artwork was developed through consultations with staff, leading to the concept of a multi-fruit tree. The different fruits represent both the diversity of the children and families we serve, our workforce and that outcomes are different for each individual. These outcomes are to be celebrated based on their individual merits. Our ways of working is represented by:

The trunk represents our values of (1) contribution to society; (2) integrity; (3) creativity and (4) achievement.

Our branches are how we work with the people we serve (our behaviours) – with curiosity, creativity and kindness.

The earth symbolises that we are an anti-racist organisation. Being anti-racist grounds our actions in an inclusive and intersectional setting.

Practitioners working directly with children and families are rooted in purpose, principles and approaches that help practice thrive.

The fruits are the outcomes achieved by the people we serve and ourselves. They are represented by different fruits, demonstrating the diversity of Brent and that outcomes are different for everyone.

In April 2024 “This is Brent CYP. This is how we grow.” was launched. To mark the occasion, staff received copies of the document with fruit boxes delivered to all teams across CYP. There have been a series of activities for staff to share on our internal social media platform how they are demonstration curious, creative and kind behaviour and the impact this is having on children’s outcomes.

Our ways of working document has been consistently reinforced by senior leadership. At an away day, the Children’s Services Leadership Team (CSLT) shared their personal connection to the CYP values and a video of this was shared with staff and is included in induction. CSLT lead workshops and share examples of curiosity, creativity and kindness in action. Our ways of working has been embedded into induction and staff training to keep consideration about the document moving forward. Overall, the feedback from staff is that the values and behaviours resonate across our workforce and unite us as one directorate.

3. Evidence that the best practice is having an impact

The tagline “This is Brent CYP. This is how we grow” has now become integral to our recruitment and retention offer. It gives permission to each person in CYP to acknowledge that we are growing and developing and to celebration progress, knowing that our work is never done but, by nurturing each other, we’re always striving for the best possible outcomes. Part of this work has been to create a “brand” for Brent CYP that supports with recruitment of staff. There has been content post on LinkedIn that celebrate Brent as a learning, growing and anti-racist organisation. More and more, we are seeing applicants reference that they are attracted to working in Brent based on being attracted to our ways of working.

In the December 2024 staff conference, an activity was conducted with all CYP staff, asking them to write down the impact of our Ways of Working on cutouts of pieces of fruit. Nigel Chapman, DCS, then asked members of staff to hang their “fruits” or outcomes on a life-size papier mâché replica of our tree. There staff lined up to share the outcomes of our work and how being curious, courageous and kind supported these outcomes. There were members of staff from all areas of the service – school admissions, social workers, early years workers and youth mentors sharing and receiving applause for the outcomes they are seeing in children’s lives. Some outcomes written on our “fruits” include:

“A boy in year 10 was permanently excluded. I had been working with him for 6 months and knew he could do well, he had it in him. I spoke to another school and got him a managed moved. I worked with him and his family. He passed his managed move after lots of hard work. I was super proud of him. At the end of year, he stent me an email saying ‘thank you for all your support’. He was in line for a 3 or 4 in exams but got a 5, 6 and 7. He sent me a picture of him holding his exams.”

“I challenged [another local authority’s] admission and they agreed to accept the child into their school. The parent is delighted with this outcome”.

“Worked with a young person who tried to end her life three times and ended up in A&E. I’m very pleased that the young person maintained education including completing her GCSEs and Level 2 and 3 hairdressing and her mental health is stable.”

“Analysing CYP data to provide insights into areas faced with inequalities.”

“4 teaching assistants trained in Braille and passed their RNIB exam.”

“Children thriving and reaching their milestones through encouragement and being curious and kind.”

“Funded British Sign Language Level 1 course for hearing parents of deaf children, creating rich language environments that are key for child development.”

“I have helped a one year old child who has come into care ‘SMILE’”.

“Working with a school and family to find the right placement for their child. He is now thriving ☺”

At this conference, we also went more deeply into what anti-racist practice means for us in CYP. We knew we needed to help people move from the theoretical to the practical implementation of anti-racism. Members of staff courageously shared steps they have taken in a CYP staff video. We then had a session of creative conversations about actively understanding and addressing racism. This featured two examples how anti-racism looks in practice in Brent CYP:

Sharing a review conducted by the Inclusion service on language used in referrals for support and the difference between how black and white children are described. This service is actively supporting referrers to think about their language and describe children in the same way – based on their needs. The Setting and School Effectiveness Service has launched an anti-racist practice award for all Brent schools that seeks to address systemic racism and develop inclusive curriculum.

All of these activities demonstrate that we are achieving our ambition to bring Brent CYP together as one directorate with common values and behaviours. Our ways of working are supporting recruitment, retention and working together to support our children and families achieve their diverse outcomes.

4. Voice of the child

Quotes from below have been taken from feedback across a range of CYP services over the last few months, demonstrating impact of the ways of working both for children and families and the wider workforce.

“I’m very happy that he helped me… He made me smile” (Parent feedback on contacting the Brent Family Front Door)

“I just wanted to thank you for your dedication to helping my dad and [sibling]. We can’t thank you enough.” (Child subject to a child protection plan about a short term team social worker)

“[Social worker] does a great job in keeping in contact with me. I know I can reach her anytime needed and she also checks in by phone often. She has been an amazing worker and you should keep her”. (Young person about her social worker in CWD)

Feedback from the December 2024 staff conference where we looking in depth at impact of This is Brent CYP. This is how we grow., particularly anti-racist practice includes:

“Reflecting on language and unconscious/conscious bias within my work and settings. By challenging this mindset now, will eventually embed a new way of thinking in the future to make Brent more inclusive.” (CYP Conference participant)

I work in an institution and think that it is easy to fall into a pattern of speaking and thinking. I plan to stand back more and think about my processing and words and the impact and outcome I want to have.” (CYP Conference participant)

“I will be braver! I think it will be good to speak about this in a team meeting. I also think it needs to be shared with other eg: Parent Champions to have an understanding as they also support families within the community.” (CYP conference participant)

“I found interesting the short presentation where we were shown two case notes and asked to guess which one was about a black child and which one about a white child. It is good to have an awareness about the racial bias and stereotypes in use of language in professional case recording.” (CYP conference participant)

Supporting Information:

Team: SEND and Curriculum Inclusion, The ECASS Team- (Enfield Communication Advisory Support Service)

Partners: Caroline McCallum, Speech and Language Therapist – Founder of NHSVerbo, Henrietta McLachlan, Speech and Language Therapist – Founder of ELKLAN

Main Submission:

The Enfield Communication Advisory Support Service (ECASS) is a Local Authority (LA) speech and language initiative that has successfully addressed the provision gap for Children and Young People (CYP) with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCN) who were unable to have their needs met by the existing Health offer which only provided speech and language provision for those with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This gap in the local offer has led to the high number of Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) requests for CYP with SLCN which makes up approximately 37% of all Enfield EHCPs. The ECASS initiative is effectively narrowing this gap, providing much-needed support to these CYP at SEN support.

The ECASS initiative has fostered a spirit of collaboration within the LA, enabling flexibility in commissioning health and in-house multi-agency colleagues. The service includes Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Educational Psychologists, and Specialist Advisory Teachers. Together, this multidisciplinary team delivers a flexible service to meet the community’s needs while utilising assistive technology to enhance their capacity, making ECASS a cost-efficient SEN Support model. This collaborative approach is key to the success of the initiative.

Fundamental to Enfield’s Local Area key improvement priority, the ECASS approach aims to provide an equitable universal, targeted, and specialist offer which empowers the education workforce with the confidence, knowledge, and self-sufficiency to deliver high-quality teaching to all children and young people. The positive impact of the ECASS initiative on the education workforce is inspiring and has motivated local area partnerships to further collaborate their efforts in this direction.

