Consultation Response Form Consultation closing date: 9 October 2014 Your comments must reach us by that date

Transcription

1 Consultation Response Form Consultation closing date: 9 October 2014 Your comments must reach us by that date Knowledge and Skills for Child and Family Social Work Response Form

2 If you would prefer to respond online to this consultation please use the following link: Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be subject to publication or disclosure in accordance with the access to information regimes, primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act If you want all, or any part, of your response to be treated as confidential, please explain why you consider it to be confidential. If a request for disclosure of the information is received, your explanation about why you consider your response to be confidential will be taken into account, but no assurance can be given that confidentiality can be maintained. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department for Education ( the Department ). The Department will process your personal data (name and address and any other identifying material) in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, and in the majority of circumstances, this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties. Please tick if you want us to keep your response confidential. Reason for confidentiality: Name: Participation group at The Who Cares? Trust (care experienced young people aged 16-25) Please tick if you are responding on behalf of your organisation. Name of Organisation (if applicable): The Who Cares? Trust Address: White Lion Street, London, N1 9PG

3 Which answer best describes you as a respondent? Local authority Young person Other employers of social workers (private, voluntary and independent) Social Worker University/FE Provider Other LA representative bodies Voluntary and Community Sector Please Specify: Participation group at The Who Cares? Trust (care experienced young people aged 16-25) 1. Is there anything else that should be included in the statement which sets out what a child and family social worker needs to know and be able to do? Yes No Not Sure Comments: A focus group was held in July this year, which Isabelle Trowler attended, in order to inform her drafting of this statement. At that meeting young people shared their views on what social workers need to know and be able to do. We grouped their comments into three main areas that they said social workers need to be good at: A. Building and maintaining relationships B. Involving children and young people in assessments C. Helping with and knowing information about practical things When looking at the draft knowledge and skills statement for child and family social work, we decided to concentrate on these three areas and asked young people whether they thought the statement encapsulated these priorities clearly.

4 A second focus group was held to ask their views on these three areas of the statement on October 1 st This was attended by two representatives from the Department for Education. This consultation response records the views that young people shared in that session. It also includes views shared via and phone interviews with young people who couldn t make the session or wanted to add additional information. Direct quotes are used wherever possible and are in italics. These areas link particularly with these parts of the statement: 5. Effective direct work with children and families 6. Child and family assessment 7. Analysis, decision making, planning and review A. Building and maintaining relationships Young people didn t think that the words in the statement that describe what good relationships between social workers and children and young people should be like (section 5) covered the message they wanted it to. During the workshop, they were shown a number of words and asked to choose the best ones to describe the relationship a social worker should have with children and families and how they should communicate. The words they could choose from were words used in the knowledge and skills statement (section 5. Effective direct work with children and families denoted in red text) and words that the young people came up with in the first focus group. The table below shows these words and the number of votes cast for each one. Relationships with a social worker should be: (asked to choose four) 5 Effective 1 Reliable Don t give up (on 6 Caring 1 young people) Resilient 3 Guiding 1 Committed 4 Positive 1 Passionate 2 Loving 1 Effective 2 Helpful 1 Trusting 2 Purposeful 0 Supportive 2 Compassionate 0 Have high 3 Empathetic 1 expectations Open minded 2 Hopeful 0 Authoritative 1 Able to compromise 0

5 Reasons and explanations given by young people on their top four choices (one young person added her votes after the session. The options below were the top choices at the session): Don t give up (on young people) Sometimes if you have a social worker for a long time and you have certain issues, like anger, and there s an argument, the social worker might give up. If a young person doesn t think anyone cares, they might think they shouldn t care about themselves. Young people might lose interest in what they want to do with their lives, you might need someone to encourage you. The young person needs to know that there s someone there to help. If you don t think you have someone, like family, you need at least one person to talk to and who is going to do things for you. It s easy to forget young people. Sometimes I don t hear from my P.A. [personal adviser] in time. It can be harder to get hold of her than Barack Obama! Young people change. No-one really bothered with me. My brother went through a bad patch, now he wants to go to education but it s harder for him to get help. Loads of times social workers feel like giving up, especially if they ve got a high caseload. They need to keep being reminded not to give up. It s not obvious, it s a challenge. They might think there s nothing else I can do but if they thought a bit deeper they might find something. Let young people take chances. If you go to college and you change your course, they can get really fed up. Some people want to try different things and that should be OK. Reliable: You need to be able to trust your social worker. It s good to know what they re doing and know that they don t forget about you and forget what they should be doing for you. Trying to get hold of social workers is like gold dust.

