Integrated Children’s Workforce Bookshelf Strategy

Walsall Children’s Partnership
Integrated Children’s
Workforce Bookshelf
Strategy
December 2009 to March 2013
Name
Email
Children's Partnership
Champion
Denise
Faulconbridge
Denise.faulconbridge@walsallcs.serco.com 01922 686200
Core Lead
Darrell Harman
harmand@walsall.gov.uk
01922 652701
Lead Officer
Andy Stewart
stewarta@walsall.gov.uk
01922 658365
Date Strategy approved by
Senior Leadership Team
November 2009
February 2012
Version
1
Review Date
Phone
March 2013
Page 1
Scope of the Strategy
This strategy demonstrates that Walsall Children’s Partnership is committed to developing and promoting people
working better to provide better services across the workforce. The partnership will operate in such a way as to
promote the safety and welfare of children and young people. It will implement sound safeguarding practices
and procedures as appropriate and always adhere to the Walsall Safeguarding Children’s Board Child
Protection Procedures. This will lead to improved service delivery to Children, Young People and their families /
carers and improved outcomes.
Relationship to other plans or strategies
This strategy relates to the following internal plans and strategies:
Walsall Council Working Smarter Programme
The council has embarked on an ambitious programme of change called ‘Working Smarter’. The purpose of
working smarter is to refocus on customer need and change the way we deliver services. The main objectives of
this programme are to take out waste and spend less, improve customer service and change the way we do
business.
Walsall Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP)1
The Children & Young People’s Plan (CYPP) shows how we plan to build on our successes so far and secure further
improvements in outcomes for Children & Young People. Walsall is home to a diverse set of communities which
have particular needs that we need to reflect in the way we provide services. We know that some communities
experience much poorer quality of life; therefore we will ensure that services respond to diverse community
needs.
Change for Children: Workforce Reform Programme
In June 2009 Walsall Children’s Partnership completed its inaugural Children's Workforce Development Council
(CWDC)2 self assessment using the Local Area Self Assessment tool. The outcomes from this helped to identify the
early work which needed to take place in order to set and work towards a vision of people working better to
provide better services. To deliver this programme 5 key projects were commenced. These being:
1. Workforce Reform (Children's Area Partnership development)
2. Social Worker Recruitment and Retention
3. Workforce Mapping
4. Integrated Young People’s Support Service
5. Integrated Training Programme
In addition to these internal drivers, there are a number of significant external drivers which relate to this
strategy. These being:
1. Help children achieve more ( previously Every Child Matters)
2. The 2020 Children and Young People’s Workforce Strategy
1
2
Source: Walsall Children & Young People’s Plan 2009/10 – 2011/12 (www.childrenspartnership.walsall.org.uk)
http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk
Page 2
3. Government Office West Midlands Regional Social Worker Retention Project
4. Aiming High for Disabled Children
5. "The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report"
6. “Youth Matters” and “Aiming High for Young People”
What Children and Young People, their parents/carers
experience now
One Children's Workforce self assessment June 2009
In order to measure the levels of integration across the children's workforce the CWDC designed and launched
the Local Area Self Assessment tool3 which has been rolled out across all Children’s Partnerships within England.
This tool measures integration across 8 key areas, these being:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
3
Shared Identity, purpose and vision
Common values and language
Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people
Integrated working practices
High quality, appropriately trained workforce
Complementary roles focused around children and young people
Capacity to deliver and keep children safe
Outcome focus
Source: http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/ocwf
Page 3
Integrated Working Drill Down Summary from 2009 to 2011
In September 2011 Walsall Children and Young People's Partnership gathered data using a questionnaire format.
In 2009 and 2010 we gathered this same evidence and as such this report enables us to establish whether there
has been a shift in integrated working over the 2 year period. A programme of activity (Change For Children:
Workforce Reform) was created following the initial results in 2009 and became the delivery mechanism for the
Children's Workforce Strategy 2009/12. This final report aims to articulate any successes found as a result of the
programme of activity and by association the successes of the Workforce Strategy and indeed whether there are
still areas for us to focus on jointly.