Enfield’s SEND Partnership are striving to overcome the following exceptional challenges:

• A significant increase in demand for EHCNA, compared to statistical neighbouring boroughs

• A national shortage of speech and language therapists

• A gap in the universal and statutory offer

• An increase in the high-needs financial deficit

• Over-commissioning outside the health contract to meet needs with private therapists

• A lack of both rigor and a coordinated approach in the range of private therapists attempting to meet the needs of Enfield’s children.

A record-high number of CYP (1.9 million) are recorded to have speech and language challenges nationally. If left unsupported, they may face a lifetime of struggle and exclusion. Research led by Speech and Language UK indicates that, without the proper support, these children with SLCN are up to 11 times more likely to be behind in key subjects at school and twice as likely to be unemployed as young adults. This community of CYP in Enfield makes up more than half of mental health service referrals and two-thirds of the young offender population.

Enfield’s ambition is to make every school a communication-friendly school with the skills and resources available to meet the needs of CYP with various speech, language, and communication differences. This includes utilising technological initiatives such as NHSVerbo, a virtual speech and language toolkit which has added capacity to the ECASS team. This has enabled school staff who are already well-placed in settings to continue accessing speech and language strategies through a virtual toolkit, freeing up therapists to focus on providing specialist support which only a therapist can provide; thereby extending the range of specialist resources and provision available. This has enabled the ECASS team to hold a higher caseload and target more direct therapy support to more specialist cases.

To achieve the Enfield ambition, the ECASS team has worked in close partnership with Elklan and NHSVerbo. This collaboration has brought schools an offer that focuses on education workforce development and offers parent/carer-focused training and support to build on strategies taught in school with confidence. Elklan, is a nationally recognised training programme designed to support children’s communication, language, and speech in the classroom which is being delivered as a programme of study to every Enfield school. This partnership ensures that all CYP with SLCN receive the high-quality education they deserve. Members of the ECASS team have also been involved in the national review and coproduction of Elklan training materials for the courses they hold licenses to deliver.

Before investing in Verbo, the Enfield offer did not include speech and language screening or assessment for CYP without an EHCP. Verbo, on average, reaches 48 SEN Support children in each target school, now totalling 580 CYP across 12 Enfield pilot schools. As a result, this has enabled therapists to offer statutory provision to 388 additional pupils across these schools, narrowing the growing statutory provision gap and further reducing the need for commissioning private therapists to meet the needs of these children and young people. This has resulted in a significant cost saving of £556,743 this year. Schools supported by the ECASS team have also seen a 60% decrease in EHCNA requests, as children’s needs are being better met through high quality teaching strategies. This has avoided premature escalation to more specialist pathways, resulting in a further cost savings of £487,500 per academic year. This makes ECASS’ cost saving to Enfield’s high need’s deficit a total of £1,044,243.21 for the academic year 2023-2024.

In addition to the positive impact the service has made on Enfield’s high needs deficit, the service has also had an impact on Enfield’s educational outcomes. 95% of schools supported by ECASS achieved the national average score in the KS1 phonics screening, compared to 66% of non-ECASS-supported schools, and 74% of ECASS-supported schools achieved the London average score, compared to 53% of non-ECASS-supported schools. Further to this, the impact ECASS in Enfield has summoned interest both nationally and internationally. Three neighbouring London boroughs have expressed an interest in learning more about the ECASS offer and how this can be modelled within their respective communities. Nationally, ECASS have extended their reach in sharing their practice with the University of Ghana, as part of the university’s speech and language therapy training programme for therapy students.

ECASS is utilising current resources through innovative delivery to meet demand now and in the future. Every Enfield school will have access to a speech and language therapist to support them in delivering targeted provision to those with the greatest need. In contrast, using VERBO and a multidisciplinary SEN support team such as ECASS, can help schools implement universal support effectively, appropriately streamlining the Assess Plan Do Review (APDR) process. In this way, children who experience speech and language challenges will have the best opportunity to overcome learning barriers, progress towards their educational outcomes and achieve their aspirations and goals.

The service has developed a whole-school communication approach, which is enabling schools and settings to identify speech, language, and communication differences early to provide the proper support in the right place at the right time. The 2023 Local Area SEND inspection recognised the service for maximising the communication and education outcomes for CYP with SLCN. As quoted by Ofsted:

“The needs of CYP with SEND are typically identified promptly. For example, the Enfield Communication Advisory Support Service (ECASS) provides school settings with a whole-school communication approach to aid early intervention and train education staff. This ensures that children’s speech, language, and communication needs are identified and met promptly.”

CYP are at the heart of the speech and language offered in school and at home. CYP have made significant progress in their targets, and families have informed us that they feel more confident meeting their children’s and young people’s needs. Our schools are highly supportive of the offer. They have found that their staff are more skilled in identifying needs and feel confident supporting children without escalating to statutory support.

Feedback from an ECASS setting:

“The input we have had from ECASS has been relevant and personalised to our setting. Staff have received training on areas of SEN that are often forgotten, and this has allowed the school to upskill staff whilst gaining a broad understanding of the varied presentations of speech, language and communication difficulties. Erin has been a great sounding board and has provided excellent advice. She has taken the time to get to know our school and understand the needs of our students. The Latymer has hugely benefited from being an ECASS target school and the input we have received has been far-reaching, impacting students, curriculum, and environment.”

Supporting Information:

For direct quotes from schools, children, young people and families we have worked with, please see our ECASS Annual Report link

Page 17-22- Feedback from Education Workforce
Page 26 – Parent feedback
Page 28- Child/Young Person feedback

Team: Targeted Early Help Service

Partners: Kingston University, UK Welcomes Hong Kongers/UK Welcomes Refugees, community liaison

Main Submission:

In Sutton, we have an increasingly diversified community as many Hong Kongers coming to the UK under the BNO scheme are choosing to settle here. We have learned that amongst the community there are a great many Social Workers who have a great deal of experience from their time in Hong Kong, but who are struggling to register with SW England. This is preventing them from continuing their career and bringing their valuable skills to the sector in this country. In order to register with SW England, a period of supervised practice hours and/or formal study is required.

Sutton was approached by the community, via one of our MPs and a charity, to see if there was anything we could do to support. Thereafter, many months of research and discussion took place, including community engagement events; we have established our internship programme.

What is the programme?

• A bespoke ‘Restoring Social Work’ module has been co-created with Kingston University. This 15 credit module, taught over 10 days of teaching, is deliberately designed in such a way that participants can explore social work in the UK context and to reflect on how past experience can be drawn upon here. This module and the associated reading fulfils the ‘formal study’ aspect of the ‘updating skills and knowledge’ requirement of SW England.

• An unpaid placement within the Targeted Early Help Service for a 3-month period. Participants have to work a minimum of 3-4 days per week (7 hour days), in order to achieve approximately 400 hours of supervised practice. This allows the interns to build their confidence with UK systems and working with children and families here, as well as to improve their language skills in a UK professional context. Though the internship is unpaid, Sutton is paying the costs of the University module as well as reasonable expenses for workplace activities.

• As per SW England requirements that those in a period of updating skills and knowledge need to get their practice hours by shadowing/being supervised by a Senior social worker, Sutton invested in a short-term secondment post. This 5-6 month secondment was for a Team Manager position, for an experienced SW in the service to act up and to oversee all of the interns, meaning that the resources of the wider service were not further stretched. This position is in addition to the existing establishment.

• At the end of the internship, all will be offered an opportunity to apply for a paid position here. All have expressed a desire to do so.

We presently have 6 interns with us and they have post-qualifying experience with children and families ranging from 5-25 years. They are progressing as expected of someone working in a new country and context but are learning quickly, and are bringing a lot of enthusiasm and energy to the service.

Sutton is presently working with UK Welcomes Refugees and Durham University to produce a research paper on ‘The Sutton Model’, which will detail the step-by-step process of this Internship so that other Authorities are able to replicate it should they wish to.