6 Resilient: If you go through a bad time it really affects your life. Social workers might be having their own bad time but it is selfish to bring it into work. You re dealing with people who really need your help. It s important that you can put your personal feelings aside. I needed broadband in my new flat and asked my personal adviser. She told me no, that the council don t provide that. I said you didn t even ask. I pushed her. She didn t take it personally, we have a relationship. [Social workers] have to be able to cope with stress. They are dealing with several different children. There s lots of stress and they have to be able to push away their personal stuff so they can deal with kids stuff. [Social workers shouldn t] take things personally. Committed: They have to be committed. Many young people and children have trust issues as they're often let down by family members, friends, foster careers and so forth. It s important that a social worker is committed to the young person as it helps them build on future relationships and also not feel like it s their fault for being let down all the time. For example, I became looked after around years old and by the time I was 17 I had 5 social workers. Some left without even letting me know, some changed job roles and didn't advise me of this, some just weren't committed to me. They showed no interest in my studies or goals. When I turned 18 I was allocated to my personal advisor who was so friendly and warm towards me. She went the extra mile by meeting me after work hours due to my own work commitments. She helped me with moves, with my CV and so forth. Social workers should be committed because how would they have liked to have a different parent every year, sometimes twice a year? What message does that portray to a child? It shows them in a bad light as though they cannot commit or they don't want to commit to that child. How would they feel if it was them, if their job didn't want to commit to them, just wanted them to have a number of temporary contracts and they had to move every year? What would that do to their self-esteem? What would it do to their trust in their next employer? It is these sorts of questions I think need to be asked. How would it effect their relationships with others? Would they enjoy keep getting to tell a new employer about themselves every 6 months? Would they eventually become disinterested? I think all the questions young people [in care] may experience albeit in a different context. It is sad, no matter if placements [carers] choose not to handle your behaviour, your social worker should be at least the consistent person who you can count on,

7 should you need to. The relationship needs to be built to create some stability for the young person. I don't think individuals realise the way that they can have a domino effect on other relationships in that young person life, whether it be relationships at school, at a new home, social relationships etc. If a young person carries the thought that no matter what I do the important people in my life always leave me, it can create feelings of doubt, a dip in self-worth and that maybe no-one thinks that much of them to even stay. Seems quite trivial on one hand but I think those thoughts can explain a lot of behaviour shown which appears that the young person is disinterested when really they have been let down so many times, they don't have the enthusiasm to even try to be interested and engaged anymore. Carers are key, however, if you experience multiple placement breakdowns then the social worker may become the only stable thing you have and therefore their role may become vital to some. It must be frustrating being introduced and having to get to know and build up relationships with the very people who decided that you needed to be in care for whatever reason. Your social worker is the first person you meet and the first person you phone if you're unhappy in your placement. You want a regular first point of contact who knows and understands you. After all, no relationship is built overnight so with so many changes there is a pressure on young people to get on with people and become best buddies with someone they hardly know. The problem with all this is a lot of social workers take this behaviour personally and start labelling the young person as unwilling, unapproachable, not engaging etc. Additional comments about other descriptive words: Have high expectations: There are so many negative statistics of children in care. Having high expectations for children and young people can change the system. People assume you ll fall into negative categories. You need them to invest in you. It builds your confidence and motivates you. It makes you aim high. Imagine you re jobless. You need to get a job. You get one at Tesco. That s OK, the social worker can tick a box. But a good social worker would say, that s not good enough, aim high. Working in Tesco is not a long term plan. When you re working in leaving care you re trying to set people up for the future. If someone wants to be a banker and they re working at Tesco then they re not doing that. A lot of young people don t know what they want to do. A god social worker would help you explore options and opportunities. Social workers need to keep being reminded [to have high expectations].