The table below summarises the progress made against all 8 elements of the one children's workforce tool since
June 2009.
Element
2009
actual
results
2012
Workforce
Strategy
target
2011
actual
results
Overall
comparison vs
2009
Progress
against 2012
target
Shared identity
37%
50%
59%
22%
9%
Common Values
25%
50%
42%
17%
8%
Behaviours
37%
50%
55%
18%
5%
Integrated Working
37%
60%
66%
29%
6%
Trained workforce
25%
50%
60%
35%
10%
Complementary roles
12%
50%
55%
43%
5%
Capacity to deliver
25%
50%
71%
46%
21%
Outcomes focus
0%
50%
78%
78%
28%
The diagrams below show the individual elements of the framework broken down to cover whether the element
is defined, owned, developed, working across all areas of the workforce, making a difference, user friendly, part
of the day job and continually improved. The diagrams on the left show the position at June 2009 whilst the
diagrams on the right show the position as at December 2011.
2009
2011
Page 4
Shared identity shows a great deal more uniformity across the sub-categories with a significant increase in ‘part of
the day job’. There is still room for development in ownership which hasn’t improved since 2009.
2009
2011
Again, more uniformity is found with more consistent results than in 2009. Values and language have shifted
significantly against the ‘being user friendly’ element and ‘developed’ which indicates that the consultation work
on the CYPP four priorities has been of benefit. Less movement has been seen against ‘owned’ and ‘making a
difference’.
2009
2011
Behaviours appear to be ‘making a difference’ across ‘all of the workforce’ as ‘part of the day job’ which is
encouraging. There is still work to undertake on defining behaviours and ownership across the Partnership.
2009
2011
Page 5
Integrated Working Practices, including CAF, Information Sharing and Multi-Agency Working has seen a significant
increase in terms of being ‘continually improved’ ‘user friendly’, ‘part of the day job’ and ‘making a difference’
which reflects the findings in the CAF effectiveness report. Less movement has been noted against ‘defined’ and
‘owned’.
2009
2011
There has been a levelling out of responses against the high quality, appropriately trained workforce element. All
areas seem to be consistent with the biggest improvements in ‘continually improved’ ‘developed’ ‘user friendly’
and ‘making a difference’.
2009
2011
Complementary roles has seen significant movement in all areas which reflects the work that has been put in
place around Working Smarter and the ‘New Operating Model’ development.
2009
2011
Page 6
Again the Capacity to Deliver element has seen dramatic improvements across all areas which indicates that the
work undertaken around caseload management, working smarter and the New Operating Model development is
having a positive impact.
2011
There are no results available for comparison from 2009 around
the Outcomes Focus element. This area has increased dramatically
over 2 years with all areas reporting above average responses.
Areas for further development
From the detailed breakdown found above, there are a number of areas recommended for development which
should form part of the Workforce Strategy for 2012/15. These being:
•
•
•
•
•
Work should be carried out to define the ownership of the overall workforce identity, purpose and vision
alongside an agreed strategy on common values and language. It is noted however, that the
implementation of the New Operating Model will have a positive impact against these indicators.
Ownership of an agreed set of workforce behaviours should be incorporated within the Workforce
Strategy. These should be designed in conjunction with children and young people and then implemented
across the children’s workforce.
Integrated Working practices need to be defined and owned by all areas of the workforce to continually
look to improve the usage of key models.
Investment needs to be maintained in learning and development to ensure that the good work already
evident is built upon.
Workforce development activity needs to be at the heart of the implementation of the New Operating
Model to ensure that complementary roles, capacity to deliver and outcomes focus continue to perform
well from the perspective of the workforce.
What Children and Young People, their parents/carers will
experience in three years
“The Walsall Children's Workforce will be fully integrated and working to a common set of objectives and goals.
People working better to provide better services will improve service delivery to children, young people and
their families and result in increased prevention, early intervention where necessary and ultimately lead to a
reduction in numbers of looked after children across the borough.” (Change for Children: Workforce Reform
programme vision)
Shared Identity, purpose and vision
In the future there will be a shared strategy for workforce reform and delivery in response to local needs and
priorities, people will identify themselves as part of one children's workforce and share a common vision of
Page 7
success and purpose. Young people will feel confident that everyone they deal with will understand enough about
them to be able to see what’s best for them.