Observations/things to note

• There has been a great deal of media interest in this initiative, and it has been discussed in Parliamentary groups. Such attention has meant that many overseas Social Workers from other countries who are living in the UK have been in contact to ask if opportunities are also available to them (thus far: Brazil, Poland, USA, Spain). We have not been in a position to progress an internship for any other persons at this stage but it does highlight that there is potentially an untapped recruitment resource available to all Local Authorities, if they reach out to various communities and provide something like this internship opportunity.
  
• As these interns are not employees, there was not a great deal of onboarding support from HR or recruitment services within the Council. As such, there needs to be some management capacity set aside for any council looking to pursue this opportunity further – i.e. processing and completing Right to Work checks, DBS checks, obtaining references, asking for overseas Police checks, and so on.

Supporting Information:

Council sets up internship to help Hong Kong social workers register to practise – Community Care

UK Welcomes Hong Kongers – UK Welcomes Refugees

Inside Little Hong Kong: How a single London borough is attracting thousands of families and students fleeing China as influencers use photos of Poundland, Starbucks and Lidl to entice others to the area | Daily Mail Online

Main Submission: The programme of activity to improve staff wellbeing, recruitment and retention has included:  

• The introduction of our Practice Academy 

Since its launch in autumn 2022, our Practice Academy has acted as a focal point delivering workforce development and training opportunities. bringing together.  The academy offers continuing professional development opportunities and structured learning and support across Children’s Services including Children’s Social care, the Youth Justice Service, the Family and Adolescent Support Service (FaASS) and the Disabled Children and Young People’s Service.  

We have invested heavily in our workforce development to support the introduction of systemic and compassionate practice. Since 2023, we have been working with the Institute of Family Therapy to run a rolling 5-day introduction to systemic practice – mandatory for all social workers. We provide a number of foundation year and masters-level qualifications in Systemic Practice.  

In keeping with RBG’S ‘Grow Your Own’ ethos, the Practice Academy introduced a Social Work Apprenticeship Programme. We partnered with Middlesex University and have a cohort of 8 Apprentices who started their Social Work Apprenticeship in Sep 2023.  

We have a well-established in-house ASYE programme offering 22 places a year (across 2 cohorts). It has evolved over this period to offer more tailored support for newly qualified social workers thereby strengthening our pipeline. Content is mapped to Skills for Care guidance, the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF), Post Qualifying Standards (PQS), and the Compassionate and Systemic practice framework unique to Greenwich. 

We also run a ‘step-up to Social work programme – delivered in-house.  

• Introduction of a unifying Practice framework  

Coinciding with the launch of our Practice Academy, we introduced a unifying practice framework, which is rooted in systemic and compassionate practice. Our Practice Framework has not only unified our methods across the directorate but has fostered a supportive and compassionate environment and enhanced our workforce development and wellbeing to ensure the long-term success of our services.  
The introduction of systemic approaches – such as regular Practice Meetings or the use of systemic genograms – has created additional spaces for staff to reflect on their practice in supportive and strength-based environments.  

• Strengthening Practice – introducing Practice Educators and Clinical support  

We have introduced a small team of ‘Practice Educators’. Each Practice Educator is linked to a social care team with the aim of embedding the practice framework and providing input and advice on practice matters. These staff are managed by our Principle Social Worker and supporting the delivery of her responsibilities in relation to practice development.  

Working alongside the Practice Educators, we furthermore introduced a Clinical Team with the specific responsibility to embed systemic and compassionate practice. The main focus has been on delivering compassion minded training to all staff across the directorate – including staff in education, commissioning and -support roles. Alongside this, the clinical team has been instrumental in introducing regular practice meetings based on systemic principles and embedding the use of systemic genograms across all social work teams.  

• A focus on staff wellbeing  

We provided compassion-minded training to all children’s services staff (including staff working in education, commissioning and other professionals. Importantly, we saw this as an approach suitable for all staff working in Children’s Services – including staff in education roles and supporting professions. We also delivered a bespoke training to senior leaders.  

• Creating psychological safety – a focus on inclusion and tackling structural racism  

The Royal Borough of Greenwich has taken steps towards understanding and tackling race inequality.  In November 2020, in response to feedback from discussions with staff and initiated by the Director, we set up a tackling structural racism group, providing staff with a forum to share experiences, learn and lead on actions for race equality and equity. Complimenting the work of the group is a programme of activities which contributes to the directorate’s focus on understanding and tackling race equality and ensures this important topic influences our practice.  

Taken together the above actions have created conditions for social work to thrive in Greenwich. This, in turn, has resulted in high staff retention and satisfaction rates.  

The impact on our staff has been tangible. Several colleagues who have left our organisation and returned have noted the impact of this work including the change of culture and the vast array of opportunities for professional development provided by our Practice Academy and supportive leadership.  

Our use of agency staff has reduced over time. Currently, around 80% of our social care practitioners are in permanent positions and nearly all of our management roles are permanent. Our annual social work staff return suggests we have a high number of staff who have been here longer than 5 years pointing to staff stability.  

We believe the introduction of systemic and compassionate approaches also has had a positive impact on sickness rates. Stress-related sickness absences in Children’s Services have reduced significantly. Rates of stress-related absence in Children’s Services is the lowest in the council.  The evaluation report on Compassion Mind Training furthermore showed that our approach to practice has positively impacted on staff wellbeing.   

In our recent inspection, Ofsted noted that: ‘Leaders take their responsibility to promote the well-being of staff seriously. Practice meetings, easily accessible clinical support and flexible support to workers who are parents all contribute to workforce stability in the borough’. 

Team: Workforce Development Project Team

Main Submission:

Research highlights the critical importance of continuity for children, young people, and their families. Having one consistent social worker reduces the need for families to repeat their stories, builds trust, and fosters better outcomes. Retaining experienced social workers has been a persistent challenge for London local authorities. Hounslow was no exception. Using the Frontline, Step-up initiatives and developing our own apprenticeship scheme we were able to create a steady supply of newly qualified Social Workers. And a strong ASYE programme supported their development during their first post qualifying year. However, the highest attrition rates observed among social workers in their second year of practice.

Notably, many social workers reported leaving for neighbouring boroughs to seek career progression, rather than remaining within Hounslow to deepen their frontline practice wisdom and expertise. Feedback emphasised the need for a more refined and transparent career progression framework, with clearer expectations, structured support, and accessible career pathway. In addition, the findings from the 2024 Independent Review of Social Care indicated 5-year pathway to social work expertise, when the Hounslow social work pay scale was still based upon a 10-year journey to the top of the scale. These insights revealed a pressing need to provide extended support beyond the Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) programme.

While Hounslow was not selected as a Pathfinder initiative, we proactively established a working group to drive workforce development and retention. A key outcome of this group was the introduction of the Enhanced Year in Practice (EYIP), an extension of the ASYE programme designed to offer meaningful support during a social worker’s second year of practice. Followed by a year 3-5 programme to take social workers up to decisions about progressing to Advanced Social Worker, Consultant Social Worker or Assistant Team Manager.

The Enhanced Year in Practice

The EYIP aims to move beyond a “tick-box” approach by fostering reflective, developmental conversations between line managers and social workers. Key components of the programme include:

• Annual Career Development Reviews – At the start and end of their second-year building upon the sign off of their ASYE portfolio and year 2 programme.
• Supervision Templates: Focused on the social GGRRAAACCEEESSS framework (e.g., identity, diversity, and systemic influences), learning styles, effective feedback, and addressing barriers to practice development.
• Dedicated Time for Reflection: Four hours per month allocated to independent study, reading, or reflective practice.
• Training Learning Templates: Designed to embed learning and support social workers in documenting their development to transfer directly to their application for annual Social Work professional registration renewal.
• Tailored Training: A targeted training programme to enhance key practice skills. Central to this was the ‘Why Language Matters’ training that was well received at the Compass Jobs Fair and shared with other Local Authority Training Leads. Additional training that is inclusive of Anti-discriminatory practice and co-writing/delivering training with partners such as SEND, substance misuse and familial sexual abuse.
• Training Learning Templates: Designed to embed learning and support social workers in documenting their development to transfer directly to their application for annual Social Work professional registration renewal

The programme includes an annual progress review with the team manager, focusing on professional development and short-, medium-, and long-term career aspirations. A clear and collaborative professional development plan ensures shared accountability between the social worker and their line manager. The development of the EYIP was informed by consultations with 20 stakeholders, including ASYE practitioners, NQSWs, line managers, and team managers. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with participants valuing the dual-purpose structure of the programme. The ability to use reflective templates for both professional development and then use the workbook for senior social worker applications was particularly well-received.