8 Purposeful I don t like purposeful. Some social workers aren t there for you unless they need you to fill in a form. They ll only get in contact if there s a purpose [that s administrative]. If their only contact with you is when they re asking you something about a form then you re not going to engage with them. If you only contact me when you need something then I might start avoiding you. I won t be open with you. Authoritative Authoritative is a really bad word. It sounds scary. How can you be authoritative? Social workers can see it the other way. That s how police are described. Saying they have authority is like they ve got all the power, like they make the decisions. You [children and young people] don t feel like you ve got input and authority too. [Social workers] should be able to give authority to you [children and young people] too. Effective Effective is good, it s like making sure social workers make a difference. [Social workers] have got to be good and they ve got to make a good impact. Reliable If they say they re going to do something, they should do it. [Social workers] shouldn t give false hope or false promises. Engaging I like [the word] engaging; it sounds like a two way thing; it doesn t sound like you re just being told. Confident: You want to feel they know what they re talking about. They shouldn t be over confident and authoritative, where you feel they can t be challenged. Should advocate for children and young people: Social workers should advocate for young people. Young people always need social workers and advocates. Advocates really shouldn t exist, social workers should be doing everything that the children and young people needs them to. Social workers should be trained more like advocates. They need to be effective at what advocates are, like knowing rights and the system. They need to challenge and push local authority boundaries like advocates getting the best for children and young people. Social workers need to be able to communicate (asked to choose two).

9 Red words denote words used within the knowledge and skills statement currently. Honestly 7 Creatively 1 Regularly 5 In a way that responds to the individual 1 In a way that motivates 2 In a way that s engaging 0 Effectively 2 Using compromise 0 Clearly 1 Sensitively 0 Respectfully challenging 1 By listening carefully 0 Young people were showed which words were used in the statement. They raised a number of areas important to them that they didn t feel the statement covered, with regards to communication. Honesty is so important. Tell me how it is. If I can t see my brother, tell me why and tell me the full truth. It s my life. I need to know where I stand with you. Sometimes people need the hard truth. Sometimes you wait and think something s going to happen [like getting a flat] and it doesn t. Be honest when you re wrong or you can t do anything. Some social workers aren t there for you unless they need you to fill in a form. If their only contact with you is when they re asking you something about a form then you re not going to engage with them. If you only contact me when you need something then I might start avoiding you. I won t be open with you. When a young person has got a problem, they need to feel able to talk to their social worker. They re more likely to call and check things out [get information and advice] if the relationship is better. During the discussion, young people admitted that being honest and reliable, words which they chose as most important to describe the communication of a social worker, could seem obvious to social workers just as much as communicate clearly, sensitively and effectively. In previous sessions, a number of young people have shared traumatic stories of how they were tricked into moving out of home, or to a new placement, and how some social workers thought they were protecting them by withholding information but this caused emotional distress. It was suggested that young people are involved in the assessment of social workers skills and knowledge, as they said that social workers can think they are doing well but can be causing unintended harm. They need to be human. You need to care about the people you work with, you can t do your job properly otherwise. You have to be able to go the extra mile.

10 [Social workers] need to know how to adapt. Sometimes you listen to people in tears, other times you can give information and just say bye. That s what it s like for me in housing, I can t just be the same with every person. They also need to adapt to new technology. Young people communicate in loads of different ways and social workers should be able to adapt to that. Communication shouldn t just be written. You can get different information in different ways. Say if you did a video chat with someone, the results you get from that could be different than if you ask them to write. You need to come down to people s level. If people are talking in slang you need to be able to speak to them in a way they understand. Every family will be different. The social worker has to look at how things work for them. They might want to fill in a form on their own and prepare for a meeting, others might want the social worker to do a form with them. I sat in [review] meetings and was silent. I look back now and feel like an idiot. All those professionals sat round talking about me and no-one tried to get me involved and asked me my view. [Social workers] need to look at people as an individual. Treat everyone as an individual. Just because other young people have acted in one way, don t tarnish everyone with the same brush. Regularly sounds like all the time. It needs to be managed well. It can be regular contact but you don t want them annoying you! B. Involving children and young people in assessments Young people were asked to share their views about whether social workers had the necessary skills to involve them in decisions about their lives, and what these skills were. This highlighted some areas not covered by the statement. For good participation / involvement [in assessments and decision making] there needs to be a good relationship [between the child of young person and the social worker]. There s lots of skills that they don t have. Social workers are all different. Some have the skills and some don t. For some social workers, some skills come naturally. Some are natural communicators. To best involve young people in decisions about their lives [but also applicable to other