Common values and language
We aspire to have a set of shared values which are expressed in a common language. We will build on our
information sharing protocols and ensure that they are adhered to. Young people will understand what people
are talking about and how people are working for them.
Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people
We will have agreed priorities and shared accountability for all outcomes for children, young people and their
families / carers. Positive outcomes drive collaborative behaviours of organisations, and these will be clearly
described as part of everyone’s role. Young people and their families / carers will be reassured that they will get
the best help to make their lives better.
Integrated working practices
Effective arrangements for early identification, intervention and prevention will be in place via a range of
integrated multi-agency teams called Area Family Support Teams (AFST, pilots 1 and 2 are already established
with pilots 3,4,5 and 6 by September 2012), with all services contributing appropriate skills and resources.
Professional expertise will be valued and the appropriate team with the right combination of people and skills will
be well led to meet the needs of the child and young people. Service design and delivery will where possible be
informed by the opinions of children, young people and their families / carers and will work within the boundaries
of the Working Smarter Programme. There will be clear understanding of how organisations complement one
another and that there is a clear expectation for the role of the lead professional.
High quality, appropriately trained workforce with focus on integrated family support
In the future staff with the right skills at each appropriate level will be deployed to meet the needs of children and
young people. Skills gaps will be identified and commissioned across all partners. Everyone will share a common
core of skills and knowledge and feel competent and confident that their skills and knowledge enable them to
operate at their peak.
The Child and Family Support Training Plan has now been approved by the Children and Young People’s
Partnership Board from February 2012.
Complementary roles focused around children and young people
The workforce will be deployed in response to local need with protocols in place to enable this. Jobs will be done
by the person with the most appropriate skills, whilst having an understanding of other people’s roles and skills.
This will lead to positive, appropriate engagement and ensure that children, young people and their families only
have to tell their story once.
Capacity to deliver and keep children safe
We will ensure that there are sufficient numbers of staff in place at each level appropriately deployed to meet
children's needs. Career and succession planning will be in place and we will have a diverse workforce which
reflects the children and young people that it serves.
Outcome focus
There will be a clear line of sight from the workforce strategy and activities to better outcomes and positive
impact for children and young people. We will ensure that children and young people are involved as part of the
team in service planning, design and delivery.
Page 8
How we will get there
To monitor this ambitious strategy and the activities contained below we will be using Walsall Children's Services
Performance Management Framework which requires analysis of performance to be reported at specific
Performance Review Boards. It is the intention to review this strategy on a 3 yearly basis
In order to deliver the future workforce vision as detailed in the previous section, we will work with our
colleagues across the Children’s Partnership to build a multi-agency Integrated Workforce Development Team.
Together this team will design, implement, lead and evaluate the changes needed to ensure that the workforce
are competent, capable and confident to deliver multi-agency outcomes for Children, young people and their
families / carers in an integrated way.
Shared Identity, purpose and vision
We will work across the Children’s Partnership to refresh the Integrated Workforce Strategy based on local needs.
This strategy will be informed by service users and will contribute towards the Service Quality element of the
Children and Young People’s Plan and will be explicit in communicating the common vision, success and purpose
of the Children’s Partnership. We will work to strengthen the sense of one children's workforce, through our
induction processes, multi-agency events and in our communication with the wider workforce
http://www.mywalsall.org/professional/
Common values and language
We will work with children and young people to develop a set of shared values across the Children’s Partnership;
these will be embedded in practice. We will review our information sharing protocols across the Children’s
Partnership and roll these out to all partners. We will develop a glossary of common terms in conjunction with all
partner agencies so that we are all clear on the meaning of the language we each use.
Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people
We will work across the Children’s Partnership to develop a set of agreed core competencies and behaviours.
These will be written into job descriptions and person specifications and will be measured and evaluated through
agency specific appraisal processes to ensure that we have high levels of individual and team performance.