Encouraged by the success of the EYIP, we are now developing a 3–5-year career progression scheme to support social workers in advancing to management roles. This initiative is designed to address feedback that clearer career pathways within Hounslow will reduce the incentive to leave for progression opportunities elsewhere. This will include a clear management training programme, carer development discussions that consider EDI and annual meetings with Team Manager that focus on development in practice and career progression.

Impact on Retention
The consultative and developmental process alone had a measurable impact, and early indicators show a reduction in resignations following their ASYE and greater retention in year 2. Staff have expressed confidence in the programme and its alignment with their professional needs.

Conclusion
Hounslow’s proactive and research-informed approach demonstrates a commitment to embedding best practices in social work. By addressing workforce challenges holistically through extended support, career clarity, and reflective practice, we are building a more resilient and committed team of practitioners. The focus on developing social workers’ confidence, skills, and career pathways is not only enhancing retention but also strengthening outcomes for the children and families we serve.

Main Submission:

In Sutton, the delivery of parenting programmes across the borough has historically sat within children’s social care. In 2020, Extensive engagement with staff and local parents undertaken for the local Children’s Review highlighted three key themes: the need for more bespoke support around parenting, better access to universal services through children’s centres and earlier support and intervention for families with emerging complex needs. The development of a Helping Early Strategy that encouraged a more active and broader partnership for early intervention, there was a joint commitment to invest together in parenting programmes and to enhance the existing offer in Sutton. A new parenting model was jointly invested in by Public Health, South West London ICP and Children’s Social Care, which started in December 2021, when roles were fully established.

The primary evidence-based parenting programmes chosen to deliver in Sutton were; Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities (EPEC), and Circle of Security Parenting (COSP). Both programmes have an evidence base that has been independently verified by the Early Intervention Foundation.

In 2022 Training of Parent Group Leaders (PGL’s) took place, under supervision they delivered the programmes across the borough as well as supporting regular drop-ins for parents to grow peer support networks. The service offers a range of programmes from universal programmes to more specialist services around managing anger in the home and reducing parental conflict. In the second year additional funding was sought to expand the service so that additional support could be offered for families with children with Autism. This has resulted in 149 Parents completing an Autism Parenting programme to date with a further 57 on the waiting list.

The stigma of asking for support has been reduced, as parents can now access the course through self-referral rather than having to ask a professional, as was the case previously. The service has now become an integral part of the wider Family Hub and Children’s Centre offer. The service has received excellent feedback and is co-delivered with local parents which significantly builds community resilience. The success of the service means that the Council now intends to secure funding and mainstream the service going forward.

The parenting service has been in operation for over 2 years in Sutton and is on track in 2024/25 to support 400 parents with an in-person parenting course, with another 500 parents accessing an online offer. The core team currently comprises a parenting Coordinator, a parenting worker and a part-time administrator who are supported by volunteer Parent Group Leaders who are trained and supervised by the Coordinator. Further Volunteers have been recruited and will start training in September 2024.

The service is flexible and responds to the needs of families and chooses the location of where the courses are offered, based upon the demand of residents. This has seen higher engagement for families living in lower socio economic groups. The majority of trained Parent Group Leaders also come from those same areas. The courses are offered at different times, including in the evening, which has led to a 21% increase in the number of fathers and male carers attending. In 2023/24, 46% of attendees came from a non-white British background.

This has also led to the service running a Dad’s Parenting Programme in HMP Highdown. Three Programmes have been facilitated in the prison with positive outcomes reported by the prisoners and their families. Fathers have reported being able to better maintain their relationships with their children and understand the impact of them being a positive role model in their children’s lives.

A critical part of the parenting programme model in Sutton is the additional support that parents can access through the support of the parenting team and Family Hub Connectors at the Coffee Advice and Information Sessions. These run regularly alongside parenting programmes, running once a fortnight in Carshalton, Central Sutton and Wallington, plus additional groups and a specific Male Carers evening group. Guest speakers are regularly invited to attend and speak to parents and carers from a range of public and voluntary sector agencies. These Advice and information sessions have seen over 470 referrals to other agencies, prior to statutory support being required. Referrals have been made to welfare reform teams, Foodbanks, Sutton Information, Advice and Support Service (SIASS), Cognus, Baby Banks, and others.

The strength of the Programmes is that most are facilitated by parent group leaders who have been trained to facilitate the programme. Parents report they like the peer-to-peer support and the value of lived experience being shared as part of the programmes. This has also created a pathway to employment for parents. One volunteer has already been employed as a Parent support worker and continued training and support is developing the skills of other parent volunteers. We have recently secured further funding with a view to employing more of the volunteers to help continue to grow the capacity of the programmes and demand increases. This approach has also helped build community resilience, with parent volunteers leading on organising community events and fun days to help raise the profile of services and improve community engagement.

Supporting Materials:

Team: Sport & Leisure and Education Teams

Partners: Merton School Sport Partnership

Main Submission: Introduction

The London Borough of Merton has an ambition to become a Borough of Sport, where residents can benefit from being physically active and leading a healthy lifestyle.

This ambition prioritises children and young people, and ensures the Council works closely with the Merton School Sport Partnership (MSSP).

MSSP believe high-quality PE has a crucial role in young people’s lives. They inspire activity, by ensuring the workforce is skilled, motivated, inclusive and representative. Equipping school staff allows children to have a positive experience fostering a lifelong love of physical activity.

Quality

2024 Leadership Skills Foundation: Training Centre of Excellence

100% Good – Excellent feedback rating

Responding to Feedback

MSSP delivers 2 conferences a year to 50 teaching staff, every primary and SEN school attends. Conferences upskill by sharing good practice, highlighting ways to introduce new activities, delivering inclusion workshops, celebrating success and participating in physical activity led by MSSP to understand how good delivery feels. An opportunity for the workforce to feedback is provided and guides the MSSP offer.

Feedback identified the workforce was struggling to meet the needs of SEN students in mainstream settings. MSSP introduced the termly SEND PE Teacher Support Network & Forum. It delivers specialised training for inclusive and adapted sport in collaboration with Youth Sport Trust and Panathlon Challenge.

Upskilling

In 2024 the MSSP delivered 9 PE Development Workshops and 5 Whole School PE Inset Days. Inset Day Training increases the confidence of the entire school’s workforce, is tailored to the needs and equipment/facilities the school has.

“I am now far more confident and knowledgeable in the ways that I can quickly adapt my PE lesson to meet the specific needs of my students. Thank you. Fab delivery and session vert well-paced!”

Gail Smith, Morden Primary

MSSP provides a variety of training to aid the workforce deliver diverse activities. This increases the opportunity for children to find a physical activity they enjoy (flag football, gymnastics, planning etc).

“Brilliant Course. Lots of ideas in how to teach different aspects of dance in a user-friendly way. Can’t wait to get started back in my school!”

KS1 Teacher, Hollymount Primary School

“The trainers were fantastic and well prepared. I am now more confident to take PE to a higher level”

E Uwiragiye

Enhanced Training

MSSP has created the Merton PE Coach Academy, delivering a variety of LSF qualifications, specialist training and employment opportunities for young people from diverse communities. Students embed learning through supported teaching and shadowing opportunities. MSSP has reached out to potential female candidates.