11 tasks in social work], the group suggested that social workers need: The ability to understand information about young people from case histories. The ability to access and share information to young people about their rights. Social workers have access to knowledge about young people s rights. They should be able to help young people make the right choices. They have information about that child, their background and their needs. Time management skills. They don t always have time to do things well and have lots of pressures. To be able to make children and young people feel comfortable in sharing their views. You might need to take a young person somewhere neutral to listen to them properly. Assessments shouldn t always be formal. It s not about being authoritative, it s not about taking over, it s about listening. Patience. To be approachable. Some people [social workers] don t want to hear that they re not doing something well, but they need to take on board constructive criticism because they might not be doing things the way you want them to. They need to be open to being challenged. They come across authoritative and people presume that what they say goes. People need to know that they can challenge social workers, especially if a decision doesn t work for them. To be able to improve. To not over-estimate risk. They need to see the real risk. To be able to adapt to changing circumstances and needs of the child or young person: Assessment takes more than a day, even though some people think they can do it that quick. Things change, our needs change. I came into care when I was young and was

12 given a therapist. She was an older white lady. I m not racist but she wasn t like me. I slept through the sessions. Social workers need to understand when children and young people need help. Now I m starting to think back about my abuse and realise how it s affecting me, I want to get help but I just get asked if I m suicidal and because I m not it s really hard to get help. [Social workers] shouldn t try to do pathway planning in a day. They should break it down into bits. Social workers need to be creative in the ways they gather information. [A child or young person] might want someone there with them, e.g. friend or family member, to help them feel more comfortable. Don t just use pen and paper questions. Maybe use activities to find out information and find out in a relaxed environment. [to] Ask! Sometimes they asked and I said I was OK and they said it isn t. Other times I said it s OK and it wasn t OK. Social workers need to have good judgement. Bravery and confidence in their practice: Social workers are scared. They don t want to use their judgement because they don t want to be the scapegoat if it goes wrong. I d been seen by social workers for two years before I went into care. If I d have gone into care earlier things could have been a lot different. My stepfather would still be alive. To be curious and investigative: Forms [social work assessments] are long and they aren t interactive. You re not getting the full picture if you just ask lots of questions. You need to find evidence, don t just ask about school, get the grades. Be like an investigator. I nearly dropped out of college but they didn t know. They didn t know I was having therapy. They should investigate. Be curious? Yes. They need to listen carefully for what children and young people are not saying. They need to look past what they are saying and think about all things the way they might be feeling, if they re struggling, emotionally as well as practically. Don t just take things face value when you ask something for an assessment. Think about what the young person has said or done previously and try to put everything together. To be able to deal with lots of information and not just see things as black and white. Every child and young person is different. They have to know what is best for their children and young people so that they can get their voice heard. Some children say what s not true. The adult [social worker] needs to be able to figure that out.

13 To be able to involve other people. They should talk to friends, family, neighbours; find out who your friends are and who s helping you. I was a single mum and a care leaver, it was just me. They just let me go from the hospital; noone checked what support I had. They should have talked about how they can make sure that my kids don t go into care and repeat the cycle. Other people affect who I am. Being able to engage with other people is important. [Social workers] are always trying to get other people to do things for them. Like someone trying to get housing. Social services told the advocate to do that but that s not the advocate s job. Sometimes they try to get a participation worker to do their job. Take responsibility. Some things just don t get done properly and it s a big mess. You should only pass things to people who you are confident can do the job. C. Helping with and knowing information about practical things eg. rights, independent living and how the care system works Independent living skills- many young people don't know how to paint, put a chest of draws together, use a drill or even hang a picture on the wall. I think these skills need to be bought to attention as when a young person moves from place to place they should be able to make their next home, room or whatever homely by painting, decoration or simply hanging a picture on the wall. Young people need to know about benefits entitlements, volunteering opportunities, healthy eating on low income, applying for grants and so forth. For example when moving to my final stage accommodation I was not advised that I was eligible for council tax reduction as I was the only adult in the household and on low income. Care system- I think it s important that young people know what it means to be looked after, what the system can do to support them and what stage they're at: Looked after child, in Kinship Care, a Care Leaver and so forth. [Children and young people need to] know what the service can offer: children in care council, participation groups, education team and so on. I would expect social workers to know everything about the care system, how can she effectively help me if she is clueless herself? Young people need to be given all the facts and all the options. IROs can provide that to an extent but they just concentrate on what you want or what you know, they don't try and educate you about the care world which you are living in. How can they [children and young people] request things they don't know that they are entitled too.