Integrated working practices
We will review and develop our full range of protocols to enable people to work better to provide better services
with our partners and children and young people. We will also work with partners to evaluate the systems and
processes in place which contribute to people working better to provide better services, and where necessary will
redesign these systems and processes with a clear focus being on improving the work flow to increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery. Over the next three years we will continue to provide multiagency networking events to ensure that all partners understand the complex nature of the organisations within
which we work.
High quality, appropriately trained workforce
We will work with services to formulate specific workforce plans based on the NHS and Local Authority New
Operating Model (NOM). This will enable clear identification of needs based demand for skills and knowledge
across the workforce. We will develop an integrated approach to workforce development and training whereby
programmes such as induction and core skills are delivered across the Children’s Partnership on a multi-agency
basis.
Page 9
We will develop career pathways within services and leadership programmes to ensure that we are planning for
the future, whilst ensuring that front line staff have the required skills, knowledge and experience to deliver
excellent services to children, young people and their families / carers.
Complementary roles focused around children and young people
In order to deploy staff at the appropriate level we will clearly understand our systems and processes and work to
develop a more intuitive method for resource allocation across the Children’s Partnership.
Capacity to deliver and keep children safe
Work will be undertaken to build the diversity of the workforce to ensure that it is representative of children and
young people in Walsall. This will be driven through the Children's Equality and Diversity strategy.
Outcome focus
We will implement the Charter for Active Involvement to ensure that children and young people contribute to the
development of our strategies and plans. In order to do this, we will ensure that appropriate staff have a clear
understanding of their role and responsibilities within the Charter.
We will clearly articulate the benefits and outcomes for all activity proposed within the workforce strategy before
commencing work. This will enable a full business case to be developed and scrutinised prior to the delivery of
activity to ensure that value can be clearly evidenced.
Page 10
Our Strategic Direction or ‘road map’
What we will
improve
How much will we
improve
Our Strategic approach
Who is responsible
What delivery plans
support this work
Outcome 1 Shared identity, purpose and vision
We will improve the
sense of shared identity,
and increase the
awareness of the
Children’s Partnership
purpose and vision.
We
will
improve
performance against this
criteria using the Local Area
Self Assessment tool from
37% to more than 50%
•
•
•
•
We will develop our Common Induction to
incorporate a high emphasis on the Children’s
Partnership
We will design and implement an integrated
leadership programme focusing on delivering
improved outcomes through a multi-agency
approach
We will engage children and young people in the
review of the Integrated Workforce Strategy
We will build an integrated Workforce
Development team who will focus on delivering
multi-agency solutions across the Children’s
Partnership
Andy Stewart / Children’s
Partnership Board Workforce
Development sub-group
Integrated Children's
Workforce Strategy 2009/12
Workforce Reform
Programme
Integrated Training
Programme Project
Outcome 2 Common values and language
We will improve our use
of common language
and our understanding
of the roles and
responsibilities of our
partners.
We will improve
performance against this
criteria using the Local Area
Self Assessment tool from
25% to more than 50%
•
•
•
We will develop and implement a set of shared
values across the Children’s Partnership
We will review our information sharing protocols
We will develop a glossary of terms across the
Children’s Partnership
Andy Stewart / Children’s
Partnership Board
Workforce Development
sub-group
Integrated Children's
Workforce Strategy 2009/12
Andy Stewart / Children’s
Partnership Board
Integrated Children's
Workforce Reform
Programme
Outcome 3 Behaviours focused on positive outcomes for children and young people
We will improve our
core competencies
We will improve
performance against this
•
We will develop a set of core competencies and
behaviours across the Children’s Partnership
Page 11
across the Children’s
Partnership, and as a
result our behaviours
will increase positive
outcomes
criteria using the Local Area
Self Assessment tool from
37% to more than 50%
•
•
We will review job descriptions and person
specifications to reflect the new core
competencies
We will ensure that ‘appraisal’ systems are in
place across the Children’s Partnership to
manage performance against the core
competencies
Workforce Development
sub-group
Workforce Strategy 2009/12
Workforce Reform
Programme
Outcome 4 Integrated working practices
We will improve the
systems and processes
that encourage people
to work better to
provide better services
across the Children’s
Partnership
We will improve
performance against this
criteria using the Local Area
Self Assessment tool from
50% to more than 60%
•
•
•
•
•
We will review the Lead Professional model and
Think Family philosophy across the 8 sectors of
the children's workforce
We will involve employees and children and young
people in any refresh of the Lead Professional
model
We will lead specific sessions on the Lead
Professional model for sport and leisure
management
Improve accessibility or knowledge of access to
Multi Agency Working guidance, policies and
procedures
We will coordinate multi-agency events to
encourage inter-agency networking
Andy Stewart / Children’s
Partnership Board
Workforce Development
sub-group
Integrated Children's
Workforce Strategy 2009/12
Andy Stewart / Children’s
Partnership Board
Workforce Development
sub-group
Integrated Children's
Workforce Strategy 2009/12
Workforce Reform
Programme
Outcome 5 High quality, appropriately trained workforce
We will improve the
competence, capability
and confidence of staff
across the Children’s
Partnership.