The Merton Inspire & Educate service empowers staff with innovative professional development and specialised sports provision. A team-teaching approach improves confidence, creativity and knowledge of teachers to deliver PE. Mentoring sessions with constructive feedback are provided, supporting less confident staff.

“I feel a lot more confident teaching PE now, especially Invasion Games. Particularly when it comes to structuring a PE lesson and implementing methods of assessment”

Mentee KS2 Teacher (Hillcross Primary)

Future Workforce: Leadership Inspiration Days created 1672 Sports Leaders (primary aged).

Impact

Workforce supported across:

• 43 Primary, 11 Secondary, 3 SEN Schools and 1 PRU
• 396 people trained (252 female)
• 378 hours of CPD delivered
• 32 Early Career Teachers trained

Supporting Information:

Team: Multiple Project Streams

Partners: LSWC, Community Care

Main Submission:

Leading into and throughout 2020, Newham children’s social care faced exceptional challenges in terms of workforce stability/staff turnover, with less than 44% of the Children’s Social Care Workforce employed on permanent contracts. This figure dropped to 38% permanency across senior management posts. Newham hired only 15 qualified practitioners in 2019/20, and had a turnover rate of around 29% due to the number of leavers and use of agency staff.
Since then a significantly more focused strategy in terms of recruitment and retention has been in place – with particular successes seen in the long term, highlighted by the level of progress made throughout 2023 and 2024. It should be noted the foundations of this later success were made earlier on, with a “top down” approach to recruitment resulting in 100% permanency across senior management posts before the end of 2022..

Our efforts have been a collective and positive focus on recruitment, led by the Social Care Academy and Recruitment Operations; with three key areas of focus in our strategy:

• Focus on retaining internal talent through training and progression

• Ensuring we have a suitable permanent talent pipeline for the future.

• Being active and visible with external recruitment efforts.

Social Care Academy

Newham’s Social Care Academy was launched in its current form in 2020 and has gone from strength to strength. Newham has offered systemic higher education for a number of years in addition to the Practice Educator qualification, with over 50 practitioners benefitting from accredited training and achieving qualifications since 2020. The Academy also provides relevant non-accredited training on a weekly basis for practitioners to keep up to date with their CPD. This includes an introduction to systemic ideas to embed our Circles of Support practice model, with workshops on topics such as domestic violence, Safe and Together, supervision, and lots more. The comprehensive training offer led by Beverley Halligan, Samantha Jones, and Elena Nicolaou has had a massive impact on retention at Newham, with a retention figure/turnover rate for 2024 of 9%. This is a significant improvement on previous years and head of both the London and National averages. Our Academy upskills practitioners to progress with us and stay with Newham.

Our Academy was responsible for 22 newly qualified social workers entering our workforce in 2023, with a further 10 joining Newham in 2024 – so 32 NQSWs in total across 2 years. The Academy provides close support to both NQSWs and their managers throughout the ASYE year, from leading on training needs to supporting with HR processes. Beverley Halligan in her role as PSW has been a tireless champion of our ASYE Programme, ensuring we were able to manage an ambitious number of newly qualified social workers in 2023, and adjust numbers adequately in 2024 to balance experience and reduce pressure on managers. The Academy also introduced a Social Work Apprenticeship in 2024, a long term vision to supplement our numbers of newly qualified social workers with an initial intake of 4 practitioners – all experienced and alternately qualified practitioners that now will remain with Newham for the long term.

In the past 2 years, we’ve held 3 recruitment events, developed a social work talent pool, and placed between 60-80 adverts per year for qualified staff – activity being key to hires.

Recruitment Operations

Since 2020, Newham Children’s Services has supported social work managers with a complete business partnership service, allowing them to fully focus on work with children and families. This has led to speedy permanent recruitment activity, with interviews happening concurrently with job advertising and offers to candidates often made within days of their application. Managers at Newham have not had to write or place adverts, shortlist, arrange interviews, negotiate offers or on-board candidates – this allows to get on with the important work they do with children and families and we believe this has contributed to the positive environment we’ve created, which is clearly an environment people want to work in (9% turnover rate, 2024 SW census figure). The business partnership also covers locum recruitment – with managers only involved in some shortlisting and interviewing.

We have taken an approach to recruitment which we believe is in line with our practice model, Circles of Support; through communication and action which makes hiring managers and candidates feel at ease. Alongside this, we’ve adopted a strategy of growing our own in all departments – which has increased retention and created a positive environment of invested practitioners.

Our recruitment activity has included external recruitment events, information sessions for agency workers interested about going permanent, 1:1s with DCS about converting from agency to perm, a talent pool so we do not miss out on qualified candidates who want to work here, internal only management recruitment, a recruitment inbox where all queries are responded to.

Newham social work recruitment in numbers:

• 82% staff permanency across our safeguarding workforce entering 2025 (vs. 44% in 2020)

• 120+ external, permanent QSW practitioners entering the workforce in 2 years.

• 81% staff permanency across our safeguarding workforce (44% in 2020).

• 95% of management posts in safeguarding covered by permanent employees (agency only to cover maternity).

• Under 1% vacancy rate achieved, in terms of uncovered posts (as high as 29% in 2019).

• 28 agency/locum QSW colleagues converted to perm in 2024, following 17 conversions in 2023.

How did we get there?

• 80+ QSW job adverts posted

• 98 total attendees to our two most recent recruitment events.

• 130+ interviews with external and internal QSW candidates.

• Over 70 1:1s with agency colleagues about permanent work (10 of these 1:1s were with our DCS!). – 2 “agency to perm” info sessions in the last 18 months.

• 40+ “internal only” opportunities for colleagues to further their careers.

• 13 ASYEs and 4 social work apprentices taken on in 2024.

Team: Redbridge Educational Wellbeing Team and Educational Psychology Service

Partners:

Main Submission: Mental health and well-being have been a priority for Redbridge Educational Wellbeing Team (REWT) for the past six years, since its formation in September 2018. REWT are an ambitious, creative and fast paced team of Specialist Senior Educational Psychologists, Educational

Psychologists (EPs) and Assistant Educational Psychologists (AEPs) with the vision “Nurturing mental health and resilience in Redbridge school communities” We provide safe and nurturing spaces to talk and learn about mental health and psychology. We empower people to live their best life, working in partnership with our school communities. We strive to reduce stigma, raise awareness and enhance emotional wellbeing and resilience for all.

REWT supports schools through evidence-based training packages, through signposting and by delivering targeted interventions. REWT are innovative and unique, and the leadership and drive of the team has led to a highly successful service for the Local Authority (LA). All their work is underpinned by policies and guidance from the Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP), British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Department of Education (DfE).

Management of REWT has been consistent and stable since its creation. Management has been excellent and has led to growth of the team from 3 people to 12 people. Management has also secured funding and grants which has enabled the continued growth and depth of the team’s work.

To support the challenges of empowering schools to support the emotional wellbeing of their pupils, REWT proposed to the LA a borough-wide roll-out of the nationally recognised Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) programme in Redbridge. ELSA was developed by Educational Psychologist, Sheila Burton as a way of raising capacity in schools to support children with emotional and MH needs. It is an evidence-based trademark intervention with a comprehensive 6-day training programme designed to enhance the skills of Teaching Assistants (TAs) and Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) to work effectively to support the emotional development and wellbeing of pupils. In Redbridge, every school was offered two training places. Once trained as an ELSA, to maintain their status, ELSAs attend termly supervisions in cohorts of up to eight, with an educational psychologist and assistant educational psychologist six times a year. This provides the opportunity for ELSAs to discuss their caseloads, reflect on their practice and work collaboratively together to problem solve any concerns they may be experiencing.