14 Young people commented that the testing of knowledge and skills was particularly important in order to make sure that the statement made a difference and the Testing the statement: Some young people asked about how the statement was to be tested. They said it was important to gather the views of children and young people in order to be able to truly understand if the social worker was able to effectively communicate, build relationships and involve young people in assessments. You might think you re effective [at communicating], but what is the test? Young people should be involved in social workers appraisals. Young people should be involved in deciding whether social workers pass or not. You ve got these workers or tutors who test people but they aren t working day to day with children and young people. Things change through the years, and you need the perspective of young people. How can they [assessors of the statement] see it? How can they know if they aren t receiving the service? Children and young people see things differently. Like [when I was involved in recruiting social workers] we [care-experienced young people] added stuff to the recruitment process. There were quite a few occasions when we had a different opinion to staff members. There was once when I thought a woman was terrible and the staff member thought she was good. 2. Are there any parts of the statement which are not set at the right level for a child and family social worker to be able to know or do, at the end of their first year of practice? If so, what are they? Yes No Not Sure

15 Comments: Young people at the session felt that the statement was not aspirational enough when it came to describing the knowledge and skills needed for effective direct work, assessment and analysis, decision making, planning and review..it s too basic. They re common sense, they re not [referring to] our real problems. You ve just picked all the obvious things. It s too vague and there are too many buzzwords. The words are too subjective. Words just get banded around. Sensitive means different things to different people. Nothing wows me. Common sense is not a good thing, you need to put things they might not think of, they need challenging, like being caring. You should already know how to be sensitive etc. No-one told me that and I work in housing and have to know how to communicate to people. You need to know how to break stuff [information] down to people s level so they can understand it. if I say to people in housing that I can t help, I have to say why and refer them to someone else to get help. [The statement] isn t going to help social workers. They know they should communicate clearly and sensitively. They won t properly know from a young person s point of view. You need to check with young people [to find out whether the social worker has the knowledge and skills]. There needs to be more clear statements. Make it clearer rather than a list of describing words. It needs to be more challenging. Other words [in addition to have high expectations and don t give up on young people are too basic and too obvious. These two are something they need to keep reminding themselves of. Additional comments as to what they thought was more aspirational are mentioned in answer to question 1 of this consultation.

16 3. Do you agree that the statement should not prescribe particular social work theories or methodologies? Yes No Not Sure Comments: This question was not discussed within the focus group. Thank you for taking the time to let us have your views. We do not intend to acknowledge individual responses unless you place an 'X' in the box below. Please acknowledge this reply. X address for acknowledgement: emma.corbett@thewhocarestrust.org.uk Here at the Department for Education we carry out our research on many different topics and consultations. As your views are valuable to us, please confirm below if you would be willing to be contacted again from time to time either for research or to send through consultation documents? Yes No All Department for Education public consultations are required to meet the Cabinet Office Principles on Consultation The key consultation principles are:

17 government will follow a range of timescales rather than defaulting to a 12-week period, particularly where extensive engagement has occurred before government will need to give more thought to how they engage with and use real discussion with affected parties and experts as well as the expertise of civil service learning to make well informed decisions government should explain what responses they have received and how these have been used in formulating policy consultation should be digital by default, but other methods should be used where these are needed to reach the groups affected by a policy the principles of the Compact between government and the voluntary and community sector will continue to be respected. If you have any comments on how Department for Education (DfE) consultations are conducted, please contact Aileen Shaw, DfE Consultation Coordinator, tel: / aileen.shaw@education.gsi.gov.uk Thank you for taking time to respond to this consultation. Completed responses should be sent to the address shown below by 9 October 2014 Send by post to: Social Work Team, Department for Education, Sanctuary Buildings, 20 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BT.Send by to: KnowledgeAndSkills.CONSULTATION@education.gsi.gov.uk.