We will improve
performance against this
criteria using the Local Area
Self Assessment tool from
25% to more than 50%
•
•
•
•
We will actively participate in current
organisational apprenticeship schemes to ensure
that placements are offered to young people
We will investigate opportunities to develop a
Children’s Partnership apprenticeship scheme
We will continue to develop the ‘Care Leaver’
programme which assists care leavers in securing
work placements within the workforce
We will develop a succession plan and career
pathway for all specialist services including family
Workforce Reform
Programme
Integrated Training
Programme Project
Page 12
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
centred and residential service staff
We will create a children's specific Organisational
Development Strategy and implement it
We will support the Aiming High for Disabled
Children workforce development programme
across all 4 levels
We will develop a modular Integrated Training
Programme across the Children’s Partnership
We will design and implement workforce wide
training sessions on information sharing
We will ensure that the Lead Professional model
and Think Family philosophy are referred to in the
common training programme
We will design and deliver training session on
Think Family working
We will work with partners (such as CAMHS) to
develop service specific workforce plans
Outcome 6 Complementary roles focused around children and young people
We will improve the
systems and processes
across the Children’s
Partnership to enable
the workforce to deliver
excellent services
unhindered by
organisational
boundaries
We will improve
performance against this
criteria using the Local
Area Self Assessment tool
from 12% to 50%
•
•
•
We will Identify opportunities for targeted
remodelling activity
We will work as part of a project team to review
systems and processes to ensure that we are
working in a ‘Lean’ way using the Vanguard
method of delivery to establish integrated Area
Family Support Teams Teams
We will look to embed workforce mapping
activities to ensure that we are kept aware of the
workforce size and shape
Working Smarter
Programme
Working Smarter
Programme
Resource Allocation Project
Outcome 7 Capacity to deliver and keep children safe
We will improve the
availability and
deployment of staff to
We will improve
performance against this
criteria using the Local
•
We will deliver the Children's Equality and
Diversity Strategy
Michelle Whiting / Specialist
Services Management team
Children's Equality and
Diversity Strategy 2010/13
Working Smarter
Working Smarter
Page 13
appropriate areas based
on demand. We will also
ensure that our
workforce is
representative of the
children and young
people in Walsall
Area Self Assessment tool
from 25% to more than
50%
•
We will support the Working Smarter programme
Programme
Programme
•
We will implement the Charter for Active
Involvement and undertake appropriate training
Charter for Active
Involvement
•
We will follow Prince2 and MSP methodology
when undertaking projects and programmes
We will coordinate the CWDC One Children’s
Workforce Framework to provide evidence of
improvement across the full range of outcomes
Andy Stewart / Children’s
Partnership Board
Workforce Development
sub-group
Outcome 8 Outcome focus
We will improve the
collection of evidence to
enable clear articulation
of outcomes for children
and young people.
We will improve
performance against this
criteria using the Local
Area Self Assessment tool
from 0% to 50%
•
Walsall Project Approach
CWDC One Children's
Workforce Framework
Page 14