REWT had a clear ambition to have trained ELSAs in every Redbridge School and they have almost achieved this ambition. REWT supports approximately 160 ELSAs across the LA with regular supervision, workshops and a yearly ELSA Conference. In 2023, REWT are recognised as an accredited ELSA training provider.

REWT carry out pre and post training confidence measures with four questions, such as confidence in their ability to support the social, emotional wellbeing and mental health needs of children and young people in school. In every cohort, confidence has increased for the trainees. For example, at the beginning of their training, 2 of the 6 trainees in a cohort felt confident in their ability to support the social, emotional wellbeing and mental health needs of children and young people. On completing 6 days training, the number who felt confident had increased to 6.

Seeing the value of ELSA, REWT wanted to find innovative ways to adapt the training so that more professionals working with CYP could learn the strategies to support mental health and wellbeing.

During the Spring term 2023, REWT developed and piloted an Early Years (EY) ELSA programme, which is unique nationally. Using their drive and innovation they researched carefully what was needed and included guidance on using puppets and examining the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs on child development. This programme has been highly successful and has led to training 16 EY ELSAs who practice in Children’s Centres and school early years provisions. In the autumn term of 2024, REWT were approached by the private, voluntary and independent (PVI) early years sector to provide EY training. In the new year of 2025, REWT will begin training 32 new EY ELSAs.

In addition to this REWT have also designed a bespoke ELSA programme for special school staff and have trained two cohorts of ELSAs who use the principles of ELSA and the Emotionally Able Framework.

In the summer of 2024, the director of education and inclusion approached REWT to provide ELSA training to the Virtual School for children looked after (CLA). REWT worked with the head of the virtual school to design a bespoke seven day training programme to enable their six focus workers to support CLA using the ELSA interventions and enhanced knowledge. This training has been so well received by the virtual school focus workers, saying it is the most useful training they have had, that the head of the VS is looking at the possibility of REWT providing ELSA training for LSAs in the schools of all CLA children in Redbridge.

At the end of every ELSA training day, REWT gather feedback, to continually develop and improve our training. Feedback from the ELSA training is very positive. For example, “I loved being a part of this training- detailed and informative, comfortable environment.” “Excellent training providers. Informative and clear.” “Amazing sessions every time!”

Team: Cognus Education Safeguarding Team

Main Submission:

Cognus has developed a strong, collegiate and supportive Designated Safeguarding Lead Network in Sutton – endorsed and recognised last year in the Local Authority Joint Targeted Area Inspection:

“One school DSL reflected the thoughts of many when they said that the education safeguarding services in the borough were ‘the best they have ever been (Lead Inspector, JTAI, July 2023).”

However, the role of the DSL is forever expanding due to guidance updates, highlighted most recently in KCSIE, 2024. Our DSLs are managing high levels of risk and complexity daily and avoiding burnout and supporting wellbeing must be a focus. Our DSLs need a safe, reflective space to talk about what is going well, what is causing frustration, whilst also being able to validate their own feelings. They need to remember that they are ‘human first’. It is important to recognise that to be able to fully ‘show up’ for others, they must ensure their own needs are met.

Our Education Safeguarding Manager introduced Group DSL Supervision in 2021 with all DSLs receiving 1 session per month facilitated with the Education Psychology Service for the last 3 years. Since 2021, 28 local schools have signed up.

‘We have found the group supervision to be highly supportive. The team are always available, non-judgemental and extremely helpful. Supervision has increased our confidence in making the right decisions for our pupils’ (Secondary DSL, February 2024)

In Sutton, we have created a ‘better together’ culture within our DSL Network which was recognised as excellent practice in case study for the DfE (November 2024) and this will be shared nationally. The case study articulated the achievements and impact of Education being the fourth partner in the Local Arrangements for the multi-agency safeguarding partnership in the London Borough of Sutton.

Gathering feedback from our network is key. In our annual survey to schools and partners for 2023-2024, we received 91 responses from schools, with 99% very satisfied or satisfied, and 24 responses from partners, with 100% very satisfied. The feedback is used to inform our delivery of the service and improve practice, liaising with colleagues in Education, Police, Health and Social Care to ensure ongoing support and challenge amongst local area partners.

Our DSLs attend half-termly training updates and online network meetings where they can share their experiences (average attendance is 93%+). The Safeguarding Manager creates a monthly multi-agency safeguarding briefing which is circulated monthly to ensure a continuous drip-feed of information is shared. The team have facilitated peer networking, and the development of a Sutton DSL WhatsApp Group has supported this, with someone always on hand to offer advice.

‘The DSL Whatsapp Group is a game changer. I needed help with a policy and soon after reaching out, I received three examples and a template to use. Another colleague invited me into their school to see what they had in place. This is so different to the previous borough I worked in’ (Secondary DSL, April 2024).

DSLs are supported to develop their own CPD by shadowing the Education Safeguarding Team in training events and safeguarding reviews, some also contribute to these sessions.

‘The culture of vigilance in schools is strong because of the consistent information and training from the Education Safeguarding Team’ (Lead Inspector, JTAI, July 2023).

To meet the needs of our DSLs we wanted to expand our ‘Reflective Safeguarding Supervision’ offer. Over the last 6 months, we have circulated a ‘supervision survey’ to understand the needs in the local area which has led to piloting 1:1 sessions and bespoke group supervision inside and outside of the borough (ie with Sutton, Croydon, Merton and Kingston). We have featured on Safeguarding Podcasts to talk about the importance of supervision and the work we do at Cognus, as well as created a bank of testimonials from DSLs already engaging in our sessions.

Throughout November we developed a comms programme for schools/settings and widened our target audience to Designated Safeguarding Leads and Safeguarding Teams (including pastoral staff, family support workers and senior leadership); we also added to our existing offer of Group DSL Supervision. Going forward our offer will also include 1:1 supervision, ad hoc supervision and bespoke group supervision.

To date (10th December) we have had 18 expression of interest forms completed, requesting the following:
Ad hoc supervision – 5
1:1 supervision – 11
Sutton Group DSL Supervision – 10
Bespoke Group Supervision – 0

Throughout this process, we have also increased sign-up to the Group DSL Sessions that we are currently offering.

Evidence of impact is illustrated through examples of participant feedback:

‘Supervision helps me to see things differently. In this role you never feel that are doing a good enough job. You constantly worry about missing something and we are talking about children’s lives. This session is a safe, reflective space to talk about how I am really feeling’ (Primary DSL, January 2024).

‘These supervision sessions have honestly changed my life – I feel less isolated and alone’ (Secondary DSL, November 2024)

Effective partnership working, building trusting and transparent relationships, has been key to the success of our DSL Network in Sutton. The Education Safeguarding Manager has worked in Sutton for over 20 years and was previously a DSL and Headteacher. Sharing her own experiences, vulnerabilities and learning has helped DSLs feel safe to ‘open up’ and share what is really going on for them.

‘The service we receive in Sutton continues to be excellent – with concerns/calls/queries responded to quickly. You are never made to feel like you are asking a silly question or wasting time, and advice is helpful. You see me!’ (Primary DSL, March 2024)

In Sutton, we are keen to share our journey in terms of strengthening the DSL Networks across boroughs and welcome DSLs to access our reflective supervision offer. Our Education Safeguarding Manager has also been approached to ‘share her story’ at conferences and would be keen to do this across boroughs to highlight the importance of recognising that we are ‘human first’, highlighting the importance of accessing reflective safeguarding supervision.

Safeguarding – Cognus

Reflective Safeguarding Supervision Offer – Cognus

Team: Tower Hamlets The Learning Academy

Main Submission:

The Tower Hamlets Learning Academy was established in December 2018 in in response to challenges in Social Care around recruitment, retention, agency overspend and poor service delivery to residents. The Academy was set up as an engine to drive organisational transformation to foster practice excellence as well as recruit and retain high calibre practitioners.

