Embedding the Knowledge and Skills Statements. Steve Walker, Director of Children s Services

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1 Embedding the Knowledge and Skills Statements Steve Walker, Director of Children s Services

2 About Leeds Leeds is the second largest metropolitan district in the UK. Leeds has some of the most affluent areas of the UK but also some of the areas of greatest social depravation 183,000 children and young people Leeds has been on an improvement journey 2009 inspection: children not safe 2012 Intervention ended 2015 Leeds judged by Ofsted to be Good 2018 Focused Visit under ILACS

3 About Me Left School with 7* A levels at age 12 Graduated with MSc from Oxford University at 15 Obtained PhD in Applied Astrophysics at MIT Worked for 5 years with NASA on part of the Voyager Programme Professional Advisor to Professor Stephen Hawking Work was a bit mundane so I decided to move into social work

4 Embedding the Knowledge and Skills Statements

5 It s NOT Rocket Science!

6 The Starting Point In 2011 around 25% of social work posts in Leeds Children's Services were filled by Agency social workers; Leeds was spending around 7 million pounds a year on Agency staff; We recognised that delivering good outcomes for children and young people was dependent upon a stable, confident and professionally competent workforce; Everything we did from then on was focused on developing this.

7 The Approach Recognised that money is not the primary motivation for social workers; Our strategy had to be built therefore on retention and supporting social workers to do best practice; Restructured the social work teams from process to practice; Introduced a post of Advanced Practitioner - Practice Mentor with two posts in each team; Re-structured our social work career scheme and our training around the knowledge and skills statements

8 The Approach Knowledge and Skills Statements are embedded in the Career Pathway and mapped to the Continuous Development offer in Leeds Starts when student on final placement; and embedded in post qualifying Appraisal and Continuous Development offer

9 Students As part of the student training pathway within the Leeds and Wakefield Teaching partnership, students complete a self assessment against the KSS in the latter part of their final placement This aids transition to ASYE and early identification of development needs; as well as embedding KSS as post qualifying standards

10 Newly Qualified KSS are embedded in ASYE programme by way of a Self assessment Creation of Personal Development Needs Reviewed at 3, 6 and 9 months Supported by a mentor Academic lecture programme assignments to link KSS to their practice Final Assessment against the KSS and PCF by manager Year 2 objectives

11 Social Worker Practitioners Appraisal tool appraises practitioners against the KSS Career pathway maps to the continuous development offer to ensure development is offered at every level CPD offer is mapped to KSS and PCF to enable staff to easily identify development opportunities CPD offer includes training, mentoring, access to research, direct observations, interactive learning audit KSS is embedded as part of requirement of progression to Senior Social worker

12 The Outcome No Agency social work managers in Children s Services; Less than five Agency social workers; Spending 5 and a half million pounds less on Agency staff; Over 85% of social workers in Leeds have more than two years post qualifying experience 2018 Ofsted view is that social work in Leeds is flourishing

13 Thank you for your contribution

Diocese of Leeds Board of Education

General Enquiries Info.ed@leeds.anglican.org www.leeds.anglican.org Diocese of Leeds Board of Education Strategic Direction and Operations Policy for the Academy programme 2016-2020 A Diocesan Vision for