Tower Hamlets adopted a unique approach to setting up its academy by bringing five key workstreams in the division together into a singular operational unit. The Academy has since had a significant impact in establishing a relational culture (C Change Approach/People First) within the division and securing a stable and skilled workforce who are aspirational for the children and families.

Our workforce is our biggest strength. They collectively transform the lives of vulnerable children, young people and their families. Our communities are fortunate to have a strong and stable workforce. In September 2022 we had the 4th lowest turnover rate of all London boroughs (12.2%) and the highest proportion of staff employed for 10 years or more (25.7% – Childrens services workforce census 2022) in comparison to other boroughs in the region.

The work of the Learning Academy has received national recognition. We are proud to be one of only two London boroughs to have been acknowledged as demonstrating best practice in our workforce in the Stable homes built on love government response to the Care Review. Our efforts to establish a “stable and high-quality workforce” have been commended, with recognition that children in Tower Hamlets can ‘build effective and supportive relationships with committed, skilled and highly motivated social workers.’

We prioritise the well-being and professional development of our staff. We recognise the significance of their role in supporting children and families and provide ongoing support, training, and development opportunities. Our staff have access to training programs that enable them to acquire higher qualifications and enhance their skills delivered through our in-house Learning Academy and underpinned by a refreshed workforce development strategy and action plan to make working in Tower Hamlets even better.

The Academy Model, Scope and Costs

The Tower Hamlets Learning Academy model is unique. Other local authority academies mainly focus their efforts on the support and development of newly qualified social workers. In Tower Hamlets we ensure the continuous learning and development of all of our staff, from Early Help to Children Leaving care as well as partners. By incorporating the quality assurance function into the Learning Academy we ensure that learning centres on key areas of development and best practice can be identified and shared. In total the Academy serves 730 members of staff across Childrens Services and 300 partners across Health, Education and the Police.

The Academy approach brings together five key functions into a singular operational unit which enables practitioners to deliver outstanding services to residents. The five work streams within the Academy approach are as indicated on the left.

The Learning Academy supports key statutory functions such as child protection services, Youth Justice, Ofsted inspections and will include taking a lead role in delivering the recently announced reforms
to introduce a national framework for children’s social care
.
The Academy takes the lead in achieving key objectives, including ensuring preparedness for inspections, maintaining a stable permanent workforce, driving essential innovations, and implementing cost-effective measures, especially in staffing.

The costing model of the Academy sets out the unit cost of a worker in each of the work streams. The number and size of each of these units is determined by the service need and regulatory requirements at the time.

Contribution to Better Practice and Outcomes

The academy’s structured learning approaches contribute to better practice by providing a diverse range of learning opportunities, including formal recognition, collaborative learning, and real-world application of knowledge (Workforce Dev Plan) This holistic approach enhances the skills, knowledge, and practice of practitioners, ultimately improving outcomes for children and families in Tower Hamlets.

In addition to these practice improvement campaigns, the Academy has also been able to support practitioners to promote and develop local innovations that enhance service delivery for residents and generate efficiency savings. Some of the key examples are REPAIR (culturally sensitive domestic abuse practice response), Tower Hamlets Neglect Response (innovative tool to identify and respond to neglect), Diamond (service for parents who have been separated from their children in care proceedings) etc.

Impact on Recruitment and Retention

Tower Hamlets has successfully reversed trends. Many other authorities struggle with recruiting and retaining a permanent stable workforce, with an over reliance on costly agency staff. This also has a negative impact on the sustained support for children and families, changes in practitioners make families less likely to engage and fosters a sense of distrust when they have to tell their stories and build relationships over and over.

This is not the case for Tower Hamlets. Our learning academy has contributed more recruits and fewer resignations, showcasing the academy’s role in creating a positive, stable work environment, a place where practitioners want to come and make their professional home. Social Work vacancies have steadily declined over the last
five years. We have the 4th lowest turnover rate in London and the lowest of the East London region.

Pivotal to our success is a ‘Benefit Tracker approach’ that operationalises a multipronged 3–5-year recruitment strategy and has delivered significant cost reductions on our salary budget. Our goal has been to maximise the number of high calibre permanent staff and to reduce the number of agency staff through our ‘Grow our own’ programs and permanent recruitment drives.

The below table illustrates the approach we have adopted over the last four years. This is part of the current 3-year strategy that seeks to hire 41 permanent workers and 5 apprentices which could achieve a potential cost reduction of up to £768,691 each year.

The importance of recruitment and retention is emphasised through Tower Hamlets’ commitment to the well-being and professional development of its staff. Low caseloads, a focus on high support and high challenge, a culture of continuous improvement contribute to staff feeling valued, supported, and heard. The success in staff retention and recruitment campaigns is crucial for maintaining a skilled and dedicated workforce.

The ‘Steps to Success Program’, a 5 year support program for newly qualified workers (‘Grow our own’ program) is one of our flagship programs what is hailed nationally as a good practice example by the Department for Education.

A workforce that is reflective of the community: championing equality and diversity

The Tower Hamlets Learning Academy plays a crucial role in fostering diversity, quality, and inclusion within the workforce. This commitment is embedded in the Workforce Development Strategy, emphasizing the importance of a team that mirrors the community it serves. The academy strategically provides tailored learning opportunities, including initiatives like BALI Leadership and LeadHERship Coaching, aimed at accelerating the progression of Global Majority staff into leadership roles, ensuring inclusivity at all organizational levels.

The Academy is leading on key initiatives such as;

• Social Worker Apprenticeship Program (5 new apprentice posts launched Jan 24),
• Positive Action Scheme (proposal to fund Youth and Social Work education for up to 20 residents in the community) and
• working with corporate HR to have a systematic approach to support and develop staff from the local community and the Global Majority.
• Video about the Learning Academy history

Main Submission:

Most local authorities are tackling recruitment and retention challenges within their children’s social care workforces and the consequent impact of this on building and developing supportive and meaningful relationships with children and their families which can affect positive changes for children’s lives.

In Wandsworth we have achieved many successes in supporting and strengthening our workforce and would like to shine a practice spotlight on our achievements. Wandsworth is a vibrant, diverse inner-London borough, home to 330,000 people and a wide range of communities, cultures, and heritage. We employ 162 children’s social workers, over 25 multi-disciplinary practitioners (domestic abuse specialists, parental substance misuse and parental mental health practitioners, clinical psychologists and family therapists), as well as family support and early help workers. This enables us to provide help and interventions to families in the most timely way possible.

Our Outstanding Practice Framework holds central that a family is the best place for a child or young person to thrive and meet their potential. Systemic practice is our model of intervention and privileges the belief that families are resourceful, that they are best understood when we consider relationships within families, rather than problems being located in individuals. Patterns of belief and behaviour are strongly influential and expressed in narratives which shape our behaviours and how we understand others. This means our own actions and beliefs play a part in creating or maintaining problems and active commitment and sufficient time and space to think and reflect on how we do our work is vital.

We recognise that our workforce is the most valuable asset for our children and families and we have worked tirelessly to invest in our workforce and stabilise and strengthen our retention and recruitment of staff. We have successfully reduced social worker turnover (16%) and agency (9%) to below London rates. We run regular recruitment events promoting our Outstanding Practice Framework and include our staff and the experience of children and families in every event. We believe this speaks to who we are as an organisation and puts our values and beliefs centre stage.

Our implementation of Family Safeguarding embedded multi-disciplinary staff in social work teams. This gives families quick and immediate access to those professionals that can help them to create change for their children. These include domestic abuse workers, parental mental health and substance misuse practitioners. Our social workers are able to work in and lead multi-disciplinary teams for families, as well as benefit from the expertise and multiple perspectives of working in such a way.

To implement Family Safeguarding we reviewed our workforce establishment to ensure that our social workers had a sufficiently low number of families to work with to be able to lead the practice and interventions for change families need. Each social worker has an average of 10.7 children to support.

We have developed a social work career pathway through to senior, advanced and specialist social worker and have systemic social worker roles where we invest in training these social workers to become qualified family therapists. To achieve this we’ve heavily invested in workforce development and CPD. We train our staff in systemic practice, systemic supervision and motivational interviewing. This includes years 1 & 2 in systemic practice leading to accredited Systemic Practitioner status and years 3 & 4 leading to qualification as a Family Therapist. This has resulted in our social workers feeling well supported and trained.

High quality supervision that provides a helpful and purposeful space to think about families underpins our success in achieving workforce stability. All supervision in our Family Safeguarding teams is group supervision and managers are supported by dedicated business support officers to record supervision. This frees team managers up to lead reflective practice led supervision. Our investment in Family Therapists and systemic training creates additional opportunities and spaces to helpfully think about what families need. These include family therapy consultations, systemically led group supervision and additional capacity to think about our children and young people we are most worried about.

We have a strong focus on anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice. We recognise the disproportionality of Black and Global Majority children at all levels in social care. We have focussed over the last year to reduce disproportionally of Black children on child protection plans, challenging our own held bias and beliefs about change, challenge with partners and the lens through which we view risk. We have successfully reduced disproportionality. We aren’t stopping there and have formed an anti-racist practice group in our safeguarding partnership and held a partnership conference from which we have developed a multi-agency action plan.

Alongside this we have recognised disproportionality exists within our workforce. We have implemented our Upstream Scheme which creates and embeds opportunities for personal and career development and progression for Black and Global Majority staff. This includes mentoring, leadership training and shadowing opportunities. We facilitate ‘safe spaces’ for open discussions to ensure that all staff feel safe and supported to challenge racist practice and increase our understanding of how discrimination functions, and impacts, the lives and experiences of children and families with which we work.

Celebrating our workforce is very important to us. This includes weekly blogs by our senior leaders which always showcase our workforce’s achievement, staff awards (link to videos of social workers shortlisted) and staff parties and celebrations.
Listening to children and families’ experiences and co-production on service design sits at the heart of our work. We have parents and care experienced young people on all social work recruitment panels, young scrutineers in our safeguarding partnership and young influencers in our corporate parenting space and a parent forum. Our testimonies capture their feedback.

We are very proud of our achievements, we are proud of our workforce and we are proud of the testimonies from children, young people and families about the transformational effect of our people on their lives.

Supporting Information:

Team: Centre for Systemic Social Work

Main Submission:

In 2014 the Local Authorities of Hammersmith and Fulham (LBHF), Westminster (WCC) and Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) Children’s Services launched a large-scale transformation programme to embed a systemic practice model across all areas of Children’s Social Care, establishing and committing to a Theory of Change Practice Model, delivering systemic training to leaders, managers and practitioners, reviewing and changing systems and relationships.

Following, in 2016 and in partnership, all 3 LAs establish the Centre for Systemic Social Work (CfSSW) to be the delivery vehicle to train and embed systemic practice and deliver sector led improvement support to other local authorities. The three local authorities take joint responsibility for the CfSSW and decision making is shared equally. Since the establishment of the CfSSW, we have trained over 2,500 staff, from 21 local authorities and have observed improvements in the ratings of 11 of the 15 LAs inspected by Ofsted who have engaged with the CfSSW.

All three LAs who established the CfSSW are committed to supporting a motivated and highly skilled workforce to work collaboratively with children, families and communities to achieve sustainable improved outcomes. We continue to develop practice to improve the way we engage and support families through a co-ordinated innovation programme.

The benefits in practice to the three LAs can be observed in feedback received from Ofsted on our systemic practice:

LBHF
“Hammersmith & Fulham adopted a systemic practice model in 2014, and a significant proportion of the workforce has undertaken systemic training courses. The systemic model is supported by an embedded clinical team, whose members’ impact is evident in practice with children and families across the social work teams.”

Source: London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, May 2024: Children’s Services Inspection

RBKC
Since the last inspection, leaders have maintained their unwavering commitment to improving outcomes for children through systemic social work practice.”

Source: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, September 2019, Children’s Services Inspection

WCC
“Interventions are sophisticated and often underpinned by highly skilled systemic direct work. Social workers receive frequent support from highly qualified clinicians based in their teams, including joint direct work with children and families.”

Source: London Borough of Westminster September 2019: Children’s Services Inspection

Team: Therapeutic Hub, Sutton Children’s Services

Partners: Cognus Ltd

Main Submission:

The Therapeutic Hub is actively, and innovatively, working to positively impact the experience of the workforce within Sutton Children’s Social Care. Through demonstrating a commitment to understanding and responding to the feedback and experience of staff, the Therapeutic Hub has developed a bespoke training and support programme. This training and support is having a positive impact with the workforce thereby strengthening their ability to support babies, children, young people, and families

Staff within the Therapeutic Hub provide Trauma Informed Practice Training with all SW/ SSW/ PA’s and residential care workers

• This programme was developed in response to feedback from the workforce that training specific to the needs of the children and families within Sutton would better support the workforce to respond to the needs of the community.
• The feedback from this training is overwhelmingly positive.
• In response to feedback for further learning opportunities the training will be extended to a 2 day course with refresher training every 3 years.
• Delivered by experts in trauma, the workforce have expressed that they feel more equipped to respond to the needs of the community and they have an increased understanding of the risks of vicarious trauma and the importance of self- care

Bespoke training and support to Willow Rise residential services

• Our in house residential care facilities have dedicated support including a part time SALT and part time Therapeutic Support Worker who provide support to the staff and the young people within our care
  
• Formulation meetings support an increased understanding of the young person and what is driving their behaviour and provides an opportunity to reflect on the impact of self on the presentation of the young person, the impact of caring on themselves and how they can work effectively to maintain their own wellbeing whilst improving outcomes for the young people in their care
  
• Trauma informed language and restorative practice is incorporated within the young people’s assessments, care plans, and behavioural support plans. This has supported improved relationships with the young people and contributed to retention of staff, who feel seen, heard, and understood

Effective Communication training

• Provided by our resident SALT’s this training is supporting the workforce through increased confidence in their capacity to effectively engage with children and young people in meaningful and beneficial ways
  Restorative Practice training

Restorative Practice training

• The Clinical Lead contributes to the delivery of Restorative Practice training. This training is provided to all internal staff and is available to the wider network of professionals involved in supporting children and families within Sutton
• Restorative Practice focuses on relationships, using a high support/ high challenge format the workforce is supported to equip children and families with the skills to successfully navigate relationships.
• The focus on empowering children and families supports the workforce to improve outcomes for children and families in a way that is sustainable for the family, thus reducing repeated referrals to CSC

Group supervision

• Reflective supervision is provided to all teams within CSC. This is a space to openly and honestly reflect on the impact of the work on the individual and provide and receive support from peers
• The groups are led by trained therapeutic professionals who are also able to offer individual supervision as required and supervision in response to significant incidents
• Bimonthly clinical drop in sessions are provided by the Clinical Lead
• Available across the workforce, these sessions provide an opportunity for case formulation and consideration of appropriate next steps, this may include signposting to universal services, referral into the Therapeutic Hub, or referral to partner agencies such as AMHS, ASC, and CAMHS
• In the case of onward referrals the worker is supported with completing the referral

Consultations

• The Therapeutic Hub provide consultations to the workforce to consider the most suitable approach to working with a child/ family
• The worker may be supported to deliver an intervention themselves, particularly where they have a positive pre-existing relationship with the child/ family. This approach not only equips the worker to support improved outcomes but also recognises their individuals skills and increase their self-efficacy

Other support

• Attendance at Placement planning/ stability meetings to support improved outcomes for children and young people and support the staff when navigating placement complexities where trauma is a significant feature
• Attendance at Discharge Planning meetings and meetings with health colleagues to support the workforce when navigating multi professional contexts

Supporting Materials: